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12. Regular expressions

Overview

Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) are supported in Zabbix.

There are two ways of using regular expressions in Zabbix:

  • manually entering a regular expression
  • using a global regular expression created in Zabbix

Regular expressions

You may manually enter a regular expression in supported places. Note that the expression may not start with @ because that symbol is used in Zabbix for referencing global regular expressions.

It's possible to run out of stack when using regular expressions. See the pcrestack man page for more information.

Note that in multiline matching, the ^ and $ anchors match at the beginning/end of each line respectively, instead of the beginning/end of the entire string.

Global regular expressions

There is an advanced editor for creating and testing complex regular expressions in Zabbix frontend.

Once a regular expression has been created this way, it can be used in several places in the frontend by referring to its name, prefixed with @, for example, @mycustomregexp.

To create a global regular expression:

  • Go to: Administration → General
  • Select Regular expressions from the dropdown
  • Click on New regular expression

The Expressions tab allows to set the regular expression name and add subexpressions.

All mandatory input fields are marked with a red asterisk.

Parameter Description
Name Set the regular expression name. Any Unicode characters are allowed.
Expressions Click on Add in the Expressions block to add a new subexpression.
Expression type Select expression type:
Character string included - match the substring
Any character string included - match any substring from a delimited list. The delimited list includes a comma (,), a dot (.) or a forward slash (/).
Character string not included - match any string except the substring
Result is TRUE - match the regular expression
Result is FALSE - do not match the regular expression
Expression Enter substring/regular expression.
Delimiter A comma (,), a dot (.) or a forward slash (/) to separate text strings in a regular expression. This parameter is active only when "Any character string included" expression type is selected.
Case sensitive A checkbox to specify whether a regular expression is sensitive to capitalization of letters.

Since Zabbix 2.4.0, a forward slash (/) in the expression is treated literally, rather than a delimiter. This way it is possible to save expressions containing a slash, whereas previously it would produce an error.

A custom regular expression name in Zabbix may contain commas, spaces, etc. In those cases where that may lead to misinterpretation when referencing (for example, a comma in the parameter of an item key) the whole reference may be put in quotes like this: "@My custom regexp for purpose1, purpose2".
Regular expression names must not be quoted in other locations (for example, in LLD rule properties).

Example

Use of the following regular expression in LLD to discover databases not taking into consideration a database with a specific name:

^TESTDATABASE$

regexp_expr_2.png

Chosen Expression type: "Result is FALSE". Doesn't match name, containing string "TESTDATABASE".

Example with an inline regex modifier

Use of the following regular expression including an inline modifier (?i) to match the characters "error":

(?i)error

regexp_expr_3a.png

Chosen Expression type: "Result is TRUE". Characters "error" are matched.

Another example with an inline regex modifier

Use of the following regular expression including multiple inline modifiers to match the characters after a specific line:

(?<=match (?i)everything(?-i) after this line\n)(?sx).*# we add s modifier to allow . match newline characters

regexp_expr_4_new.png

Chosen Expression type: "Result is TRUE". Characters after a specific line are matched.

g modifier can't be specified in line. The list of available modifiers can be found in pcresyntax man page. For more information about PCRE syntax please refer to PCRE HTML documentation.

More complex example

A custom regular expression may consist of multiple subexpressions, and it can be tested in the Test tab by providing a test string.

Results show the status of each subexpression and total custom expression status.

Total custom expression status is defined as Combined result. If several sub expressions are defined Zabbix uses AND logical operator to calculate Combined result. It means that if at least one Result is False Combined result has also False status.

Explanation of global regular expressions

Global regexp Expression Description
File systems for discovery ^(btrfs\|ext2\|ext3\|ext4\|jfs\|reiser\|xfs\|ffs\|ufs\|jfs\|jfs2\|vxfs\|hfs\|refs\|apfs\|ntfs\|fat32\|zfs)$ Matches "btrfs" or "ext2" or "ext3" or "ext4" or "jfs" or "reiser" or " xfs" or "ffs" or "ufs" or "jfs" or "jfs2" or "vxfs" or "hfs" or "refs" or "apfs" or "ntfs" or "fat32" or "zfs"
Network interfaces for discovery ^Software Loopback Interface Matches strings starting with "Software Loopback Interface"
^lo$ Matches "lo"
^(In)?[Ll]oop[Bb]ack[0-9._]*$ Matches strings that optionally start with "In", then have "L" or "l", then "oop", then "B" or "b", then "ack", which can be optionally followed by any number of digits, dots or underscores
^NULL[0-9.]*$ Matches strings staring with "NULL" optionally followed by any number of digits or dots
^[Ll]o[0-9.]*$ Matches strings starting with "Lo" or "lo" and optionally followed by any number of digits or dots
^[Ss]ystem$ Matches "System" or "system"
^Nu[0-9.]*$ Matches strings staring with "Nu" optionally followed by any number of digits or dots
Storage devices for SNMP discovery ^(Physical memory\|Virtual memory\|Memory buffers\|Cached memory\|Swap space)$ Matches "Physical memory" or "Virtual memory" or "Memory buffers" or "Cached memory" or "Swap space"
Windows service names for discovery ^(MMCSS\|gupdate\|SysmonLog\|clr_optimization_v2.0.50727_32\|clr_optimization_v4.0.30319_32)$ Matches "MMCSS" or "gupdate" or "SysmonLog" or strings like "clr_optimization_v2.0.50727_32" and "clr_optimization_v4.0.30319_32" where instead of dots you can put any character except newline.
Windows service startup states for discovery ^(automatic\|automatic delayed)$ Matches "automatic" or "automatic delayed".

Regular expression support by location

Location Regular expression Global regular expression Comments
Agent items
eventlog[] Yes Yes regexp, severity, source, eventid parameters
log[] regexp parameter
log.count[]
logrt[] Yes/No regexp parameter supports both, file_regexp parameter supports non-global expressions only
logrt.count[]
proc.cpu.util[] No cmdline parameter
proc.mem[]
proc.num[]
sensor[] device and sensor parameters on Linux 2.4
system.hw.macaddr[] interface parameter
system.sw.packages[] package parameter
vfs.dir.count[] regex_incl, regex_excl parameters, since 4.0.4 also regex_excl_dir parameter
vfs.dir.size[] regex_incl, regex_excl parameters, since 4.0.4 also regex_excl_dir parameter
vfs.file.regexp[] regexp parameter
vfs.file.regmatch[]
web.page.regexp[]
SNMP traps
snmptrap[] Yes Yes regexp parameter
Item value preprocessing Yes No pattern parameter
Trigger functions
count() Yes Yes pattern parameter if operator parameter is regexp or iregexp
logeventid() pattern parameter
logsource()
iregexp()
regexp()
Low-level discovery Yes Yes Filter field
Web monitoring Yes No Variables with a regex: prefix
Required string field
Macro functions
regsub() Yes No pattern parameter
iregsub()
Icon mapping Yes Yes Expression field