Monitor anything with Zabbix

[Zaniwoop]

After reading a weblog about monitoring the weather with Zabbix, it got be thinking about what else, besides computers, I can monitor.

The following will allow you monitor currency exchange rates. Might not be something that many people will use, but the concept is there.

Add to Server's zabbix_agentd.conf:

UserParameter=currency[*],curl --silent 'http://themoneyconverter.com/$1/rss.xml' | sed -r "s/<title>/\n<title>/g" | grep "$1/$2" | cut -f2 -d"=" | cut -f2 -d" "

create and item with a key currency[CC1,CC2], where CC1 and CC2 are the 3 letter currency codes that you want to convert.

example:

[nelsonab]

Cool! If you have not already you should put this in the Wiki. That's a pretty neat use of Zabbix showing that it's not just about systems monitoring. :-)

[Zaniwoop]

Ok, done that.

[alixen]

Cool !

I was wondering that it may be interesting to use an external script instead of an agent parameter since exchange rates don't depend on a specific host
It is also easier to setup (no UserParameter in client).

Regards,
Alixen

[frater]

Cool !

I was wondering that it may be interesting to use an external script instead of an agent parameter since exchange rates don't depend on a specific host
It is also easier to setup (no UserParameter in client).

Regards,
Alixen

I think this post was intended to show the power of the agent. The whole exchange-rate is irrelevant (although I'm implementing it now).

It made it clear how to pass a parameter (EUR GBP) and use only 1 formula.

[Zaniwoop]

It was the principle of simplicity and power that I was trying show.

Running a script would still require that it be run on a server.

[coza2eire]

Old thread, I know, but having an issues with 16.4 Numbers and Currency monitor

Hi All,

I hope that this thread is still being monitored as it is quite dated.
I have configured a item to monitor currency between ZAR/EUR as a test to see how this cool little monitor works.
After finding that hte rss feed at "http://themoneyconverter.com" appears to now be different as to when this thread was initially created, I tweaked my item a bit and when running the command from cli, found it to return the correct information. it is returning, in my example item here (ZAR/EUR) 14.35541. when the item runs the userparameter, it was reporting that "Received value [] is not suitable for value type [Numeric (float)]. after some further investigation, I had found what would appear to be a bug in version 2.0. I am currently running 2.2 but tried to manipulate the script/userparameter so as to ONLY collect the first 5 characters in the result retrieved (so as to ensure that if this bug was still around, that this would pin it down to the bug being hte issue).

unfortuantely, I am still receiving an error stating that data is invalid as shown below:

Received value [14.35] is not suitable for value type [Numeric (float)]

My userparamter is as follows:

UserParameter=currency[*],curl -s 'http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/$2/rss.xml' | grep -A 5 "$1/$2" | cut -f2 -d"=" | cut -f2 -d" " | cut -c1-5

Bearing in mind that I am only a novice linux user (i.e.), Im sure I have done something wrong here..., I would appreciate any feedback as to what the issue may be. It would seem as though it is not recognising the data as being numerical for some reason...

thanks in advance

[Zaniwoop]

The result returned includes several blank lines before and after the value

<blank>
0.06964
<blank>
<blank>
<blank>

If you change the -A parameter in the first grep statement from -A 5 to -A 2, it suppresses the last 3 blank lines.

This may help.

[coza2eire]

The result returned includes several blank lines before and after the value

<blank>
0.06964
<blank>
<blank>
<blank>

If you change the -A parameter in the first grep statement from -A 5 to -A 2, it suppresses the last 3 blank lines.

This may help.

thanks for the tip Zaniwoop,
I'll give that a go and update with a result.
thanks,

[coza2eire]

thanks for the tip Zaniwoop,
I'll give that a go and update with a result.
thanks,

Hi Zaniwoop,

Made that amendment but no luck... still receiving the same error.
I had to change the parameter to A 3 as the currency rate is 3 lines below the [$1/$1] variable... but, interestingly enough, when I input the following parameter (i.e.) I don't make use of the $1/$2 variable but rather grep "South African Rand" as this takes me directly to the line containing the currency value,

UserParameter=currency[*],curl -s 'http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/$2/rss.xml' | grep "South African Rand" | cut -f2 -d"=" | cut -f2 -d" " | cut -c1-5

It works perfectly... so you are right on the money with the line/space issue! I suppose, the only down side is that now this parameter is only really useful for ZAR currency. I will need to try figure out a way of resolving the variable / grep issue to try make use of monitoring multiple currencies more efficiently... I'd better get cracking so!

Thanks again Zaniwoop, your help was most definitely appreciated.

[Zaniwoop]

I would assume it works for all currencies

[aib]

I'm sorry about that - I like awk
And this is my example:

UserParameter=currency[*],curl -s http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/$1/rss.xml  | grep -A 2 $2 | grep "description" | awk -F '=' '{printf "%2.2f\n", $$2};'

and the output

[root@zabbix ~]# curl -s http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/EUR/rss.xml | grep -A 2 ZAR | grep "description"  | awk -F '=' '{printf "%2.2f\n", $$2};'
14.24

[esawyja]

I could not get your example with awk to work
NinjaGen8:~ # curl -s http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/EUR/rss.xml | grep -A 2 ZAR | grep "description" | awk -F '=' '{printf "%2.2f\n", $$2};'
0.00
NinjaGen8:~ #

but this one works for me
NinjaGen8:~ # curl -s http://themoneyconverter.com/rss-feed/EUR/rss.xml | grep -A 2 ZAR | grep "description" | cut -d = -f 2 | cut -d S -f 1
14.22850
NinjaGen8:~ #