Zabbix Agent and Performance Counters

[lleahu]

Hi,

My zabbix agent will not start up after adding a PerfCounter line to it's configuration file. Has anyone run into this problem before?


- Zabbix Server 1.6.4
- Zabbix AgentD 1.6.4 on Windows 2000 Server SP4.

Service "Performance Logs and Alerts" set to manual startup and not running.
When manually starting this service, it starts up, but a refresh then shows it as not running. No entries found in Application or System logs. Does this service need to stay running for Zabbix AgentD to collect performance statistics?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009 is completely empty. I don't see any values in that folder at all. Not sure if this is a problem of not. Does Zabbix AgentD require values to be in this folder to collect performance statistics?

I've modified my zabbix_agentd.conf file and added this line:
PerfCounter=nic0_in_bytes,"\Network Interface(Intel[R] PRO_1000 MT Server Adapter)\Bytes Received/sec",60

Zabbix AgentD (When started via tha Services MMC plugin) fails to start with the error message: "Could not start the ZABBIX Agent service on Local Computer. Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly."

I've set the debug level to 4. The last two lines in the agent log file are:
2480:20090423:234103 cfg: para: [PerfCounter] val [nic0_in_bytes,"\Network Interface(Intel[R] PRO_1000 MT Server Adapter)\Bytes Received/sec",60]
2480:20090423:234103 Accepted configuration parameter: 'PerfCounter' = 'nic0_in_bytes,"\Network Interface(Intel[R] PRO_1000 MT Server Adapter)\Bytes Received/sec",60'

I don't see any errors in the agent log file.

What could be the problem?

Thanks!

[Cray]

Hello,

I don't know about the Windows 2000 support for Zabbix (I remember there were some issues with the typeperf command...), but generally, it the service failed to start, it's because some mandatory argument is missing, or an argument is missing / wrong-written.

The few times I had agents falling to start, that was because of such errors

I hope you'll find out what's preventing the service to start

[tchjts1]

Are you adding the perf counter to the zabbix_agentd.conf file? It is easier to simply add it through the Zabbix interface. Then you no longer have to restart agents when adding perf counters.

I don't believe Windows 2000 has typeperf, but you can grab it from any Server2003 machine and then place it in the Windows\system32 folder

After you have done that, on your windows host run this command:

c:\typeperf -qx > perfcounters.txt

That will generate a list of the supported performance counters on that particular machine. Peruse the list and do a keyword search on "interface" and that should supply you with the perf counters for all installed NICS.

After that, go to the host in the Zabbix GUI via Configuration --> Items and select the proper host where you wish to add this counter

Create an item and add as per the bottom screenshot. The Key syntax can be seen immediately below.

perf_counter[\Network Interface(HP NC310F Gigabit Server Adapter)\Bytes Received/sec]

If you choose to try this, don't forget to remove the counter that you added to the zabbix-agentd.conf file,a nd restart that agent.

[Cray]

Are you adding the perf counter to the zabbix_agentd.conf file? It is easier to simply add it through the Zabbix interface. Then you no longer have to restart agents when adding perf counters.

No, he's doing it the good way : adding a perf_counter for a nic has to be done with an aliase as it's subject to change from one machine to another.

look at this thread

[lleahu]

When I run typeperf -qx, I get back the following output and returns immediately back to the prompt:


One or more valid counter paths must be specified as a command line
argument. The format for this command is:

typeperf nn counter[,counter...]

Where nn is the time between samples in seconds and counter is the
name of one or more perf counters separated by commas. The output is
in the form of a Comma Separated Variable (CSV) string and can be
redirected to a file for import to other applications
Data sampling will continue until a key is hit at the console.

[tchjts1]

That sounds like an incorrect or outdated version of typeperf. Have you tried taking one from a 2003 system?

[jroberson]

I don't know if it is available in Win2k but can you open "perfmon" from the Run dialog. (Start->Run) You might also be able to find it in the Control Panel under "Administrative Tools->Performance". (It's been a while since Win2k for me.) You might view the performance counter name and make sure it is exactly the same; though, it does "look" right. I've also read of some issues with Zabbix 1.6.x and Win2k. You could try a previous version of the agent (ex. 1.4.4). Though I don't know what features you will me missing.

[jroberson]

I've just been messing with performance counters on one of my systems and might have found a tool that could fix yours as well. The "exctrlst.exe" tool from MS in the Win2k Resource Kit (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927229). Install that and use it to make sure that all of your perfcounters are enabled. That was the problem on my system. I don't know how it got disabled but one set was. You might be able to use it to reload them by disable/enabling the counters. Good luck!