Send multiple key/value pairs with zabbix_sender via trapper

[mgoodman]

Hey,

I need to monitor remote systems using custom scripts. However, due to security concerns with being able to run remote scripts from Zabbix server, I would prefer that these scripts are run on the client and then send data to Zabbix server via the zabbix_sender / trapper service.

Doing this for one key/value pair seems feasible. However, to do it for multiple pairs, it seems that I would need to spawn a new zabbix_sender process (and therefore connection) for each pair -- which seems excessive. Is there a way to send multiple?

I found this post: http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showpost...69&postcount=2 -- but my remote hosts don't necessarily have php, and I need something cross-platform and consistent using the built-in binaries.

ALSO, I was wondering how I could create a trigger on the Zabbix server if no data was sent over the trapper for n seconds. It seems the trapper just sends data to cause a trigger, but Zabbix server won't alert if nothing is sent (i.e. the resident agent script dies).

Essentially, let's say we have data on the agent that it is gathering:
Key1.value (int)
Key2.value (int)
Key3.value (int)
Key4.value (int)

How can I send them all to the Zabbix server, and have Zabbix server alert if it doesn't receive a value?

Thanks!

Michael

[richlv]

see zabbix_sender --help - especially the part about using an input file & passing standard input as a file. that should allow to send multiple values within a single connection.

as for trigger, i'd suggest creating a new thread, otherwise things are extremely hard to find afterwards

[untergeek]

Rich is right.

In addition, my experience has been that a file is limited to 250 lines. Anything after that is effectively dropped and not sent.

I got around this by splitting the file, then sending all files in a loop:

ALL_VALUES="/var/tmp/ZBX_SENDER.$MY_RAND"
SPLIT_FILE="$ALL_VALUES.split"

if [ "$(wc -l $ALL_VALUES | awk '{print $1}')" -gt "250" ]; then
   split -l 250 $ALL_VALUES "$SPLIT_FILE."

   for file in $(ls $SPLIT_FILE.*); do
      zabbix_sender -z ${ZABBIX_SERVER} -i $file
   done

   rm $ALL_VALUES $SPLIT_FILE.*
else
   zabbix_sender -z ${ZABBIX_SERVER} -i $ALL_VALUES
   rm $ALL_VALUES
fi

[richlv]

split -l might be a bit faster, though

[JBo]

Hi,

In addition, my experience has been that a file is limited to 250 lines. Anything after that is effectively dropped and not sent.

Are you sure of that ?
I am using it in a script that sends 288 values in one call to zabbix_sender.
I get:

Info from server: "Processed 250 Failed 0 Total 250 Seconds spent 0.002181"
Info from server: "Processed 38 Failed 0 Total 38 Seconds spent 0.000289"
sent: 288; skipped: 0; total: 288

I am using zabbix_sender 1.8.4

Regards,
JBo

[untergeek]

Perhaps they've fixed that. When I first noticed the 250 limitation, I was using 1.8.0 or .1 or .2

My _sender binaries on most of my monitored boxes are 1.8.3 now. Perhaps I will have to retest.

[richlv]

i decided to check that 250 line limit

1.8.5rc1

# zabbix_sender -z 127.0.0.1 -i /tmp/traptest.txt 
Info from server: "Processed 250 Failed 0 Total 250 Seconds spent 0.002668"
Info from server: "Processed 50 Failed 0 Total 50 Seconds spent 0.000540"
sent: 300; skipped: 0; total: 300

all the values are there, so it seems to be fixed by now. note how sender batches them at 250 values automatically