A file called alpha in /tmp, with 12GB

[Superkikim]

hi,

I have deployed Zabbix agents on some Linux servers. Today I got an alert about low disk space on one of them. Seeking for big file, I fould a 12GB text file in /tmp created by user zabbix, and with some mysql lines in it.

The version I deployed is 2.0.3

Does anyone have any idea how this file is generated and why ?

Note that the agent is running only since about three of four weeks.

This is the kind of data that are in that file:

2012-11-27 09:15:30 at /usr/local/share/zabbix/plugins/ss_get_mysql_stats.php:112
array (
  0 => '/usr/local/share/zabbix/plugins/ss_get_mysql_stats.php',
  1 => '--host',
  2 => 'localhost',
  3 => '--items',
  4 => 'hn',
)
2012-11-27 09:15:30 parse_cmdline() at /usr/local/share/zabbix/plugins/ss_get_mysql_stats.php:235
array (
  'host' => 'localhost',
  'items' => 'hn',
)
2012-11-27 09:15:30 validate_options() at /usr/local/share/zabbix/plugins/ss_get_mysql_stats.php:160
array (
  'host' => 'localhost',
  'items' => 'hn',
)

[eskytthe]

Look like the logfile for your zabbix agent - running with to high (debug?) log level.
You should check the settings in your zabbix agent config file.
Br
Erik

[Superkikim]

For instance, it seems that this file in generated by the MySQL template.

if I remove the template from the host, and delete the alpha file it is not generated anymore...

Well. Seems that this template is quite useless ... Filling the disk to monitor mySQL

I'll have to find an alternative way to monitor mySQL.

[heaje]

A decent alternative to monitor MySQL is MySQLforBix or DBforBix. Both tie quite nicely into Zabbix.

[jalfrey]

the file which controls the creation of the /tmp/alpha file is
/etc/zabbix/scripts/ss_get_mysql_stats.php

if you search in the file for "alpha" you will find
$debug_log = '/tmp/alpha'; # If $debug_log is a filename, it'll be used.

Changing that allows you to set the directory and filename of the debug file.

An earlier post suggested that the zabbix agent was in debug mode. I checked my install and neither the server or the client is running in debug mode. Also in the above file there is a debug option which is defaulted to FALSE.

Another poster suggested unlinking the template "Template App MySQL". Unlinking it had no effect. The file is still generated and continues to grow.

Can anyone help me?

[jalfrey]

after some frustration I deleted the plugin from the web gui and restarted zabbix-server which also did not change the behavior. Ultimately I ended up renaming the script and that fixed things but it's a bit of a hack.

[jalfrey]

Found culprit:
ok my co-worker was "porting" a template to monitor our ESX Hosts. The offending template is called:
Template ESX Datastore LUN0