How to Collect Data from Zabbix Agent on same Host by Sending Passive Check Request?

[kikanjuu]

We want one our program to collect system performance data from Zabbix Agent.
Is it possible to talk to Zabbix Agent by sending a passive check request to that Agent, as if the request is sent from a Zabbix server or proxy?


Our program is also an agent running on the monitored hosts. So we do not want it to interact with Zabbix server.
Instead, we want it to collect system performance data from the Zabbix agent running on the same host.

[jan.garaj]

1.) zabbix agent

# zabbix_agentd -t system.cpu.load[all,avg1]
system.cpu.load[all,avg1]                     [d|0.060000]

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/concepts/agent

2.) zabbix get - your localhost/127.0.0.1 must be allowed in agent config (server setting)

# zabbix_get -s 127.0.0.1 -p 10050 -k "system.cpu.load[all,avg1]"
0.100000

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/concepts/get

3.) implement zabbix_get protocol in your app - it's simply protocol
find examples on github, e.g.:

https://github.com/jangaraj/ZenPacks.JanGaraj.ZabbixAgent/blob/master/ZenPacks/JanGaraj/ZabbixAgent/libexec/zabbix_get_zenoss.py

https://github.com/jangaraj/ZenPacks.JanGaraj.ZabbixAgent/blob/master/ZenPacks/JanGaraj/ZabbixAgent/libexec/zabbix_get_zenoss.c

or check original zabbix_get source code

https://www.zabbix.org/websvn/wsvn/zabbix.com/trunk/src/zabbix_get/zabbix_get.c

[kikanjuu]

Thank you. This is quite helpful info.

Regarding zabbix_agentd and zabbix_get,
since our own agent program runs as part of a web application hosted in IIS (with ApplicationPoolIdentity as the ID), what is the minimum permission we need grant in Windows/IIS, in order to call them by our agent?

Regarding implementing our own zabbix_get protocol, is there any existing Java/C#.NET implementation ?

[kikanjuu]

Also, it seems that not all operations of zabbix_agentd are fully implemented on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard. (Correct me if I am wrong.)

c:\Program Files\Zabbixagentd>zabbix_agentd -t system.cpu.load[all,avg1]
system.cpu.load[all,avg1] [m|ZBX_NOTSUPPORTED]

c:\Program Files\Zabbixagentd>

[jan.garaj]

Google/github it:

https://github.com/michaelquigley/zabbixj/blob/master/zabbixj/src/main/java/com/quigley/zabbixj/client/PassiveAgentClient.java

It's simply protocol - open tcp connection, send key with new line - check response value

> c:\Program Files\Zabbixagentd>zabbix_agentd -t system.cpu.load[all,avg1]
system.cpu.load[all,avg1] [m|ZBX_NOTSUPPORTED]
Check what is supported and what not; if you are windows guy then IMHO perf_counter is better option for you:

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.4/manual/config/items/itemtypes/zabbix_agent

[kikanjuu]

I am testing https://github.com/michaelquigley/za...entClient.java.

It simply sends (key + "\n").getBytes() to a TCP socket, where key is a Java String such as perf_counter["\Processor(0)\Interrupts/sec"]

However, it always returns empty response (i.e. inputLine==null) in my test, with no Java exception thrown.

I doubt if its protocol matches Zabbix 2.2, the Zabbix version I am using.
And I am not given the permission to read the protocol of Zabbix 2.2:

https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.2/protocols/agent

[kikanjuu]

I also try to talk to the Zabbix Agent by telnet, on my Windows 7 PC:

> telnet 10.2.6.98 10050

Then the connection is established successfully, and the console waits for my keyboard input.

However, just immediately after I type the first letter "s" of "system.cpu.load", the telnet connection is lost. So I cannot input the whole key "system.cpu.load" and Enter in the console. Strange.

I tried to telnet to both Zabbix Agent 2.2.2 and 2.0.10, and got the same above problem.

[kikanjuu]

By the way, am I missing some authentication process in the protocol, which fails my attempt mentioned in my previous posts?

[jan.garaj]

No authentication, but you must be quick - just paste key and that's it (2.4.3 agent):

# telnet 127.0.0.1 10050
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
system.cpu.load[,avg1]
ZBX2.360000Connection closed by foreign host.

[kikanjuu]

I will try telnet again when I go back to work next week. Thank you.

I also tried to run https://github.com/michaelquigley/za...entClient.java

It always returned "Empty input line" (i.e. inputLine==null in the source code), which means the response is null, without any Java exception thrown.

The key I sent by this program to the Zabbix agent is "system.cpu.load".
The Zabbix agent versions are 2.2.2 and 2.0.10.