fping6 error must run as root?

[frymor]

Hi,

this is my first topic here as I'm new to the whole zabbix monitoring system.


As an overview of my system this is what I have:
have installed zabbix on a VM running ubuntu 20.04. In my case I have multiple Server I would like to monitor, including some iDRAC from DELL, some other ubuntu serve and also some Window servers.
The servers are connected via an agent and the iDRACs with the SNMP protocol.


As a first test I am trying the ICMP ping to check if I can reach the monitored servers. But I encounter already here an error.

In the log file of the zabbix Server this error keeps popping up over and over again

...
  1136:20210303:115210.551 /usr/bin/fping6: can't create socket (must run as root?)

  1136:20210303:115213.560 /usr/bin/fping6: can't create socket (must run as root?)

  1136:20210303:115218.567 /usr/bin/fping6: can't create socket (must run as root?)

  1136:20210303:115221.575 /usr/bin/fping6: can't create socket (must run as root?)

  1136:20210303:115225.582 /usr/bin/fping6: can't create socket (must run as root?)
...

I have read many discussions here, but can't solve the problem.

I have tried to change the SUID and the permissions to both fping and fping6. On the server itself I'm logged in as root, but just to make sure i have also added the zabbix user to the sudoers group.
Below are the steps I have taken to try and solve the issue

# ls -l /usr/bin/fping*
-rwx--x--- 1 root zabbix 52128 Feb 19  2019 /usr/bin/fping
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       5 Feb 19  2019 /usr/bin/fping6 -> fping

# usermod -aG sudo zabbix

# chown root:zabbix /usr/bin/fping
# chmod 4710 /usr/bin/fping

# chown root:zabbix /usr/bin/fping6
# chmod 4710 /usr/bin/fping6

But it seems that I can't change the group for fping6, maybe because it is just a symbolic link to fping itself.

I was wondering if you have any suggestions as to what I can try next to solver this problem.

The server shows some more errors, but I would like to solve them one at a time.

thanks
Assa

[frymor]

ok, I have solved the problem. Well, it is quite embarrassing.

All was needed to be done was to change the default setting for the fping6 to an empty path.

now the zabbix_server.conf rows looks like that:

### Option: FpingLocation
#       Location of fping.
#       Make sure that fping binary has root ownership and SUID flag set.
#
# Mandatory: no
# Default:
# FpingLocation=/usr/sbin/fping
FpingLocation=/usr/bin/fping

### Option: Fping6Location

#       Location of fping6.
#       Make sure that fping6 binary has root ownership and SUID flag set.
#       Make empty if your fping utility is capable to process IPv6 addresses.
#
# Mandatory: no
# Default:
# Fping6Location=/usr/sbin/fping6
Fping6Location=

Now it stopped showing this error.

[gonzo_1st]

I experience the same problem, thanks for the solution. Additional findings from my end:

1) This problem seems to occur when IPv6 is disabled on the OS, Zabbix Server will still try to use fping6. It would be great to have an option to run Zabbix Server and Cilents in a IPv6 ignorant mode, this would also eliminate the constand DNS requests for IPv6...
2) The issue does not only flood the logs but also seems to impact ICMP monitoring of the affected server. With Fping6Location set, my server did not report any ICMP unreachable status. After removing the Fping6Location entry the log showed "14814:20220623:090028.412 item "xxxx.yyyy.zz:icmpping" became supported
" for all monitored hosts. Now it will test and alert on ICMP availability.