Trigger: compare a regexp() on the current and previous value

[Mojah]

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish: I want to create a trigger that sends an alert when the mayor version of PHP on the server changes.

I currently have the version of PHP as a custom parameter with output such as:
[2012.Sep.06 16:36:44] PHP 5.3.6 (cli) (built: test env)
[2012.Sep.06 16:14:51] PHP 5.2.17 (cli) (built: Nov 15 2011 09:03:28)
[2012.Sep.06 15:59:51] PHP 5.2.17 (cli) (built: Nov 15 2011 09:03:28)

So the value is 'PHP 5.2.17 (cli) (built: Nov 15 2011 09:03:28)'.

I don't want to use a trigger based on .diff(), as that would also report it when a minor version (such as PHP 5.2.15 upgraded to 5.2.17) would change. I only want to trigger when PHP 5.2 would upgrade to 5.3.

I had the following in mind:
{Application - PHPhp.version.regexp("^PHP 5.2",#1)}=1 & {Application - PHPhp.version.regexp("^PHP 5.3")}=1

Basically: if the previous value of the php.version matches 'PHP 5.2' and the current value matches 'PHP 5.3', I know it was upgraded. However, this does not work, and I'm guessing it's because of the second parameter in .regexp() where I now use #3. I also tried simply entering 300 to express the time-shift in seconds, but to no avail.

We're running Zabbix 1.8, so according to the trigger wiki I don't think it's possible to do? Did anyone else accomplish something similar to compare text-values from previous & current values using regular expressions?

Or am I missing a more obvious and simple solution?

[mattsmith]

Hi Mojah,

A quick and easy way to achieve this would be to use a second UserParameter that collects only the PHP Major version (I.E 5.2) then just trigger based on a change in value. Using cut/awk you should be able to chop that string down :-)

I've not really looked a great deal at the regex triigers as of yet but after we have upgraded to 2.0 im sure I will :-)

Regards
Matt

[Mojah]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the response!

Was hoping for a way to do it with regexp()'s to avoid storing a second value, but I'll store it as a minimalized version instead.

This'll work, thanks.

Regards,
Mattias