UserParameter provide numeric values

[tvtue]

Hello zabbix users,

how can one get the zabbix agent to provide numeric values when using UserParamter items? I've searched the forum and found a lot of similar entries, but none of them satisfies my question.

I've defined the following UserParameter:

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1
UserParameter=ibs.echo2,echo 2.0

If I do a --test with zabbix-agentd I get these return values:

root@admin:~ # zabbix-agentd --test "ibs.echo1"
ibs.echo1                                     [t|1]

root@admin:~ # zabbix-agentd --test "ibs.echo2"
ibs.echo2                                     [t|2.0]

The thing is: I want to get numeric values, so I can have a trend and to calculation with them.

TIA
timo

[ingus.vilnis]

Hello,

Not sure but try something like

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1 | awk '{print $2}'

Best Regards,
Ingus

[tvtue]

Hello,

Not sure but try something like

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1 | awk '{print $2}'

Best Regards,
Ingus

Hello Ingus,
thank you for your reply but that results in an empty value:

root@admin:~ # zabbix-agentd --test "ibs.echo1"
ibs.echo1                                     [t|]

[ingus.vilnis]

Maybe

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1 | awk '{print $1}'

works?

But anyways, what do you get in Zabbix frontend? Do you get any values with item key ibs.echo1 both with or without this print function?

Best Regards,
Ingus

[tvtue]

Maybe

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1 | awk '{print $1}'

works?

But anyways, what do you get in Zabbix frontend? Do you get any values with item key ibs.echo1 both with or without this print function?

Best Regards,
Ingus

With this UserParameter

UserParameter=ibs.echo1,echo 1 | awk '{ print $1 }'

I am getting this result on the shell:

zabbix@admin:~ $ /usr/sbin/zabbix-agentd --test ibs.echo1
ibs.echo1                                     [t|1]

And in the frontend I get the desired values. This is surprising! Even more, the second test UserParameter ibs.echo2 also works. I don't need to append | awk.

Of course the upper mentioned UserParameters were only for testing. My real UserParameter is not working. It gives me red icons and the message:

Received value [] is not suitable for value type [Numeric (unsigned)] and data type [Decimal]

Here is the code of it:

UserParameter=ibs.mbox.mailnum[*],/usr/bin/sudo -u cyrus /usr/cyrus/bin/mbexamine $1 | awk '/Number of Messages:/ {print $$4}'

It works in the shell:

zabbix@admin:~ $ /usr/sbin/zabbix-agentd --test ibs.mbox.mailnum[user/ibs-blb]
ibs.mbox.mailnum[user/ibs-blb]                [t|34]

But it seems to provide only emtpy values on the zabbix server, "Received value [] ..."

[tvtue]

update

On the zabbix server, I can also do a

root@ibs-mngr:~ # zabbix_get -s admin-w0 -k ibs.mbox.mailnum[user/ibs-blb]
34

But the item is an agent active one, though.

[tvtue]

Ihave raised the debug level on the zabbix-agentd side. And I can see that indeed the values for items are empty. But I still don't understand why.

Here is an excerpt from the log:

31301:20140627:143722.222 JSON before sending [{
        "request":"agent data",
        "data":[
                {
                        "host":"admin-w0.example.com",
                        "key":"ibs.mbox.mailnum[user.desi]",
                        "value":"",
                        "clock":1403872637,
                        "ns":556218351},
                {
                        "host":"admin-w0.example.com",
                        "key":"ibs.mbox.mailnum[user.ibs-blb]",
                        "value":"",
                        "clock":1403872637,
                        "ns":576883114},
                ....
31301:20140627:143722.223 JSON back [{
        "response":"success",
        "info":"processed: 2; failed: 33; total: 35; seconds spent: 0.000483"}]
 31301:20140627:143722.223 In check_response() response:'{
        "response":"success",
        "info":"processed: 2; failed: 33; total: 35; seconds spent: 0.000483"}'
 31301:20140627:143722.224 info from server: 'processed: 2; failed: 33; total: 35; seconds spent: 0.000483'
 31301:20140627:143722.224 End of check_response():SUCCEED
 31301:20140627:143722.224 OK

[ingus.vilnis]

Is your zabbix user running as sudo with root rights?

Can user zabbix normally access folder /usr/cyrus/bin/mbexamine ?

Best Regards,
Ingus

[tvtue]

Is your zabbix user running as sudo with root rights?

Can user zabbix normally access folder /usr/cyrus/bin/mbexamine ?

Best Regards,
Ingus

What do you mean by "normally"?

The UserParamter has sudo rights for user cyrus in it, who is allowed to run the mbexamine binary.

UserParameter=ibs.mbox.mailnum[*],/usr/bin/sudo -u cyrus /usr/cyrus/bin/mbexamine $1 | awk '/Number of Messages:/ {print $$4}'

[ingus.vilnis]

I wanted to know whether you don't need additional rights or passwords to execute this function.

But ok, here are some more things and pointers you can check.

• what is your Timeout setting in zabbix_server.conf file? Set it to some 15 seconds in case the command takes long time to run.
• what is your Refresh unsupported items (in sec) setting in Administration -> General -> Other (from top right dropdown menu)?
• can't you just reduce awk '/Number of Messages:/ {print $$4}' to {print $4} ?

Best Regards,
Ingus

[tvtue]

I found it, I made a mistake in a step before. /var/log/messages revealed it by showing me the actual sudo command that were beeing executed.

So I tested with the right parameters but zabbix-agentd was using wrong input values.

Thank you for your time and help!

timo

[worksyn]

The thing is: I want to get numeric values, so I can have a trend and to calculation with them.

TIA
timo

so did anyone sort this out? How can i get numeric data type from UserParameter command?

[kaspars.mednis]

can you be a little more specific on your problem ?

what are you getting now ?

Best regards,
Kaspars

[worksyn]

can you be a little more specific on your problem ?

what are you getting now ?

Best regards,
Kaspars

# zabbix_agentd -t tasks[all]
tasks[all] [t|3]

my script returns numeric type, but agent treats it as text (t), I would like to have numeric type recognized by the agent.

[kaspars.mednis]

Hi !
I have tried

zabbix_agentd -t system.run["echo 1"]
zabbix_agentd [26713]: Warning: Executing command 'echo 1'
system.run[echo 1]                            [t|1]

the output is text t|1
But if you specify item type as numeric unsigned, i think zabbix will try to transform this into integer

Have you tried this ?

Best regards,
Kaspars