os_updates

check_os_updates

Checks for OS system updates.

Implementation

Windows	Linux	FreeBSD	MacOSX
✅	✅		✅

Examples

Default Check

check_os_updates
OK - no updates available |...

If you only want to be notified about security related updates:

check_os_updates warn=none crit='count_security > 0'
CRITICAL - 1 security updates / 3 updates available. |'security'=1;;0;0 'updates'=3;0;;0

On DNF/APT systems, –update refreshes repository metadata in a private cache owned by the SNClient service user unless started as root user.

The DNF check returns UNKNOWN if an enabled repository is unavailable, because otherwise an incomplete repository set could be reported as having no updates.

Use –max-metadata-age to make the check return UNKNOWN if the repository metadata has not been refreshed within the given duration, ex.: –max-metadata-age=24h

Example using NRPE and Naemon

Naemon Config

define command{
    command_name         check_nrpe
    command_line         $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -n -c $ARG1$ -a $ARG2$
}

define service {
    host_name            testhost
    service_description  check_os_updates
    use                  generic-service
    check_command        check_nrpe!check_os_updates!warn='count > 0' crit='count_security > 0'
}

Argument Defaults

Argument	Default Value
warning	count > 0
critical	count_security > 0
empty-state	0 (OK)
empty-syntax	%(status) - no updates available
top-syntax	%(status) - %{count_security} security updates / %{count} updates available.\n%{list}
ok-syntax
detail-syntax	${prefix}${package}: ${version}

Check Specific Arguments

Argument	Description
-m\|–max-metadata-age	Fail with UNKNOWN if the repository metadata (apt/yum/dnf) is older than this duration, ex.: 24h (default: disabled)
-s\|–system	Package system: auto, apt, yum, osx and windows (default: auto)
-u\|–update	Update package list (if supported, ex.: apt-get update)

Attributes

Filter Keywords

these can be used in filters and thresholds (along with the default attributes):

Attribute	Description
package	package name
security	is this a security update: 0 / 1
version	version string of package