process

check_process

Checks the state and metrics of one or multiple processes.

• Examples
• Argument Defaults
• Attributes

Implementation

Windows	Linux	FreeBSD	MacOSX
✅	✅	✅	✅

Examples

Default Check

check_process
OK - 417 processes. |'count'=417;;;0

Check specific process(es) by name (adding some metrics as well)

check_process \
    process=httpd \
    warn='count < 1 || count > 10' \
    crit='count < 0 || count > 20' \
    top-syntax='%{status} - %{count} processes, memory %{rss|h}B, cpu %{cpu:fmt=%.1f}%, started %{oldest:age|duration} ago'
WARNING - 12 processes, memory 62.58 MB, started 01:11h ago |...

If zero is a valid threshold, set thresholds accordingly

check_process process=qemu warn='count < 0 || count > 10' crit='count < 0 || count > 20'
OK - no processes found with this filter.

In case you want to check if a given process is NOT running use something like:

check_process process=must_not_run.exe 'crit=count>0' warn=none
OK - no processes found with this filter.

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_process
    use                  generic-service
    check_command        check_nrpe!check_process!warn='count <= 0 || count > 10' crit='count <= 0 || count > 20'
}

Argument Defaults

Argument	Default Value
warning	count = 0
critical	state = ‘stopped’ or count = 0
empty-state	2 (CRITICAL)
empty-syntax	%(status) - no processes found with this filter.
top-syntax	%(status) - ${problem_list}
ok-syntax	%(status) - all %{count} processes are ok.
detail-syntax	${exe}=${state}

Check Specific Arguments

Argument	Description
process	The process to check, set to * to check all. (Case insensitive) Default: *
timezone	Sets the timezone for time metrics (default is local time)

Attributes

Filter Keywords

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

Attribute	Description
process	Name of the executable (without path)
exe	Name of the executable (without path)
filename	Name of the executable with path
command_line	Full command line of process
state	Current state (windows: started, stopped, hung - linux: idle, lock, running, sleep, stop, wait and zombie)
creation	Start time of process
pid	Process id
uid	User if of process owner (linux only)
username	User name of process owner (linux only)
cpu	CPU usage in percent
virtual	Virtual memory usage in bytes
rss	Resident memory usage in bytes
pagefile	Swap memory usage in bytes
oldest	Unix timestamp of oldest process
peak_pagefile	Peak swap memory usage in bytes (windows only)
handles	Number of handles (windows only)
kernel	Kernel time in seconds (windows only)
peak_virtual	Peak virtual size in bytes (windows only)
peak_working_set	Peak working set in bytes (windows only)
user	User time in seconds (windows only)
working_set	Working set in bytes (windows only)