check_service (linux)

Checks the state of one or multiple Linux (systemctl) services.

There is a specific check_service for Windows as well.

Implementation

Windows	Linux	FreeBSD	MacOSX
	✅

Argument Defaults

Argument	Default Value
filter	active != inactive
critical	( state not in (‘running’, ‘oneshot’, ‘static’) \|\| active = ‘failed’ ) && preset != ‘disabled’
empty-state	3 (UNKNOWN)
empty-syntax	%(status) - No services found
top-syntax	%(status) - %(crit_list \|\| ‘found %(count) services’)
ok-syntax	%(status) - All %(count) service(s) are ok.
detail-syntax	%(name)=%(state)

Check Specific Arguments

Argument	Description
exclude	List of case-insensitive services to exclude from the check (mainly used when service is set to *). Supports wildcards.
service	List of services to check (set to * to check all services). (case insensitive) Default: *

Attributes

Filter Keywords

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

Attribute	Description
name	The name of the service
service	Alias for name
desc	Description of the service
active	The active attribute of a service, one of: active, inactive or failed
state	The state of the service, one of: stopped, starting, oneshot, running, static or unknown
pid	The PID of the service
created	Date when service was started
age	Seconds since service was started
rss	Memory RSS in bytes (main process)
vms	Memory VMS in bytes (main process)
cpu	CPU usage in percent (main process)
preset	The preset attribute of the service, one of: enabled or disabled
tasks	Number of tasks for this service

Examples

Default Check

Checking all services except some excluded ones:

check_service exclude=bluetooth
OK - All 74 service(s) are ok.

Or check a specific service and get some metrics:

check_service service=docker ok-syntax='%(top-syntax)' top-syntax='%(status) - %(list)' detail-syntax='%(name) %(state) - memory: %(rss:h)B - age: %(age:duration)'
OK - docker running - memory: 805.2MB - age: 01:11h |'docker'=4 'docker rss'=805200000B

Check memory usage of specific service:

check_service service=docker warn='rss > 1GB' crit='rss > 2GB'
OK - All 1 service(s) are ok. |'docker'=4 'docker rss'=59691008B;;;0 'docker vms'=3166244864B;;;0 'docker cpu'=0.7%;;;0 'docker tasks'=20;;;0

Example using check_snclient and Naemon

Naemon Config

define command{
    command_name         check_snclient
    command_line         $USER1$/check_snclient -k -p 'your-password' -u 'https://$HOSTADDRESS$:8443' $ARG1$ $ARG2$
}

define service {
    host_name            testhost
    service_description  check_service
    use                  generic-service
    check_command        check_snclient!check_service!service=docker
}