D.4. General

The probes in this section are designed to monitor basic aspects of your systems. When applying them, ensure their timed thresholds do not exceed the amount of time allotted to the timeout period. Otherwise, the probe returns an UNKOWN status in all instances of extended latency, thereby nullifying the thresholds.

D.4.1. General::Remote Program

The General::Remote Program probe allows you to run any command or script on your system and obtain a status string. Note that the resulting message will be limited to 1024 bytes.
Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe.

Table D.9. General::Remote Program settings

Field Value
Command*
OK Exit Status* 0
Warning Exit Status* 1
Critical Exit Status* 2
Timeout 15

D.4.2. General::Remote Program with Data

The General::Remote Program with Data probe allows you to run any command or script on your system and obtain a value, as well as a status string. To use this probe, you must include XML code in the body of your script. This probe supports the following XML tags:
  • <perldata> </perldata>
  • <hash> </hash>
  • <item key =" "> </item>
The remote program will need to output some iteration of the following code to STDOUT: 
<perldata> <hash> <item
key="data">10</item> <item
key="status_message">status message here</item>
</hash> </perldata>
The required value for data is the data point to be inserted in the database for time-series trending. The status_message is optional and can be whatever text string is desired with a maximum length of 1024 bytes. Remote programs that do not include a status_message still report the value and status returned.
Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. XML is case-sensitive. The data item key name cannot be changed and it must collect a number as its value.

Table D.10. General::Remote Program with Data settings

Field Value
Command*
OK Exit Status* 0
Warning Exit Status* 1
Critical Exit Status* 2
Timeout 15

D.4.3. General::SNMP Check

The General::SNMP Check probe tests your SNMP server by specifying a single object identifier (OID) in dotted notation (such as 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0) and a threshold associated with the return value. It collects the following metric:
  • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the SNMP server to answer a connection request.
Requirements — SNMP must be running on the monitored system to perform this probe. Only integers can be used for the threshold values.
This probe's transport protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

Table D.11. General::SNMP Check settings

Field Value
SNMP OID*
SNMP Community String* public
SNMP Port* 161
SNMP Version* 2
Timeout* 15
Critical Maximum Value
Warning Maximum Value
Warning Minimum Value
Critical Minimum Value

D.4.4. General::TCP Check

The General::TCP Check probe tests your TCP server by verifying that it can connect to a system via the specified port number. It collects the following metric:
  • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the TCP server to answer a connection request.
The probe passes the string specified in the Send field upon making a connection. The probe anticipates a response from the system, which should include the substring specified in the Expect field. If the expected string is not found, the probe returns a CRITICAL status.

Table D.12. General::TCP Check settings

Field Value
Send
Expect
Port* 1
Timeout* 10
Critical Maximum Latency
Warning Maximum Latency

D.4.5. General::UDP Check

The General::UDP Check probe tests your UDP server by verifying that it can connect to a system via the specified port number. It collects the following metric:
  • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the UDP server to answer a connection request.
The probe passes the string specified in the Send field upon making a connection. The probe anticipates a response from the system, which should include the substring specified in the Expect field. If the expected string is not found, the probe returns a CRITICAL status.
This probe's transport protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

Table D.13. General::UDP Check settings

Field Value
Port* 1
Send
Expect
Timeout* 10
Critical Maximum Latency
Warning Maximum Latency

D.4.6. General::Uptime (SNMP)

The General::Uptime (SNMP) probe records the time since the device was last started. It uses the SNMP object identifier (OID) to obtain this value. The only error status it will return is UNKNOWN.
Requirements — SNMP must be running on the monitored system and access to the OID must be enabled to perform this probe.
This probe's transport protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

Table D.14. General::Uptime (SNMP) settings

Field Value
SNMP Community String* public
SNMP Port* 161
SNMP Version* 2
Timeout* 15