check-vmware | check_vmware_question plugin
- Overview
- Output
- Performance Data
- Optional evaluation
- Installation
- Configuration options
- Contrib
- Examples
- License
- References
Nagios plugin used to monitor whether a Virtual Machine is blocked from execution due to one or more Virtual Machines requiring an interactive response.
This plugin monitors the question property of evaluated Virtual Machines.
The status of this property indicates whether an interactive question is
blocking the virtual machine's execution. While a Virtual Machine is in this
state it is not available for normal use.
The output for these plugins is designed to provide the one-line summary needed by Nagios for quick identification of a problem while providing longer, more detailed information for display within the web UI, use in email and Teams notifications (atc0005/send2teams).
See the main project README for details.
Initial support has been added for emitting Performance Data / Metrics, but refinement suggestions are welcome.
Consult the list below for the metrics implemented thus far, the original discussion thread and the Add Performance Data / Metrics support project board for an index of the initial implementation work.
Please add to an existing Discussion thread or open a new one with any feedback that you may have. Thanks in advance!
Metrics below are obtained in this order:
- Obtain count of all resource pools
- Obtain count of all folders
- Obtain count of all virtual machines
- Filter virtual machines
- by resource pools
- by folders
- by name
- by power state
- Evaluate virtual machines for interactive input requirement
For example, the count of virtual machines powered on is obtained based on VMs remaining after resource pool filtering is complete at the time of applying power state filtering.
NOTE: These metrics are based on the visibility of the service account used to login to the target VMware environment. If the service account cannot see a resource, it cannot evaluate the resource.
| Metric | Alias of | Unit of Measurement | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
time |
milliseconds | plugin runtime | |
vms |
vms_all |
all (visible) virtual machines in the inventory | |
vms_all |
vms |
all (visible) virtual machines in the inventory | |
vms_evaluated |
vms_after_filtering |
virtual machines after filtering, evaluated for plugin-specific threshold violations | |
vms_after_filtering |
vms_evaluated |
virtual machines after filtering, evaluated for plugin-specific threshold violations | |
vms_powered_on |
virtual machines powered on | ||
vms_powered_off |
virtual machines powered off | ||
vms_excluded_by_name |
virtual machines excluded based on fixed name values | ||
vms_excluded_by_folder |
virtual machines excluded based on folder IDs | ||
vms_excluded_by_power_state |
virtual machines excluded based on power state (powered off VMs are excluded by default) | ||
vms_excluded_by_resource_pool |
virtual machines excluded based on resource pool name | ||
folders_all |
all folders in the inventory | ||
folders_excluded |
folders excluded by request | ||
folders_included |
folders included by request (all non-listed folders excluded) | ||
folders_evaluated |
folders remaining after inclusion/exclusion filtering logic is applied | ||
resource_pools_all |
all resource pools in the inventory | ||
resource_pools_excluded |
resource pools excluded by request | ||
resource_pools_included |
resource pools included by request (all non-listed resource pools excluded) | ||
resource_pools_evaluated |
resource pools remaining after inclusion/exclusion filtering logic is applied | ||
vms_requiring_input |
virtual machines requiring sysadmin input (e.g., to continue the booting process) | ||
vms_not_requiring_input |
virtual machines not requiring sysadmin input (e.g., to continue the booting process) |
Some plugins provide optional support to limit evaluation of VMs to specific
Resource Pools (explicitly including or excluding) and power states (on or
off). Other plugins support similar filtering options (e.g., Acknowledged
state of Triggered Alarms). See the configuration
options, examples and
contrib sections for more information.
See the main project README for details.
| Nagios State | Description |
|---|---|
OK |
Ideal state, no VMs require an interactive response. |
WARNING |
Not used by this plugin. |
CRITICAL |
An interactive response is required for one or more VMs. |
- Use the
-hor--helpflag to display current usage information. - Flags marked as
requiredmust be set via CLI flag. - Flags not marked as required are for settings where a useful default is already defined, but may be overridden if desired.
| Flag | Required | Default | Repeat | Possible | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
branding |
No | false |
No | branding |
Toggles emission of branding details with plugin status details. This output is disabled by default. |
h, help |
No | false |
No | h, help |
Show Help text along with the list of supported flags. |
v, version |
No | false |
No | v, version |
Whether to display application version and then immediately exit application. |
ll, log-level |
No | info |
No | disabled, panic, fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace |
Log message priority filter. Log messages with a lower level are ignored. Log messages are sent to stderr by default. See Output for more information. |
p, port |
No | 443 |
No | positive whole number between 1-65535, inclusive | TCP port of the remote ESXi host or vCenter instance. This is usually 443 (HTTPS). |
t, timeout |
No | 10 |
No | positive whole number of seconds | Timeout value in seconds allowed before a plugin execution attempt is abandoned and an error returned. |
s, server |
Yes | No | fully-qualified domain name or IP Address | The fully-qualified domain name or IP Address of the remote ESXi host or vCenter instance. | |
u, username |
Yes | No | valid username | Username with permission to access specified ESXi host or vCenter instance. | |
pw, password |
Yes | No | valid password | Password used to login to ESXi host or vCenter instance. | |
domain |
No | No | valid user domain | (Optional) domain for user account used to login to ESXi host or vCenter instance. This is needed for user accounts residing in a non-default domain (e.g., SSO specific domain). | |
trust-cert |
No | false |
No | true, false |
Whether the certificate should be trusted as-is without validation. WARNING: TLS is susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks if enabling this option. |
include-rp |
No | No | comma-separated list of resource pool names | Specifies a comma-separated list of Resource Pool names that should be exclusively used when evaluating VMs. Specifying this option will also exclude any VMs from evaluation that are outside of a Resource Pool. This option is incompatible with specifying a list of Resource Pool names to ignore or exclude from evaluation. | |
exclude-rp |
No | No | comma-separated list of resource pool names | Specifies a comma-separated list of Resource Pool names that should be ignored when evaluating VMs. This option is incompatible with specifying a list of Resource Pool names to include for evaluation. | |
include-folder-id |
No | No | comma-separated list of folder ID values | Specifies a comma-separated list of Folder Managed Object ID (MOID) values (e.g., group-v34) that should be exclusively used when evaluating VMs. This option is incompatible with specifying a list of Folder IDs to ignore or exclude from evaluation. | |
exclude-folder-id |
No | No | comma-separated list of folder ID values | Specifies a comma-separated list of Folder Managed Object ID (MOID) values (e.g., group-v34) that should be ignored when evaluating VMs. This option is incompatible with specifying a list of Folder Managed Object ID (MOID) values to include for evaluation. | |
ignore-vm |
No | No | comma-separated list of (vSphere) virtual machine names | Specifies a comma-separated list of VM names that should be ignored or excluded from evaluation. |
Not currently supported. This feature may be added later if there is sufficient interest.
See the main project README for details.
/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_vmware_question --username SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME --password "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_PASSWORD" --server vc1.example.com --trust-cert --log-level infoSee the configuration options section for all command-line settings supported by this plugin along with descriptions of each. See the contrib section for information regarding example command definitions and Nagios configuration files.
Of note:
- Certificate warnings are ignored.
- not best practice, but many vCenter instances use self-signed certs per various freely available guides
- Service Check results output is sent to
stdout - Logging output is enabled at the
infolevel.- logging output is sent to
stderrby default - logging output is intended to be seen when invoking the plugin directly
via CLI (often for troubleshooting)
- see the Output section of the main README for potential conflicts with some monitoring systems
- logging output is sent to
# /etc/nagios-plugins/config/vmware-interactive-question.cfg
# Look at all pools, all VMs. This variation of the command is most useful for
# environments where all VMs are monitored equally.
define command{
command_name check_vmware_question
command_line $USER1$/check_vmware_question --server '$HOSTNAME$' --domain '$ARG1$' --username '$ARG2$' --password '$ARG3$' --trust-cert --log-level info
}See the main project README for details.