Monitor log file for inactivity?

[Sean Carolan]

> It all depends on how the application writes to a log file.  Simply
> checking the log file for age or size might not determine if the
> application is running accurately.

I just tested my log file and it updates the time stamp in more or
less real time.  The check_file_age will probably work perfectly for
my needs.  There are in fact instances when logging is still working
but the application is misbehaving, but at least this will take care
of those times when it is completely stuck and not logging at all.

> Otherwise if it is a remote machine you are going to need to run
> the plugins using NRPE ( http://www.nagios.org/download/addons/ ) or
> by SSH ( via plugin check_by_ssh ); for those you are going to need to
> nagios plugins compiled on the remote machine.

I have heard that check_by_ssh can cause a lot of overhead on large
networks where there are many checks going on at the same time.  Can
anyone give some practical numbers here?  I have about 160 machines
that need to be monitored, most of them will simply have the basic
CPU/Disk/Memory monitoring.  I would think that on a small network
like this it should not be a major problem.

> For a local check you could use something like the following in your
> commands.cfg and then add it as a service to your local box:
>
> # 'check_file_age' command definition
> define command{
>         command_name    check_file_age
>         command_line    $USER1$/check_file_age -w $ARG1$ -c $ARG2$ -f
> $ARG3$                  # $ARG3$ is the full path to the log file.

Nice.  I really appreciate the help.  Nagios will soon be replacing
the feature-challenged monitoring software we are using now for Linux
machines.

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