checkservice - checks the status of services on (remote) hosts

Checkservice uses host-specific configfiles which are located in /etc/checkservice/hosts/. This means that for every hosts precisely can be specified, which service to check, what its short and long name are, what portset should be scanned, if extended, simple or no scan should be performed (method) and optionally which action to undertake when the service is failing.

The name of the file represents the host that should be scanned and the contents of the configfile instructs Checkservice what services to check on that host.

The syntax used for every line in the configfiles is:

<key>=<field1>:<field2>:...

The fields are an ordered list, so watch out! To configure a certain service, use:

service=portset:shortname:method:longname[:action]

Where portset represents one or more ports separated by a comma (no spaces allowed), shortname the short name of the service (mosty the one used in /etc/services), method the check-method that should be used ('n' [None], 's' [Simple] or 'x' [eXtended]), an arbitrary longname (used in the PHP-status page) and an optional action. That action will be run under the default shell if the service fails. Also commentlines starting with the hash '#' and emptylines are allowed.

If an url is set, the PHP-status page will create a link to that URL in the title of the statistics-table.

url=url

The mailto-opion can contain one or more (seperated by colons) emailaddresses that must be notified by mail (providing mailwarning is enabled) when something goes wrong with this host. This option does NOT override the mailto-option in the global conffile but appends to the emailaddress(es) specified there.

mailto=somebody@somehost.net[:another@somehost.net:...]

* Let's check samba (port 137 & 139) using the simple check-method (since I have no plugins for it): service=137,139:samba:s:Samba Share service

* Apache is vital to me, let's check it thoroughly and keep it alive:

service=80:http:x:Apache Webserver:apachectl restart

* And of course a link to Checkservice homepage in the title of the statistics-table of the PHP-status page:

url=http://www.linvision.com/checkservice

This manual page was written by Paul van Tilburg <paul@linvision.com>, for Linvision bv.

checkservice(1), services(5)