Check types reference¶

The Check type and fields reference provides details about the following agent check types supported by the Rackspace Monitoring service.

Remote check types
Agent check types
Hostinfo checks
Check status codes

Note

Most check types include some example metrics. This helps you better understand creating successful alarm criteria.

Remote check types¶

Rackspace Monitoring supports the following remote check types.

remote.dns ¶

The remote.dns check run a DNS check against a given target. This check should assist in verifying functionality of a DNS server, for example ensuring that it is publishing the domains you think that it should be publishing.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
query	Specifies the DNS query.	String, valid hostname
record_type	Specifies the DNS record type.	String matching the regex `/^(A\|AAAA\| TXT\|MX\|SOA\|CNAME\|PTR\|NS\|MB\|MD\| MF\|MG\|MR)$/`
port	Specifies the port number. The default is 53.	Optional, whole number (may be zero padded), must be an integer between 1-65535 inclusive

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
answer	The list of space-separated IP addresses for the specified name resolution.	String
rtt	The roundtrip time to execute a remote.dns check.	Double
ttl	Specifies the port number. The default is 53.	Uint32

remote.ftp-banner ¶

The remote.ftp-banner check will attempt to connect to a FTP server and verify that it re- sponds to the connection.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Specifies the port number. The default is 21.	This field is optional. Must be a whole number (may be zero padded). This value must be an integer between 1-65535 inclusive

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
banner	The string sent from the server on connect	String
banner_match	The matched string from the `banner_match` regular expression specified during check creation.	String
body_match	The string representing the body match specified in a remote.ftp-banner check.	String
duration	The time it took to finish executing the check in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_body	The time to the body measured in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_connect	The time to connect measured in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_firstbyte	The time to first byte measured in milliseconds.	Uint32

remote.http ¶

The remote.http check will try to connect to the server and retrieve the specified URL using the specified method, optionally with the password and user for authentication, using SSL, and checking the body with a regex. This can be used to test that a web application running on a server is responding without generating error messages. It can also test if the SSL certificate is valid.

Note

The maximum size of the content returned in a remote.http check is 32k, with overhead and compression taken into account. This limitation helps monitoring remain responsive.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
url	Specifies the target URL.	String between 1 and 8096 characters long
auth_password	Optional auth password	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
auth_user	Optional auth user	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
body	Body match regular expression used to run against HTTP response content and generate metric `body_match` (see Metrics table below). Body is limited to 100k and match is truncated to 80 characters.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
body_matches	A map of key/regular-expression pairs used to run against HTTP response content and generate one metric `body_match_<key>` for each key/regular-expression pair (see Metrics table below). Body is limited to 100k and match is truncated to 80 characters.	Optional. Hash [String,String between 1 and 50 characters long, String matching the regex /^[-_ a-z0-9]+$/i: String,String between 1 and 255 characters long]. Array or object with number of items between 0 and 4.
follow_redirects	Follow redirects (default:true)	Optional. Boolean.
headers	Arbitrary headers which are sent with the request.	Optional. Hash [String,String between 1 and 50 characters long: String,String between 1 and 50 characters long]. Array or object with number of items between 0 and 10. A value which is not one of: content-length, user-agent, host, connection, keep-alive, transfer-encoding, upgrade.
method	HTTP method. The default is GET.	Optional. String. One of (HEAD, GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, INFO)
payload	Specify a request body (limited to 1024 characters). If a redirect is set, the payload is only sent to the first location.	Optional. String between 1 and 1024 characters long

Note

When you set up a website and the check always returns unknown content-encoding: it is because of the HTTP body check limit of 100. This limit is the amount of space for the Monitoring Pollers (where the site is checked from). If the amount of space required to do the HTTP(S) check is greater than 100k, then only the first 100k can be checked.

If the customer uses Compression on the pages, such as compress or gzip Content-Encoding, then the full compressed page must be less than or equal to 100k. This is because the full page must be downloaded and uncompressed before it can verify the check.

This is also the reason why you can only check against strings within the first 100k of the web page.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
body_match	The string representing the any matched string from HTTP response content using the regular expression specified in `body` attribute in check.	String
body_match_<key>	The metric is generated for each key specified in `body_matches` check attribute. For example, a `body_matches` value of {“register”:”Register Now!”, “contact”:”Contact Us”} will generate two metrics: `body_match_register` and `body_match_contact`.	String
bytes	The number of bytes returned from a response payload.	Int32
cert_end	The absolute timestamp in seconds for the certificate expiration. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Uint32
cert_end_in	The relative timestamp in seconds until certification expiration. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Int32
cert_error	A string describing a certificate error in our validation. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_issuer	The issue string for the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_start	The absolute timestamp of the issue of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Uint32
cert_subject	The subject of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_subject_alternative_names	The alternative name for the subject of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server. (See an example alarm following this table.)	String
code	The status code returned.	String
duration	The time it took to finish executing the check in milliseconds.	Uint32
truncated	The number of bytes that the result was truncated by.	Uint32
tt_connect	The time to connect measured in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_firstbyte	The time to first byte measured in milliseconds.	Uint32

Note

The following is an example alarm for cert_subject_alternative_names, where you would replace example.com with an expected host name on the certificate’s SAN list:

if (metric['cert_subject_alternative_names'] nregex '.*example.com.*') {
  return new AlarmStatus(CRITICAL, 'Missing expected SAN');
}

remote.imap-banner ¶

The remote.imap-banner check will attempt to connect to an IMAP server and verify that it response to the connection

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 143)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

remote.mssql-banner ¶

The remote.mssql-banner check will attempt to connect to a Microsoft SQL database server and verify that it is accepting connections.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 1433)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

remote.mysql-banner ¶

The remote.mysql-banner check will attempt to connect to a MySQL database server and verify that it is accepting connections.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 3306)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

remote.ping ¶

The remote.ping check will attempt to ping a server.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
count	Number of pings to send within a single check.	This field is optional. Must be a whole number (may be zero padded). This value must be an integer between 1-15 inclusive

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
available	The whole number representing the percent of pings that returned back for a remote.ping check.	Double
average	The average response time in milliseconds for all ping packets sent out and later retrieved.	Double
count	The number of pings (ICMP packets) sent.	Int32
maximum	The maximum roundtrip time in milliseconds of an ICMP packet.	Double
minimum	The minimum roundtrip time in milliseconds of an ICMP packet.	Double

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 110)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

remote.postgresql-banner ¶

The remote.postgresql-banner check will attempt to connect to a PostgreSQL database server and verify that it is accepting connections.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 5432)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

remote.smtp-banner ¶

The remote.smtp-banner check will attempt to connect to a SMTP mail server and verify that a HELO/EHLO is received.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Port number (default: 25)	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
ssl	Enable SSL	Optional. Boolean.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
banner	The string sent from the server on connect.	String
banner_match	The matched string from the `banner_match` regular expression specified during check creation.	String
bytes	The number of bytes returned from a response payload.	Int32
cert_end	The absolute timestamp in seconds for the certificate expiration. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Uint32
cert_end_in	The relative timestamp in seconds until certification expiration. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Int32
cert_error	A string describing a certificate error in our validation. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_issuer	The issue string for the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_start	The absolute timestamp of the issue of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	Uint32
cert_subject	The subject of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server.	String
cert_subject_alternative_names	The alternative name for the subject of the certificate. This is only available when performing a check on an HTTPS server. (See an example alarm following this table.)	String
duration	The time it took to finish executing the check in milliseconds..	Uint32
tt_connect	The time to connect measured in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_firstbyte	The time to first byte measured in milliseconds.	Uint32

Note

The following is an example alarm for cert_subject_alternative_names, where you would replace example.com with an expected host name on the certificate’s SAN list:

if (metric['cert_subject_alternative_names'] nregex '.*example.com.*') {
  return new AlarmStatus(CRITICAL, 'Missing expected SAN');
}

remote.smtp ¶

The remote.smtp check will attempt to connect to a SMTP mail server, send an email from the ‘from’ parameter, to the ‘to’ parameter, with a payload specified by the ‘payload’ parameter setting the EHLO from host to the value in ‘ehlo’.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
ehlo	Specifies the EHLO parameter.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.
from	Specifies the From parameter.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.
payload	Specifies the payload.	Optional. String between 1 and 1024 characters long.
port	Specifies the port number.	Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
starttls	Specifies whether the connection should be upgraded to TLS/ SSL.	Optional. Boolean.
to	Specifies the To parameter. If this field is blank, a “quit” is issued before sending a to line, and the connection is terminated.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.

remote.ssh ¶

The remote.ssh check will attempt to SSH to a target.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Specifies the port number. The default is 22.	This field is optional. Must be a whole number (may be zero padded). This value must be an integer between 1-65535 inclusive

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
duration	Specifies the time it took to finish executing the check in milliseconds.	Uint32
fingerprint	Specifies the ssh fingerprint used to verify identity.	String

remote.tcp ¶

The remote.tcp check will attempt to connect to a host and port, and optionally issue a banner match to ensure that the service is responding as specified. This can be used to test services that are not covered by the existing HTTP, SMTP, SSH, MySQL, etc. checks.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
port	Specifies the port number.	Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
banner_match	Specifies the banner match regex.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.
body_match	Specifies the body match regex. Key/Values are captured when matches are specified within the regex. Note: Maximum body size is 1024 bytes.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.
send_body	Send a body. If a banner is provided the body is sent after the banner is verified.	Optional. String between 1 and 1024 characters long.
ssl	Specifies whether SSL is enabled.	Optional. Boolean.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
banner	Specifies the string that is sent from the server on connect.	String
banner_match	Specifies the matched string from the `banner_match` regular expression specified during check creation.	String
duration	Specifies the time it took to finish executing the check in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_connect	Specifies the time to connect measured in milliseconds.	Uint32
tt_firstbyte	Specifies the time to first byte measured in milliseconds.	Uint32

remote.telnet-banner ¶

The remote.telnet-banner check will attempt to connect to a Telnet (or similar protocol) server and verify that an appropriate banner is received.

Attributes¶

Field	Description \| Validation
port	Specifies the port number. (Default: 23) \| Optional. Whole number (may be zero padded). Integer between 1-65535 inclusive.
banner_match	Specifies the banner match check. \| Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long.
ssl	Specifies whether SSL is enabled. \| Optional. Boolean.

Agent check types¶

Rackspace Monitoring supports the following agent check types.

agent.apache check ¶

The agent.apache check will retrieve Apache HTTP server metrics

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
timeout	Specifies the plugin execution timeout in milliseconds.	Optional. Integer.
url	Specifies the URL. Defaults to http://127.0.0.1/server-status.	Optional. URL.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
busy_workers	Specifies the number of workers serving requests	Int64
bytes_per_request	Averages giving the number of request per second, the number of bytes served second	Int64
bytes_per_second	Averages giving the number of requests per second, the number of bytes per request	Int64
closing	The number of workers closing the connection	Int64
cpu_load	Total percentage of CPU used by workers	Double
dns	The number of workers performing DNS lookup	Int64
gracefully_fishing	The number of workers gracefully fishing	Int64
idle	The number of idle cleanup workers	Int64
idle_workers	The number of idle workers	Int64
keepalive	The number of workers kept alive (reading)	Int64
logging	The number of workers logging	Int64
open	The number of workers with no current process	Int64
reading	The number of workers reading the request	Int64
requests_per_second	The number of requests per second	Int64
sending	The number of workers sending a reply	Int64
starting	The number of workers starting up	Int64
total_access	Total number of accesses served	Int64
total_kbytes	Total kilobytes served	Int64
uptime	Time since the last start/restart in milliseconds	Int64
waiting	The number of workers waiting for connection	Int64

agent.cpu ¶

The agent.cpu check will attempt to measure the usage of the CPU on a host.

Attributes

No fields are present for this particular check type.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
idle_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time spent idle.	Double
irq_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time spent handling hardware interrupts.	Double
max_cpu_usage	Recent percentage utilization of the most-utilized CPU. This is useful to detect when some CPUs are pegged while others are idle.	Double
min_cpu_usage	Recent percentage utilization of the least-utilized CPU. This is useful to detect when some CPUs are pegged while others are idle.	Double
stolen_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time spent waiting for the CPU to service other virtual CPUs.	Double
sys_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time utilized by kernel mode processes.	Double
usage_average	Recent percentage of CPU time utilized by all processes. processes.	Double
user_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time utilized by user mode processes in a “wait” state.	Double
wait_percent_average	Recent percentage of CPU time utilized by processes in a “wait” state.	Double

agent.disk ¶

The agent.disk check exposes disk related metrics (service time, wait time, etc.).

Attributes¶

Field	Description \| Validation
target	The disk to check (eg ‘/dev/xvda1’) \| String between 1 and 512 characters long

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
queue	Measured in seconds, this is the current disk queue length, which is an instantaneous measurement of the I/O queue for the given disk/partition.	Int64
qtime	Measured in milliseconds, this is the weighted number of milliseconds spent doing I/Os. This field is incremented at each I/O start, I/O completion, I/O merge, or read of these stats by the number of I/Os in progress times the number of milliseconds spent doing I/O since the last update of this field. This can provide an easy measure of both I/O completion time and the backlog that might be accumulating.	Int64
read_bytes	The number of physical disk bytes read, the prefix / will change depending on the mount points discovered.	Int64
reads	The number of physical disk reads, the prefix / will change depending on the mount points discovered.	Int64
rtime	The amount of time spent reading, the prefix / will change depending on the mount points discovered.	Int64
write_bytes	The number of physical disk bytes written, the prefix / will change depending on the mount points discovered.	Int64
writes	The number of physical disk writes, the prefix / will change depending on the mount points discovered.	Int64
wtime	The amount of time spent writing, the prefix / will change dependending on the mount points discovered.	Int64

agent.filesystem ¶

The agent.filesystem check exposes file system related metrics (free space, used space, etc.)

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
target	The mount point to check, either `/var` or `C:\`	String between 1 and 512 characters long.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
avail	Available space on the filesystem in kilobytes for the current user, which is root, that is running the agent.	Int64
free	Free space available on the filesystem in kilobytes including reserved space. This is calculated as number of free file blocks x block size	Int64
options	The option used to mount the device to the filesystem. Includes the rw f which indicates the device is in read/write mode.	Int64
total	Total space on the filesystem, in kilobytes, including reserved space. This is calculated as number of total file blocks x block size	Int64
used	Used space on the filesystem, in kilobytes. This number does not include the reserved space. This is calculated as total - free	Int64
files	Number of inodes on the filesystem.	Int64
free_files	Number of free inodes on the filesystem.	Int64

Note

The reserved space only applies to Linux systems. It is the space saved for important root processes and possible rescue actions. In some systems the reserved space can be used for fragmentation allocation. For more information about Ext3 and Ext4: https://www.redhat.com/archives/ext3-users/2009-January/msg00026.html.

The files and free_files metrics only apply to Linux systems.

agent.filesystem_state ¶

The agent.filesystem_state check exposes filesystem metrics for read-write/read-only system mounts.

Attributes¶

No fields are present for this particular check type.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
total_ro	Total number of filesystems mounted read-only.	Int64
total_rw	Total number of filesystems mounted read-write	Int64
devices_ro	Comma delimited list of devices mounted read-only.	String
devices_rw	Comma delimited list of devices mounted read-write.	String

agent.load_average ¶

The agent.load_average check attempts to measure the UNIX style load average on a host.

For more information about the commands used to get the load average, see Check the System Load on Linux.

Attributes¶

No fields are present for this particular check type.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
1m	One minute load average.	Double
5m	Five minute load average.	Double
15m	Fifteen minute load average.	Double

agent.memory ¶

Attributes¶

No fields are present for this particular check type.

Metrics¶

The memory available to the system is used in three different ways:

Used by the processese running in the system, this value is under “actual_used” metric.
Used by the kernel, this value is not returned from the check but can be deduced.
Not used by either the running processes or kernel, this value is under “free” metric.

For convenience, the system returns the value of used/free memory for the case of including kernel and excluding kernel so that you don’t have to do the calculation in your head.

Metric	Description	Type
actual_free	The amount of free memory, ‘free’ plus kernel memory.	Int64
actual_used	The actual amount of used memory excluding kernel memory.	Int64
free	The amount of free memory not including kernel memory.	Int64
ram	The amount of RAM.	Int64
swap_free	The amount of free SWAP memory.	Int64
swap_page_in	The number of SWAP-in pages.	Int64
swap_page_out	The number of SWAP-out pages.	Int64
swap_total	The total amount of SWAP memory.	Int64
swap_used	The amount of used SWAP memory.	Int64
total	The total amount of memory.	Int64
used	The total amount of used memory, ‘actual_used’ plus kernel memory	Int64

agent.mysql ¶

The agent.mysql check retrieves MySQL server metrics.

Note

Except for the replication.slave_running’ metric, all metrics starting with replication do not show up if there is no slave running.

If the libmysqlclient-dev package is not already present, you should install it on the host where the agent.mysql plug-in runs.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
host	Mysql server hostname (default: 127.0.0.1).	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
mycnf	Specifies whether my.cnf should be loaded.	Optional. Boolean
password	Specifies the server password.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
port	Specifies the Mysql server port (default: 3306).	Optional. Integer between 1-65535 inclusive
socket	Specifies the path to the domain socket.	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
timeout	Specifies the plugin execution timeout in milliseconds	Optional. Integer
username	Specifies the username.	Optional. String between 1 and 16 characters long

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
bytes_received	The number of bytes received from all clients. (statvar_Bytes_received)	Cumulative
bytes_sent	The number of bytes sent to all clients. (statvar_Bytes_sent)	Cumulative
core.aborted_clients	The number of connections that were aborted because the client died without closing the connection properly. (statvar_Aborted_clients)	Instantaneous
core.connections	The number of connection attempts (successful or not) to the MySQL server. (statvar_Connections)	Cumulative
core.queries	The number of statements executed by the server. (statvar_Queries)	Cumulative
core.uptime	The number of seconds that the server has been up. (statvar_Uptime)	Instantaneous
handler.commit	The number of internal COMMIT statements. (statvar_Handler_commit)	Cumulative
handler.delete	The number of times that rows have been deleted from tables. (statvar_Handler_delete)	Cumulative
handler.read_first	The number of times that rows have been deleted from tables. (statvar_Handler_delete)	Cumulative
handler.read_first	The number of times the first entry in an index was read. (statvar_Handler_read_first)	Cumulative
handler.read_key	The number of requests to read a row based on a key. If this value is high, it is a good indication that your tables are properly indexed for your queries. (statvar_Handler_read_key)	Cumulative
handler.read_next	The number of requests to read the next row in key order. This value is incremented if you are querying an index column with a range constraint or if you are doing an index scan. (statvar_Handler_read_next)	Cumulative
handler.read_prev	The number of requests to read the previous row in key order. This read method is mainly used to optimize ORDER BY … DESC. (statvar_Handler_read_prev)	Cumulative
handler.read_rnd	The number of requests to read a row based on a fixed position. This value is high if you are doing a lot of queries that require sorting of the result. You probably have a lot of queries that require MySQL to scan entire tables or you have joins that do not use keys properly. (statvar_Handler_read_rnd)	Cumulative
handler.rollback	The number of requests for a storage engine to perform a rollback operation. (statvar_Handler_rollback)	Instantaneous
handler.savepoint	The number of requests for a storage engine to place a savepoint. (statvar_Handler_savepoint)	Instantaneous
handler.savepoint_rollback	The number of requests for a storage engine to roll back to a savepoint. (statvar_Handler_savepoint_rollback)	Instantaneous
handler.update	The number of requests to update a row in a table. (statvar_Handler_update)	Cumulative
handler.write	The number of requests to insert a row in a table. (statvar_Handler_write)	Cumulative
innodb.buffer_pool_pages_data	The number of pages containing data (dirty or clean). (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data)	Instantaneous
innodb.buffer_pool_pages_dirty	The number of pages currently dirty. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_dirty)	Instantaneous
innodb.buffer_pool_pages_flushed	The number of buffer pool page-flush requests. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_flushed)	Instantaneous
innodb.buffer_pool_pages_free	The number of free pages. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free)	Instantaneous
innodb.buffer_pool_pages_total	The total size of the buffer pool, in pages. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total)	Instantaneous
innodb.buffer_pool_read_requests	The number of logical read requests. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests)	Cumulative
innodb.buffer_pool_reads	The number of logical reads that InnoDB could not satisfy from the buffer pool, and had to read directly from the disk. (statvar_Innodb_buffer_pool_reads)	Cumulative
innodb.buffer_pool_size	The size in bytes of the memory buffer InnoDB uses to cache data and indexes of its tables. (sysvar_innodb_buffer_pool_size)	Instantaneous
innodb.data_pending_fsyncs	The current number of pending fsync() operations. (statvar_Innodb_data_pending_fsyncs)	Instantaneous
innodb.data_pending_reads	The current number of pending reads. (statvar_Innodb_data_pending_reads)	Instantaneous
innodb.data_pending_writes	The current number of pending writes. (statvar_Innodb_data_pending_writes)	Instantaneous
innodb.pages_created	The number of pages created. (statvar_Innodb_pages_created)	Cumulative
innodb.pages_read	The number of pages read. (statvar_Innodb_pages_read)	Cumulative
innodb.pages_written	The number of pages written. (statvar_Innodb_pages_written)	Cumulative
innodb.row_lock_time	The total time spent in acquiring row locks, in milliseconds. (statvar_Innodb_row_lock_time)	Cumulative
innodb.row_lock_time_avg	The average time to acquire a row lock, in milliseconds. (statvar_Innodb_row_lock_time_avg)	Instantaneous
innodb.row_lock_time_max	The maximum time to acquire a row lock, in milliseconds. (statvar_Innodb_row_lock_time_max)	Instantaneous
innodb.row_lock_waits	The number of times a row lock had to be waited for. (statvar_Innodb_row_lock_waits)	Cumulative
innodb.rows_deleted	The number of rows deleted from InnoDB tables. (statvar_Innodb_rows_deleted)	Cumulative
innodb.rows_inserted	The number of rows inserted into InnoDB tables. (statvar_Innodb_rows_inserted)	Cumulative
innodb.rows_read	The number of rows read from InnoDB tables. (statvar_Innodb_rows_read)	Cumulative
innodb.rows_updated	The number of rows updated in InnoDB tables. (statvar_Innodb_rows_updated)	Cumulative
key.buffer_size	Index blocks for MyISAM tables are buffered and are shared by all threads. (sysvar_key_buffer_size)	Instantaneous
max.connections	The maximum permitted number of simultaneous client connections. (sysvar_max_connections)	Instantaneous
qcache.free_blocks	The number of free memory blocks in the query cache. (statvar_Qcache_free_blocks)	Instantaneous
qcache.free_memory	The amount of free memory for the query cache. (statvar_Qcache_free_memory)	Instantaneous
qcache.hits	The number of query cache hits. (statvar_Qcache_hits)	Cumulative
qcache.inserts	The number of queries added to the query cache. (statvar_Qcache_inserts)	Cumulative
qcache.lowmem_prunes	The number of queries that were deleted from the query cache because of low memory. (statvar_Qcache_lowmem_prunes)	Instantaneous
qcache.not_cached	The number of noncached queries (not cacheable, or not cached due to the query_cache_type setting). (statvar_Qcache_not_cached)	Instantaneous
qcache.queries_in_cache	The number of queries registered in the query cache. (statvar_Qcache_queries_in_cache)	Cumulative
qcache.size	The amount of memory allocated for caching query results. (sysvar_query_cache_size)	Instantaneous
qcache.total_blocks	The total number of blocks in the query cache. (statvar_Qcache_total_blocks)	Cumulative
replication.exec_master_log_pos	The position in the current master binary log file to which the SQL thread has read and executed, marking the start of the next transaction or event to be processed. (show-slave-status.html).	Instantaneous
replication.last_errno	The error number returned by the most recently executed statement. (show-slave-status.html).	Instantaneous
replication.last_io_error	The error message of the most recent error that caused the I/O thread to stop (show-slave-status.html).	String
replication.max_relay_log_size	If a write by a replication slave to its relay log causes the current log file size to exceed the value of this variable, the slave rotates the relay logs (closes the current file and opens the next one). (sysvar_max_relay_log_size)	Instantaneous
replication.read_master_log_pos	The position in the current master binary log file up to which the I/O thread has read. (show-slave-status.html)	Instantaneous
replication.relay_log_pos	The position in the current relay log file up to which the SQL thread has read and executed. (show-slave-status.html)	Instantaneous
replication.seconds_behind_master	In essence, this field measures the time difference in seconds between the slave SQL thread and the slave I/O thread. (show-slave-status.html)	Instantaneous
replication.slave_io_running	Whether the I/O thread is started and has connected successfully to the master. Internally, the state of this thread is represented by one of the following three values: MYSQL_SLAVE_NOT_RUN, MYSQL_SLAVE_RUN_NOT_CONNECT, MYSQL_SLAVE_RUN_CONNECT (show-slave- status.html)	Boolean
replication.slave_io_state	A copy of the State field of the SHOW PROCESSLIST output for the slave I/O thread. This tells you what the thread is doing: trying to connect to the master, waiting for events from the master, reconnecting to the master, and so on. (show-slave-status.html).	String
replication.slave_open_temp_tables	The number of temporary tables that the slave SQL thread currently has open. If the value is greater than zero, it is not safe to shut down the slave. (statvar_Slave_open_temp_tables).	Instantaneous
replication.slave_retried_transactions	The total number of times since startup that the replication slave SQL thread has retried transactions. (statvar_Slave_retried_transactions)	Instantaneous
replication.slave_running	This is ON if this server is a replication slave that is connected to a replication master, and both the I/O and SQL threads are running; otherwise, it is OFF. (statvar_Slave_running)	String
replication.slave_sql_running	Whether the SQL thread is started. (show- slave-status.html)	Boolean
thread.cache_size	How many threads the server should cache for reuse. (sysvar_thread_cache_size)	Instantaneous
threads.connected	The number of currently open connections. (statvar_Threads_connected)	Instantaneous
threads.created	The number of threads created to handle connections. (statvar_Threads_created)	Cumulative
threads.running	The number of threads that are not sleeping. (statvar_Threads_running)	Instantaneous

agent.network ¶

The agent.network check will attempt to measure the usage of network devices on a host.

Attributes¶

Field	Description \| Validation
target	The network device to check (eg ‘eth0) \| String between 1 and 512 characters long

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
rx_bytes	The number of bytes received over the interface.	Int64
rx_dropped	The number of packets received and subsequently dropped over the interface.	Int64
rx_errors	The number of errors received over the interface.	Int64
rx_packets	The number of packets received over the interface.	Int64
speed	The speed at which the bytes were transmitted over the interface.	Int64
tx_bytes	The number of bytes transmitted over the interface.	Int64
tx_dropped	The number of packets attempted transmitting and subsequently dropped over the interface.	Int64
tx_error	The number of errors while transmitting over the interface.	Int64
tx_packets	The number of packets transmitted over the interface.	Int64

agent.mssql_database ¶

The agent.mssql_database check returns metrics for a Microsoft SQL Server database.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
db	MS SQL Server database name	String between 1 and 255 characters long
hostname	MS SQL Server hostname	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
password	MS SQL Server password	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
username	MS SQL Server username	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.mssql_buffer_manager ¶

The agent.mssql_buffer_manager check returns metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server buffer manager.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
computer	MS SQL Server computer name	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.mssql_sql_statistics ¶

The agent.mssql_sql_statistics check returns metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server SQL statistics.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
computer	MS SQL Server computer name	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.mssql_plan_cache ¶

The agent.mssql_plan_cache check returns metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server plan cache.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
computer	MS SQL Server computer name	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.mssql_memory_manager ¶

The agent.mssql_memory_manager check returns metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server memory manager.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
computer	MS SQL Server computer name	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.mssql_version ¶

The agent.mssql_version check returns version information for Microsoft SQL Server.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
hostname	MS SQL Server hostname	Optional. Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
password	MS SQL Server password	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
serverinstance	MS SQL Server instance to query	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
username	MS SQL Server username	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long

agent.plugin ¶

The agent.plugin check will attempt to run a custom plugin on a host.

Custom plugins are simply executable files which report metrics via stdout. Plugins are placed on the server to be monitored at an installation path that depends on the operating system:

Operating System	Installation Path
Linux	/usr/lib/rackspace-monitoring-agent/plugins/
Windows (32-bit agent installed on a 64-bit system )	C:\Program Files (x86)\Rackspace Monitoring\plugins
Windows (64-bit agent installed on a 64-bit system or 32-bit agent installed on a 32-bit system)	C:\Program Files\Rackspace Monitoring\plugins

After the plugin has been installed on the server, create an agent.plugin check that specifies the name of the executable file so that the plugin can begin reporting metrics to the monitoring system, like any other check. If the plugin requires any command line arguments, you can specify them using the optional args array.

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
file	Name of the plugin file	String matching the regex //[a-zA-Z0-9.- _]+//
args	Command-line arguments which are passed to the plugin	Optional. Array [Non-empty string]. Array or object with number of items between 0 and 10
timeout	Plugin execution timeout in milliseconds	Optional. Integer

Metrics¶

The metrics returned are defined in the plugin script. A plugin can send up to fifty unique metrics at a time.

Community Plugin Repository

A curated repository of plugins created by Rackspace Monitoring users is avaliable on GitHub. Contributions are welcome!

Note

The Rackspace Monitoring Agent is also capable of executing Cloudkick plugins, so if you are a Cloudkick user you can just drop in any existing plugin and it should just work.

Creating Custom Plugins

Creating custom plugins is as simple as writing a script that prints a status and up to fifty metrics to standard out. The format of the status line is:

status <status>

The status string should describe whether the check was able to successfully gather metrics. It could be as simple as “success” to incidate that metrics were successfully gathered. When an error occurs that prevents metrics from being gathered, plugins should print a status that describes the error, then should exit non-zero without printing any metric lines.

The status line can be followed by up to fifty metric lines. Each line is output in the following format:

metric <name> <type> <value>

The following descriptions provide information about parameter values.

**Capacity management**¶
Parameter	Description
name	The name of the metric. Spaces are not supported. The format is alpha numeric with colon (:), underscore (_) and dot (.) allowed. Example: `memory_free`.
type	The metric can be any of the following types: `int32` Signed 32 bit integer value. `uint32` Unsigned 32 bit integer value. `int64` Signed 64 bit integer value. `uint64` Unsigned 64 bit integer value. `double` Floating point values. `string` A string value. Note: the monitoring system records string metrics every time they change. String metrics are designed for recording an enumerated state which infrequently changes (for example an HTTP response code which is always 200 during normal operation). You should not store arbitrary, frequently changing values in a string metric.
value	The value assigned to the metric.

Putting it all together, the output of a plugin that has successfully executed might look something like:

status Turkey thermometer returned valid response
metric internal_temperature uint32 165
metric ambient_temperature uint32 325

If the plugin failed, it might print the following before exiting non-zero:

status Turkey thermometer not responding

agent.redis ¶

The agent.redis check will retrieve Redis server metrics

Attributes¶

Field	Description	Validation
hostname	Redis server hostname	Valid hostname, IPv4 or IPv6 address
password	Optional Redis server password	Optional. String between 1 and 255 characters long
port	Redis server port	Integer between 1-65535 inclusive
timeout	Connection timeout in milliseconds	Optional. Integer

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
bgrewriteaof_in_progress	(Redis 2.4.16 only) Flag indicating a RDB save is on-going	Int32
bgsave_in_progress	(Redis 2.4.16 only) Flag indicating a RDB save is on-going	Int32
blocked_clients	Number of clients pending on a blocking call (BLPOP, BRPOP, BRPOPLPUSH)	Int32
changes_since_last_save	(Redis 2.4.16 only) Number of changes since the last dump	Int32
connected_clients	Number of client connections (excluding connections from slaves)	Int32
evicted_keys	Number of evicted keys due to maxmemory limit	Int32
pubsub_patterns	Global number of pub/sub pattern with client subscriptions	Int32
total_commands_processed	Total number of commands processed by the server	Gauge
total_connections_received	Total number of connections accepted by the server	Gauge
uptime_in_seconds	Number of seconds since Redis server start	Int32
used_memory	Total number of bytes allocated by Redis using its allocator (either standard libc, jemalloc, or an alternative allocator such as tcmalloc.	Int32
version	Version of the server	String

agent.windows_perfos ¶

The agent.windows_perfos check returns metrics regarding windows performance data. This check is only available on Windows platforms.

Attributes¶

No fields are present for this particular check type.

Metrics¶

Metric	Description	Type
AlignmentFixupsPersec	Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which alignment faults, were fixed by the system.	Uint32
ContextSwitchesPersec	Shows the combined rate, in incidents per second, at which all processors on the computer were switched from one thread to another. It is the sum of the values of Thread Context Switches/sec for each thread running on all processors on the computer, and is measured in numbers of switches. Context switches occur when a running thread voluntarily relinquishes the processor, or is preempted by a higher priority, ready thread.	Uint32
ExceptionDispatchesPersec	Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which exceptions were dispatched by the system.	Uint64
FileControlBytesPersec	Shows the overall rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were transferred for all file system operations that were neither read nor write operations, such as file system control requests and requests for information about device characteristics or status.	Uint32
FileControlOperationsPersec	Shows the combined rate, in incidents per second, of file system operations that were neither read nor write operations, such as file system control requests and requests for information about device characteristics or status. This is the inverse of FileDataOperationsPersec.	Int32
FileReadBytesPersec	Shows the overall rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were read to satisfy file system read requests to all devices on the computer, including read operations from the file system cache.	Uint64
FileReadOperationsPersec	The number of errors while transmitting over the interface.	Uint32
FileWriteBytesPersec	Shows the overall rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were written to satisfy file system write requests to all devices on the computer, including write operations to the file system cache.	Uint64
FloatingEmulationsPersec	Shows the rate, in incidents per second, of floating emulations performed by the system.	Uint32
PercentRegistryQuotaInUse	Percentage of the total registry quota allowed that is currently being used by the system. This property displays the current percentage value only; it is not an average.	Uint32
Processes	Shows the number of processes in the computer at the time of data collection. This is an instantaneous count, not an average over the time interval. Each process represents a program that is running.	Uint32
ProcessorQueueLength	Shows the number of threads in the processor queue. Unlike the disk counters, this counter shows ready threads only, not threads that are running. There is a single queue for processor time, even on computers with multiple processors.Therefore, if a computer has multiple processors, you need to divide this value by the number of processors servicing the workload. A sustained processor queue of greater than two threads generally indicates processor congestion.	Uint32
SystemCallsPersec	Shows the combined rate, in incidents per second, of calls to operating system service routines by all processes running on the computer. These routines perform all of the basic scheduling and synchronization of activities on the computer, and provide access to non-graphic devices, memory management, and name space management.	Uint32
SystemUpTime	Shows the total time, in seconds, that the computer has been operational since it was last started.	Uint64
Threads	Shows the number of threads in the computer at the time of data collection. This is an instantaneous count, not an average over the time interval. A thread is the basic executable entity that can execute instructions in a processor.	Uint32

Hostinfo checks¶

Hostinfo checks are a special class of checks that run on demand.

In contrast to the remote and agent check types which enable you to schedule alarms or alerts for remote and agent-type checks and run them on a regular schedule, you cannot schedule Hostinfo checks or create alarms or alerts for them.

Create Hostinfo checks to perform tasks like the following:

Fetch data on demand. For example, you can use a Hostinfo check to pipe data about the host to other services or applications.
Run occasional checks to troubleshoot an issue.
Periodically fetch data from large clusters of servers with the granularity of fetching from an individual computer. For example, use a Hostinfo check to retrieve information from a dashboard built on Kibana.
Use in conjunction with service helper software to generate suggestions that are based on the status of a system or piece information that is required by support technicians.

The following table provides a list of the Hostinfo checks supported by the monitoring service.

Hostinfo checks supported by Rackspace Monitoring

Hostinfo type	Description
connections	Runs the `arp -an` and `netstate -naten` commands and retrieves information about any open listening ports and any connections to them.
iptables	Runs the `iptables -S` command to retrieve data about IPv4 policies.
ip6tables	Runs the `iptables -S` command to retrieve data about IPv6 policies.
autoupdates	Checks if automatic updates are enabled on a Linux distribution.
passwd	Reads /etc/passwd and then runs the `passwd -S` command for every user. Obtains password-related
pam	Reads /etc/pam.d and retrieves data about pluggable authentication modules.
cron	Reads files in the crontabs directory and retrieves information about scheduled Cron jobs.
kernel_modules	Reads the /proc/modules virtual directory and retrieves data about the modules that are loaded into the kernel.
cpu	Retrieves information about the host’s CPU.
disk	Retrieves information about the host’s hard disks.
filesystem	Retrieves information about the host’s filesystem.
filesystem_state	Retrieves information about the read-only/read-write filesystems.
login	Reads /etc/login.defs and retrieves data about the login shell. This check does not retrieve any password information or any other sensitive data.
memory	Retrieve information about the host’s memory.
network	Retrieves information about the host’s network interface.
nil	Returns no information. This Hostinfo check is mainly used within the monitoring agent code itself.
packages	Runs either the `dpkg-query` or `rpm -qa` command and retrieves a list of package names and versions.
procs	Retrieves information about the processes that are running on the host.
system	Retrieves information about the host’s operating system.
who	Retrieves information about the user, device, time and host.
date	Retrieves the date and time on the host.
sysctl	Runs the `sysctl -A` command and retrieves all possible key-value pairs of the kernel parameters that can be set at runtime.
sshd	Runs the `sshd -T` command and retrieves the configuration parameters for the open SSH daemon.
fstab	Reads /etc/fstab and retrieves information about the file system configuration.
fileperms	Reads a pre-specified list of files and checks and retrieves their permissions.
services	Reads a few folders and files and generates a list of startup services.
deleted_libs	Greps through the output of `lsof -nnP` to find deleted or missing libraries for running processes.
cve	Retrieves a unique sorted list of common vulnerabilities and exposures that have been patched on the host system.
last_logins	Runs last to get information about previous icurrent logged-in user, bootups and when `last` started logging.
remote_services	Runs the `netstat -tlpen` command to obtain a list of active internet connections to servers and underlying programs that are using them.
ip4routes	Runs the `netstat -nr4` command and retrieves information about the kernel’s IPv4 routing tables.
ip6routes	Runs the `netstat -nr6` command and retrieves information about the kernel’s IPv6 routing tables
apache2	Retrieves information about the host’s apache2 instance and installation if it exists.
fail2ban	Retrieves information about the host’s fail2ban instance and installation.
lsyncd	Checks the status of the live syncing daemon or lsyncd.
nginx_config	Returns vhosts, version, includes, status (0 if everything is ok when `nginx -t` is run), configuration path, prefix and configure arguments for local nginx.
wordpress	Returns the path, version and edition of local Wordpress instances found via the apache2 and nginx configurations.
magento	Returns the path, version and edition of local Magento instances found via the apache2 and nginx configurations.
php	Returns information such as version, type (HHVM/PHP), and errors related to PHP. Uses the CLI and log files to to extract this information.
postfix	Checks the status of the postfix mail server.

You can use the Rackspace Monitoring API to run Hostinfo checks. To run a hostinfo check, issue the following cURL request:

Use the following cURL request to run Hostinfo checks by using the monitoring service.

curl -H 'X-Auth-Token: $token' '\
     https://monitoring.api.rackspacecloud.com/v1.0/ \
     <tenandID>/agents/<agent_id>/host_info/<hostinfo_type>

For more information about how to work with checks using the Rackspace Monitoring API, see the Checks section in the Rackspace Monitoring Developer Guide. For more information working with Hostinfo checks, see the Agent host information.

Check status codes¶

This section provides a list of a set of status messages and codes that can be returned by various check types.

The following table lists the status messages for various check types and provides a resolution for the issue.

Remote http check metrics¶
Status code or message	Description	Resolution
`prevented by ACL 'global'`	The HTTP remote check is attempting to access an IP Address that is a private address (127.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc).	Private IP addresses are not supported. Specify a public IP address instead.
unknown content encoding	The content could not be copied fully to the monitoring zone endpoint.	Be sure that the content body of your web page is equal to or below the 100k limit. If you are using compression, be sure that the compressed page is less than or equal to 100k. See remote.http.
`zlib: out-of-memory`	The size of the webpage is too large (> 500k) for the content check.	Reduce the page content or use a custom ‘healthcheck’ page that is less than 500k in size.
`attempt to concatenate local ameth (a nil value)`	Occurs when the target of the remote check is using an unsupported authentication method. Currently supported authentication methods are basic and digest. NTLM is currently not supported.	Change the authentication method to a supported method. \|

Check types reference¶

Remote check types¶

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remote.pop3-banner¶

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Check status codes¶