11 External checks
11.1 Overview
External check is a check executed by Zabbix server by running a shell script or a binary.
External checks do not require any agent running on a host being monitored.
The syntax of the item key is:
script[<parameter1>,<parameter2>,...]
Where:
| ARGUMENT | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| script | Name of a shell script or a binary. |
| parameter(s) | Optional command line parameters. |
If you don't want to pass any parameters to the script you may use:
script[] or script
Zabbix server will look in the directory defined as the location for external scripts (parameter 'ExternalScripts' in Zabbix Server configuration file) and execute the command. The command will be executed as the user Zabbix server runs as, so any access permissions or environment variables should be handled in a wrapper script, if necessary, and permissions on the command should allow that user to execute it. Only commands in the specified directory are available for execution.
Zabbix uses the standard output of the script as the value (the full output with trimmed trailing whitespace is returned since Zabbix 2.0). Standard error and exit codes are discarded.
11.2 Usage example
Executing the script check_oracle.sh with parameters ”-h <host IP address>”.
check_oracle.sh["-h","{HOST.CONN}"]
Zabbix will execute:
check_oracle.sh "-h" "192.168.1.4"
Data source: Zabbix