check_interfaces

This is a monitoring plugin for Monitoring Plugins Interfaces compatible monitoring systems. The intended usage is to retrieve the interface data from devices implementing default SNMP network structures and test whether interfaces are up or down and whether the bandwidth usage exceeds a certain threshold. As a secondary purpose, the list of interface and the ingoing/outgoing data counters are returned and can be visualized in the monitoring system.

This plugin uses the bulk-get mode of SNMPv2 by default - pass it the option -m NONBULK to work with SNMPv1. Support for SNMPv3 with and without privacy is included.

64 bit counters will be used if they are supported by the device.

Installation

In order to compile this plugin you need the NET SNMP Development package (libsnmp-dev for Debian) as well as autoconf and the standard compilation tools.

Example for Debian:

apt-get update
apt-get -y install git build-essential libsnmp-dev

Download and extract the tarball from https://github.com/NETWAYS/check_interfaces/releases

./configure --libexecdir=/usr/lib/nagios/plugins

or clone this repository and regenerate the autoconf scripts

autoreconf
./configure --libexecdir=/usr/lib/nagios/plugins

Running "make" should successfully compile the plugin, and "make install" will install them under the configured path.

make
make install

Prerequisites for FreeBSD

sudo pkg install automake gcc net-snmp

To build:

autoreconf
./configure --prefix=/usr/local   ## works, but you should have your own plugins-dir
make
sudo make install   ## optional

Usage

(see also check_interface --help)

check_interface -c public -h 192.168.0.1 -r 'FastEth' -p '$SERVICEPERFDATA$' -t $LASTSERVICECHECK$ -a

Options;
 -h                 address of device

 -c|--community     community (default public)
 -r|--regex         interface list regexp
                        Regex to match interfaces (important, this is a Regular Expression
                        not a simple wildcard string, see below)
 -e|--errors        number of in errors (CRC errors for cisco) to consider a warning (default 50)
                        Only warn if errors increase by more than this amount between checks
 -f|--out-errors    number of out errors (collisions for cisco) to consider a warning
                        Defaults to the same value as for errors
 -p|--perfdata      last check perfdata
                        Performance data from previous check (used to calculate traffic)
 -P|--prefix        prefix interface names with this label
 -t|--lastcheck     last checktime (unixtime)
                        Last service check time in unixtime (also used to calculate traffic)
 -b|--bandwidth     bandwidth warn level in %
 -s|--speed         override speed detection with this value (bits per sec)
 -x|--trim          cut this number of characters from the start of interface descriptions
                        Useful for nortel switches
 -j|--auth-proto    SNMPv3 Auth Protocol (SHA|SHA-224|SHA-256|SHA-384|SHA-512|MD5)
 -J|--auth-phrase   SNMPv3 Auth Phrase
 -k|--priv-proto    SNMPv3 Privacy Protocol (AES|DES) (optional)
 -K|--priv-phrase   SNMPv3 Privacy Phrase
 -u|--user          SNMPv3 User
 -d|--down-is-ok    disables critical alerts for down interfaces
                        i.e do not consider a down interface to be critical
 -a|--aliases       retrieves the interface description
                        This alias does not always deliver useful information
 -A|--match-aliases also test the Alias against the Regexes
 -D|--debug-print   list administrative down interfaces in perfdata
 -N|--if-names      use ifName instead of ifDescr
    --timeout       sets the SNMP timeout (in ms)
 -m|--mode          special operating mode (default,cisco,nonbulk,bintec)
                        Workarounds for various hardware

Modes

 default    use SNMPv2 bulk-gets to retrieve the interface list (recommended for devices with many interfaces)
 cisco      retrieve CRC errors and collisions instead of in errors and out errors
 bintec     work with non-RFC Bintec devices
 nonbulk    use a traditional tree-walk and SNMPv1 instead of bulk-gets (less efficient, but works with most devices)

Counter Overflows

The plugin will query the uptime of the device and compensate for counter overflows. Note however that a 1Gbit interface with a 32 bit counter will overflow every 34 seconds if the interface is operating at full capacity - in this case you will need to query the device at least once a minute. With 64 bit counters these problems go away.

Also be aware that the counter values themselves are passed unaltered in the performance data field - if you graph the data then the grapher also needs to be overflow aware.

Large Plugin Output

Be aware that this plugin may generate large outputs. Your version of Nagios / Icinga may cut off the output and cause you problems with various graphing tools; for best results restrict the list of interfaces using the -r option

Regular Expressions

The following patterns can be used to match strings

 .          anything
 ^          beginning of string
 $          end of string (WARNING: you need to use $$ in a Nagios configuration file!)
 (abc|def)  either abc or def
 [0-9a-z]   a range
 *          the previous pattern multiple times

Examples;

 Eth        match any strings containing "Eth"
 ^FastEth   match any strings beginning with "FastEth"
 Eth(0|2)$  match Eth0 or Eth2
 Eth(0|2)   as above but would also match Eth20, Eth21, Eth22 etc

If unsure of a pattern, you should test it on the command line thus;

check_interface -c public -h 192.168.0.1 -r 'Eth(0|2)$'

Docker Build Environment

You can use docker for a development environment.

Usage:

Simple use:

docker build -t check_interfaces .
docker run --rm check_interfaces -c public -h sw1

Persistent container

docker build -t check_interfaces .
docker create --name="check_sw1" check_interfaces -c public -h sw1
docker start -a check_sw1

Create a debug build

docker build --build-arg target=debug -t check_interfaces .