Monitoring files on a host can be a very useful an instrumental part of application monitoring. Here we will describe some use cases and how to configure them.
With Checkmk, you can monitor single files for pure existence, their age, and size, etc. But it is also sometimes necessary to group several files into one service and impose those rules and thresholds on such a filegroup.
1. Configuration of the agent
In the first stepFirst, we need to must tell the agent which files should be monitored. This can be done with the Checkmk agent bakery in Checkmk Enterprise, Enterprise Free, and managed service edition. In Checkmk RAW Edition, this needs to be done manually.
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In the file C:\ProgramData\checkmk\agent\check_mk.user.yml, create a fileinfo section like this:
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fileinfo: enabled: true path: - c:\temp\*.txt - c:\path\to\file.dat |
and And restart the Checkmk agent.
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Please be aware know that paths and files are case-sensitive, even in the Windows agent. |
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You can now rediscover your host, and you will find the single files that you configured in step Step 1, and you can add them to monitoring:
After that, you can create rules to specify how to monitor those files.
- Go to the "hamburger" menu of that service and click
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- "Parameters for this service."
and click
- Click on "Size and age of single files" to create a rule as desired,
for For example like , this is with a threshold for the maximum age.
3. Monitoring of file groups
Sometimes it is desired not to monitor the individual files but a file group instead. To do this, you need to create a rule oh on the type "File Grouping Patterns"
(Setup → Services → Service monitoring rules → File Grouping Patterns)
There you have to specify a name for the group, "Include Patterns," and optionally "Exclude Patterns."
Go to Setup → Services → Service monitoring rules → Grouping Patterns → Add rule
| Info |
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Please be aware know that paths and files are case-sensitive, even in the Windows agent. |
After a Re-Discovery, the single file services will vanish, and the file group will appear
, and you can add the new service to the monitoring.
After that, you can create a rule by clicking on the "hamburger menu" / Parameters for this service.
and click Click on "Size, age, and count of file groups" to create a rule as desired,.
for For example like this:
3. Special case: file(s) does not exist during discovery
Sometimes you have the a special use case , where the single files or files that are part of file groups do not exist (during discovery). E.g., you want to monitor the quarantine directory of an antivirus software, which should normally be normally empty.
As the Checkmk Discovery can only discover things that exist during the discovery process, we have a logical problem here.
To circumvent this issue, you have to create the "Size and age of single files" and "Size, age, and count of file groups" rules from above not in the "Discovery rule" section of the setup menu , but in the "Enforced services" part of the setup. So the rules can be found here:
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By creating such an enforced rule, you can force Checkmk to create a service check, and you are able to can monitor files which that are not present during discovery.
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