/
Troubleshooting when fetcher for host HOST times out after X seconds

Troubleshooting when fetcher for host HOST times out after X seconds

Owned by Robin Gierse

This article helps troubleshoot the "Fetcher for host" timeout error within Checkmk.

LAST TESTED ON CHECKMK 2.3.0P1

Table of Contents

Problem

You receive error messages like the following.

Fetcher for host "$HOST" times out after X seconds

Background

Read this section about helper processes in Checkmk to understand the following.

There are several reasons why a fetcher might time out. Below is a listing of some typical reasons.

Plugins and local checks

Sometimes a plugin or a local check needs a very long time to provide data or will not provide data at all.
Depending on your Microcore timeout - which defaults to 60 seconds - you reach the timeout and receive the error message from above.


Use the following commands to time the agent execution time:

Linux
time /usr/bin/check_mk_agent
Windows:
Measure-Command {start-process 'C:\Program Files (x86)\checkmk\service\cmk-agent-ctl.exe' dump -Wait}


Solution

Find possible solutions below based on the possible problem.

Plugins and local checks

Plugin or local check never finishes

If the plugin or local check throws errors or never finishes, you must learn how to fix this.


Plugin or local check finishes after a long time

In case the plugin or local check finished but needs longer than the Microcore timeout, you can run the plugin asynchronously. Use the Set cache age for plug-ins (UNIX) rule for UNIX-like OS and the "Set execution mode for plug-ins and local checks" rule for Windows.