Server check_nrpe returning unexpected value for plugin

[ski2tee]

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I have a server and host both running CentOS 6. I wrote a plugin to monitor a directory and notify if any files appear. When I run the plugin directly on the host I get the correct response. When I run it from the server I get something different. See below for code.

Host returns the correct response of CRITICAL: 2 files

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/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/check_file_count

Server returns the incorrect response of OK: 0 files

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/usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/check_nrpe -H host.ipaddress -c check_file_count

Plugin check_file_count:

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OK_STATE=0
CRITICAL_STATE=2

file_count=0
file_count=`ls /home/user1/ | wc -l`

if [ $file_count -gt 0 ]
then
      echo "CRITICAL:" $file_count "files"
      exit $CRITICAL_STATE
fi

echo "OK:" $file_count "files"
exit $OK_STATE

command.cfg

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define command{
    command_name    check_nrpe
    command_line      $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $HOSTADDRESS -c $ARG1$
}

server.cfg

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define command{
    command_name check_file_count
    command_line    $USER1$/check_nrpe $HOSTADDRESS -c check_file_count
}

define service{
    use                               local-service
    host_name                    host
    service_description        check_file_count
    check_command            check_nrpe!check_file_count
    notifications_enabled    1
    contact_groups              test
}

[rkennedy]

When you test running the plugin locally, what user are you using? I suspect that the NRPE user doesn't have the correct permissions to be able to execute ls -l /home/user1/ directory.

You'll want to adjust the permissions on the folder, and test running as the nagios user (or whatever user NRPE is set to run as).

[ski2tee]

rkennedy, that was indeed the issue. I had been banging my head against the wall and never thought to check permissions and the fact that the command would be running as the nrpe user when issued remotely. What is the norm when giving permissions to the nrpe user on the agent? Is it common practice to add a secondary group to the nrpe user to allow access to system files? Thanks for the help!

[lmiltchev]

It is not unusual to add a command to the sudoers that needs to be executed by the nagios (or nrpe) user, and to prepend the command in the nrpe.cfg with "sudo" (if needed).