Nagios Support Forum

I am currently in the process of re-creating my organization's check_nt checks, using check_nrpe. I have gotten many of the checks migrated over now, but I am stumped right now in regards to creating checks for perfmon counters. I have gotten the check to work from the command line, but when I enter the parameters in the Nagios Core Config Manager, it fails.

Command works from the command line:
Command: ./check_nrpe -H 192.168.190.181 -p 5666 -c CheckCounter -a "\Print Queue(_Total)\Jobs Spooling" ShowAll MaxWarn=80 MaxCrit=90
Output: OK: \Print Queue(_Total)\Jobs Spooling: 0|'\Print Queue(_Total)\Jobs Spooling'=0;80;90

When testing from Core Config Manager it does not:
COMMAND: /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H 128.231.190.181 -t 30 -p 5666 -c CheckCounter -a "\\Print Queue\(_Total\)\\Jobs Spooling" ShowAll MaxWarn=2 MaxCrit=20
OUTPUT: CRIT: Counter not found: \Print Queue\(_Total\)\Jobs Spooling: The specified counter could not be found. (C0000BB9)

It seems to me like Core Config Manager is adding backslashes to all the special characters in the command. Do I have to escape these out somehow, or is there another way to fix this issue?

Are you able to remove these slashes from the command definition itself and then run apply configuration? And then re running the test command feature.

XI inserts the slashes itself, the command argument will just be the performance counter name in qoutes as per the command line version, I have the same issue

I got my counter working like so

/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H 10.0.70.4 -p 5666 -c CheckCounter -a "Counter:EmailStores=\MSExchangeIS Mailbox(Quota 1 (500Mb)-Sales_Finance)\Client Logons" MaxWarn=0 MaxCrit=0 ShowAll
CRITICAL: EmailStores: 255 > critical|'EmailStores'=255;0;0

The using the argument in XI "Counter:EmailStores=\MSExchangeIS Mailbox(Quota 1 (500Mb)-Sales_Finance)\Client Logons"

Is changed to the below when you click test in ccm

/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H 10.0.70.4 -t 30 -c CheckCounter -a \\"Counter:EmailStores=\\\\MSExchangeIS Mailbox\(First Storage Group-Mailbox Store \(CORE-EMAIL3\)\)\\\\Client Logons\\" MaxWarn=50 MaxCrit=100 ShowAll
CRIT: Counter not found: \Counter:EmailStores: Unable to parse the counter path. Check the format and syntax of the specified path. (C0000BC0)

How can we force XI to use the argument as is as I think the new check_nrpe versions support proper counter names without escaping characters

Test check may still have some escaping issues. Does the check work when it is added as a full service check in XI?

Thanks for the tips all, I finally got it working. In my case I had to double the backslashes in CCM, like this:

Command: $USER1$/check_nrpe -H $127.0.0.1$ -t 30 -p 5666 -c CheckCounter -a "\\Print Queue(_Total)\\Jobs Spooling" ShowAll MaxWarn=2 MaxCrit=20
Output: OK: \Print Queue(_Total)\Jobs Spooling: 0

So now the check works, but I can confirm that there are still escaping issues in the test check. It returns the following:

COMMAND: /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_nrpe -H 127.0.0.1 -t 30 -p 5666 -c CheckCounter -a "\\\\Print Queue\(_Total\)\\\\Jobs Spooling" ShowAll MaxWarn=2 MaxCrit=20
OUTPUT: CRIT: Counter not found: \\Print Queue\(_Total\)\\Jobs Spooling: Unable to connect to the specified computer or the computer is offline. (800007D0)

The problem is resolved for me now, so just consider this a bug report!

Fantastic. Go ahead and file a bug report on tracker.nagios.com if you get a chance. Cheers.