check_cpu_stats is an open source monitoring plugin which uses iostat (from the sysstat package) in the background and display CPU usage on the different states (user, system, iowait, nice, steal).
The script is a fork from the original check_cpu_stats plugin by Steve Bosek. It was using ksh as Shell. The newer release now runs natively on the Bash shell and supports additional parameters.
All parameters are optional.
| Parameter | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| -w | Warning thresholds for cpu usage. Syntax: cpu_user,cpu_system,cpu_iowait. Must be used together with -c. |
70,40,30 |
| -c | Warning thresholds for cpu usage. Syntax: cpu_user,cpu_system,cpu_iowait. Must be used together with -w. |
90,60,40 |
| -i | Interval in seconds to run iostat in the background |
1 |
| -n | Number of iostat reports to obtain average values |
3 |
| -b | Bailout condition(s). The plugin will exit OK when condition matches (number of CPUs and process running), expects an input of N,process (e.g. 4,apache2). Can be used multiple times | - |
| -v | Show version | - |
| -h / --help | Show help | - |
Basic CPU usage check without any options:
$ ./check_cpu_stats.sh
CPU STATISTICS OK : user=0.84% system=0.50%, iowait=0.00%, idle=98.66%, nice=0.00%, steal=0.00% | CpuUser=0.84%;70;90;0; CpuSystem=0.50%;40;60;0; CpuIowait=0.00%;30;40;0; CpuIdle=98.66%;0;0;0; CpuNice=0.00%;0;0;0; CpuSteal=0.00%;0;0;0;
CPU Usage check with thresholds. Warning alert when USER is above 50%, SYSTEM is above 30% and IOWAIT is above 10%. Critial alert when USER is above 80%, SYSTEM is above 50% and IOWAIT is above 30%:
$ ./check_cpu_stats.sh -w 50,30,10 -c 80,50,30
CPU STATISTICS OK : user=1.17% system=0.25%, iowait=0.00%, idle=98.58%, nice=0.00%, steal=0.00% | CpuUser=1.17%;50;80;0; CpuSystem=0.25%;30;50;0; CpuIowait=0.00%;10;30;0; CpuIdle=98.58%;0;0;0; CpuNice=0.00%;0;0;0; CpuSteal=0.00%;0;0;0;
CPU Usage check with a bailout condition: -b 'N,process to match'. Bailout condition means if the number of processes match and the 'process to match' is currently running (seen with ps aux), the plugin will return OK, even if thresholds are hit:
$ ./check_cpu_stats.sh -w 50,30,10 -c 80,50,30 -b "12,sshd"
CPU STATISTICS OK - bailing out because of matched bailout patterns - user=0.50% system=0.17%, iowait=0.00%, idle=99.33%, nice=0.00%, steal=0.00% | CpuUser=0.50%;50;80;0; CpuSystem=0.17%;30;50;0; CpuIowait=0.00%;10;30;0; CpuIdle=99.33%;0;0;0; CpuNice=0.00%;0;0;0; CpuSteal=0.00%;0;0;0;
| Release | Date | Author(s) | Desciption/Modification |
|---|---|---|---|
| ??? | 2007-09-08 | Steve Bosek | created/released the plugin |
| 2.0 | 2008-02-16 | Steve Bosek | Solaris support and new parameters, addtional parameters (-i, -n) |
| 2.1 | 2008-06-08 | Steve Bosek | Bug perfdata and convert comma in point for Linux result |
| 2.1.1 | 2008-12-05 | Steve Bosek | Fixed improperly terminated string that was left open at line 130 |
| 2.1.2 | 2008-12-06 | Bas van der Doorn | Fixed linux steal reported as idle, comparisons |
| 2.2 | 2008-12-06 | Bas van der Doorn | Capable systems will output nice and steal data |
| 2.2.1 | 2008-12-06 | Steve Bosek | Add for uniform Unix output nice and steal data on all perfdata |
| 2.3 | 2008-12-11 | Steve Bosek | Add Threshold for user and system output with format -w user,system,iowait -c user,system,iowait |
| 2.3.1 | 2008-12-16 | Steve Bosek | Potability AIX,SOLARIS,LINUX for table initialisation (TAB_WARNING_THRESHOLD and TAB_CRITICAL_THRESHOLD) |
| 2.3.2 | 2008-12-22 | Steve Bosek | Strict Guideline Nagios for perfdata |
| 2.3.3 | 2008-02-08 | Philipp Lemke / Steve Bosek | Add HP-UX support (tested on HP-UX B.11.23 U ia64), uniform perfdata |
| 2.3.4 | 2009-03-29 | Steve Bosek | Bug in line 176: return only critical state for warning condition for USER Stats. |
| 2.3.5 | 2009-05-05 | Steve Bosek | Bug fix in NAGIOS_DATA for HP-UX |
| 2.3.6 | 2011-08-05 | Steve Bosek | Bug fix in NAGIOS_DATA : replace comma with semicolon in perfdata - compatibility with pnp |
| ??? | 2016-06-11 | Philipp Dallig | Switch from ksh to bash |
| 3.0.0 | 2022-12-16 | Claudio Kuenzler | Multiple changes, added -b parameters for bailing out under certain conditions |
| 3.0.1 | 2022-12-16 | Claudio Kuenzler | Use pgrep -f for full process name in bailout check conditions |
| 3.1.0 | 2022-12-19 | Claudio Kuenzler | Change to pidof to avoid hitting own process, support multiple bailout conditions (multple -b N,process possible) |
| 3.1.1 | 2022-12-19 | Claudio Kuenzler | Change bailout process check back to pgrep to support process match with spaces (e.g. -b "12,starter --daemon") |
| 3.1.2 | 2022-12-19 | Claudio Kuenzler | Bugfix in loop when using multiple bailout input |
| 3.1.3 | 2022-12-19 | Claudio Kuenzler | Change to pidof to avoid hitting own process |
| 3.1.4 | 2022-12-30 | Claudio Kuenzler | Change to ps aux to allow process matching, not just executable name |
| 3.1.5 | 2023-12-07 | Claudio Kuenzler | Use command instead of which to find required commands (issue #7) |