Check file-age

Overview

Checks the time of last data modification for a file or directory, in seconds.

The plugin is able to follow symbolic links. Depending on the file and user (e.g. running as icinga), sudo (sudoers) is needed. It supports globs in accordance with Python 3 or Python 2. Beware that using recursive globs might cause high memory usage. Also note that there are small differences in recursive file matching between Python 2 and Python 3.

Fact Sheet

Check Plugin Download

https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/tree/main/check-plugins/file-age

Check Interval Recommendation

Once a minute

Can be called without parameters

Yes

Compiled for

Linux, Windows

3rd Party Python modules

PySmbClient, smbprotocol

Help

usage: file-age [-h] [-V] [--always-ok] [-c CRIT]
                [--critical-count CRIT_COUNT] [--filename FILENAME]
                [--only-dirs] [--only-files] [--password PASSWORD]
                [--pattern PATTERN] [--perfdata-mode {mean,median,None}]
                [--timeout TIMEOUT] [-u URL] [--username USERNAME] [-w WARN]
                [--warning-count WARN_COUNT]

Checks the time of last data modification for a file or directory, in seconds.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit
  --always-ok           Always returns OK.
  -c CRIT, --critical CRIT
                        Set the critical age threshold in seconds. Supports
                        ranges. Default: >= 31536000s (365d)
  --critical-count CRIT_COUNT
                        Set the critical threshold for the number of critical
                        matches found. Supports ranges. Default: > 0
  --filename FILENAME   File (or directory) name to check. Supports glob in
                        accordance with
                        https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/glob.html. Beware
                        of using recursive globs. This is mutually exclusive
                        with -u / --url.
  --only-dirs           Only consider directories.
  --only-files          Only consider files.
  --password PASSWORD   SMB: Password.
  --pattern PATTERN     SMB: The search string to match against the names of
                        SMB directories or files. This pattern can use '*' as
                        a wildcard for multiple chars and '?' as a wildcard
                        for a single char. Does not support regex patterns.
                        Default: *.
  --perfdata-mode {mean,median,None}
                        Set the performance data aggregation mode. Default:
                        None.
  --timeout TIMEOUT     Network timeout in seconds. Default: 3 (seconds)
  -u URL, --url URL     SMB: Set the url of the file (or directory) to check,
                        starting with "smb://". This is mutually exclusive
                        with --filename.
  --username USERNAME   SMB: Username.
  -w WARN, --warning WARN
                        Set the warning age threshold in seconds. Supports
                        ranges. Default: >= 2592000s (30d)
  --warning-count WARN_COUNT
                        Set the warning threshold for the number of critical
                        matches found. Supports ranges. Default: > 0

Usage Examples

# file is more than 5 seconds old -> warning
# file is more than 10 seconds old -> critical
./file-age --filename='/path/to/file' --warning=5 --critical=10

# same thresholds, but checking multiple files
./file-age --filename='/path/to/files/*' --warning=5 --critical=10

# same thresholds, but recursive (might use a lot of memory)
./file-age --filename='/path/to/files/**/*' --warning=5 --critical=10

# Check if an application creates at least 2 files every 10s, else throw a warning.
# If it is missing for more than 20s, throw a critical.
./file-age --filename='/path/to/files/*' --warning='15:' --warning-count='3:' --critical='20:' --critical-count='2:'

# Check if an application removes files fast enough.
# If there are more than 2 files in the last 10s, throw a warning.
# If there are more than 3 files in the last 15s, throw a critical.
# No files are ok.
./file-age --filename='/path/to/files/*' --warning='10:' --warning-count=2 --critical='15:' --critical-count=3

Output:

Everything is ok. 3 items checked, all within the specified count and time range.

* /tmp/test/file-1d-ago: 1D 56m
* /tmp/test/file-2d-ago: 2D 56m
* /tmp/test/file-today: 56m 11s

Everything is ok. 3 items checked. All within the specified count range, but 2 outside "1D" time range, and 0 outside "1Y" time range.

* /tmp/test/file-1d-ago: 1D 56m [WARNING]
* /tmp/test/file-2d-ago: 2D 56m [WARNING]
* /tmp/test/file-today: 56m 1s

1 item outside count range "0" and outside "@86400" time range. 2 items outside count range "0" and outside "0:86400" time range. 3 items checked.

* /tmp/test/file-1d-ago: 1D 55m [CRITICAL]
* /tmp/test/file-2d-ago: 2D 55m [CRITICAL]
* /tmp/test/file-today: 55m 47s [WARNING]

States

  • WARN or CRIT on provided ranges.

Perfdata / Metrics

The --perfdata-mode decides which aggregation mode is going to be used. The check won’t return any performance data for empty directories (even with the flag being set).

  • mean-ages: Seconds. The mean, also known as the average (the sum divided by the number of elements).

  • median-ages: Seconds. The median, the „middle“ element in a sorted list.

Credits, License