Check users

Overview

Counts how many users are currently logged in, both via tty (on Windows: Console) and pts (on Linux: typically ssh, on Windows: RDP). Also counts the disconnected users on Windows (closed connections without logging out).

Hints:

  • A tty is a native terminal device, the backend is either hardware or kernel emulated.

  • A pty (pseudo terminal device) is a terminal device which is emulated by applications such as network login services (ssh, rlogin, telnet), terminal emulators such as xterm, script, screen, tmux, unbuffer, and expect.

  • A pts is a pseudo terminal slave part of a pty.

  • If running on hardware, use --critical 1,20 (Linux) and --critical 1,50,3 (Windows).

Fact Sheet

Check Plugin Download

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

Check Interval Recommendation

Once a minute

Can be called without parameters

Yes

Compiled for

Linux, Windows

Requirements

w on Linux, query users on Windows

3rd Party Python modules

psutil

Help

usage: users [-h] [-V] [-c CRIT] [-w WARN]

Counts how many users are currently logged in, both via tty (on Windows:
Console) and pts (on Linux: typically ssh, on Windows: RDP). Also counts the
disconnected users on Windows (closed connections without logging out).

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit
  -c CRIT, --critical CRIT
                        Set the critical threshold for logged in tty/pts
                        users, in the format "3,10". On Windows, you can
                        additionally set it for disconnected users, in the
                        format "3,10,1". Default: [None, None, None]
  -w WARN, --warning WARN
                        Set the warning threshold for logged in tty/pts users,
                        in the format "1,5". On Windows, you can additionally
                        set it for disconnected users, in the format "1,5,10".
                        Default: [1, 20, 1]

Usage Examples

On Linux, one user is connected to the console:

./users --warning 1,20 --critical 1,20

Output:

TTY: 1 [WARNING], PTS: 0

USER     TTY        LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
markus.f :0         Mon06   ?xdm?  6:02m  0.03s /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session --run-script /usr/bin/gnome-session

On Windows, one user is connected via RDP:

./users --warning 1,20,1 --critical None,50,5

TTY: 0, PTS: 1, Disconnected: 0

USERNAME              SESSIONNAME        ID  STATE   IDLE TIME  LOGON TIME
administrator         rdp-tcp#11          1  Active          .  24.08.2022 17:42|'disc'=0;1;;0; 'tty'=0;1;;0; 'pts'=1;20;;0;

States

  • WARN or CRIT if number of users is above a given threshold.

Perfdata / Metrics

Name

Type

Description

tty

Number

Number of TTY users on Linux, Number of Console users on Windows.

pts

Number

Number of PTY users on Linux (for example ssh), Number of RDP users on Windows.

disc

Number

Number of disconnect users (on Windows only).

Credits, License