table of contents
- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- WHAT TO MONITOR?
- GENERAL OPERATION
- THE MONIT CONTROL FILE
- LOGGING
- DAEMON MODE
- INIT SUPPORT
- INCLUDE FILES
- MONIT HTTPD
- ALERT MESSAGES
- SERVICE METHODS
- SERVICE POLL TIME
- SERVICE GROUPS
- SERVICE MONITORING MODE
- SERVICE TIMEOUT
- SERVICE DEPENDENCIES
- SERVICE TESTS
- CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES
- FILES
- ENVIRONMENT
- SIGNALS
- NOTES
- COPYRIGHT
- SEE ALSO
other versions
- jessie 1:5.9-1+deb8u1
- jessie-backports 1:5.20.0-3~bpo8+1
- stretch 1:5.20.0-6
- testing 1:5.25.2-2
- unstable 1:5.25.2-3
MONIT(1) | User Commands | MONIT(1) |
NAME¶
Monit - utility for monitoring services on a Unix systemSYNOPSIS¶
monit [options] {arguments}DESCRIPTION¶
monit is a utility for managing and monitoring processes, programs, files, directories and filesystems on a Unix system. Monit conducts automatic maintenance and repair and can execute meaningful causal actions in error situations. E.g. Monit can start a process if it does not run, restart a process if it does not respond and stop a process if it uses too much resources. You can use Monit to monitor files, directories and filesystems for changes, such as timestamps changes, checksum changes or size changes. Monit is controlled via an easy to configure control file based on a free-format, token-oriented syntax. Monit logs to syslog or to its own log file and notifies you about error conditions via customizable alert messages. Monit can perform various TCP/IP network checks, protocol checks and can utilize SSL for such checks. Monit provides a http(s) interface and you may use a browser to access the Monit program.WHAT TO MONITOR?¶
You can use Monit to monitor daemon processes or similar programs running on localhost. Monit is particularly useful for monitoring daemon processes, such as those started at system boot time from /etc/init.d/. For instance sendmail, sshd, apache and mysql. In contrast to many other monitoring systems, Monit can act if an error situation should occur, e.g.; if sendmail is not running, monit can start sendmail again automatically or if apache is using too many resources (e.g. if a DoS attack is in progress) Monit can stop or restart apache and send you an alert message. Monit can also monitor process characteristics, such as how much memory or cpu cycles a process is using. You can also use Monit to monitor files, directories and filesystems on localhost. Monit can monitor these items for changes, such as timestamps changes, checksum changes or size changes. This is also useful for security reasons - you can monitor the md5 or sha1 checksum of files that should not change and get an alert or perform an action if they should change. Monit can monitor network connections to various servers, either on localhost or on remote hosts. TCP, UDP and Unix Domain Sockets are supported. Network test can be performed on a protocol level; Monit has built-in tests for the main Internet protocols, such as HTTP, SMTP etc. Even if a protocol is not supported you can still test the server because you can configure Monit to send any data and test the response from the server. Monit can be used to test programs or scripts at certain times, much like cron, but in addition, you can test the exit value of a program and perform an action or send an alert if the exit value indicate an error. This means that you can use Monit to perform any type of check you can write a script for. Finally, Monit can be used to monitor general system resources on localhost such as overall CPU usage, Memory and Load Average.GENERAL OPERATION¶
The behavior of Monit is controlled by command-line options and a run control file, monitrc, the syntax of which we describe in a later section. Command-line options override .monitrc declarations. The default location for monitrc is ~/.monitrc. If this file does not exist, Monit will try /etc/monitrc and a few other places. See FILES for details. You can also specify the control file directly by using the -c command-line switch to monit. For instance,$ monit -c /var/monit/monitrcBefore Monit is started the first time, you can test the control file for syntax errors:
$ monit -t $ Control file syntax OKIf there was an error, Monit will print an error message to the console, including the line number in the control file from where the error was found. Once you have a working Monit control file you can start Monit from the console, like so:
$ monitYou can change some configuration directives via command-line switches, but for simplicity it is recommended that you put these in the control file. If all goes well, Monit will now detach from the terminal and run as a background process, i.e. as a daemon process. As a daemon, Monit runs in cycles; It monitor services, then goes to sleep for a configured period, then wakes up and start monitoring again in an endless loop.
Options¶
The following options are recognized by Monit. However, it is recommended that you set options (when applicable) directly in the .monitrc control file. -c fileUse this control file -d n
Run Monit as a daemon once per n seconds. Or use "set
daemon" in monitrc. -g name
Set group name for start, stop, restart, monitor and
unmonitor action. -l logfile
Print log information to this file. Or use "set logfile"
in monitrc. -p pidfile
Use this lock file in daemon mode. Or use "set pidfile"
in monitrc. -s statefile
Write state information to this file. Or use "set
statefile" in monitrc. -I
Do not run in background (needed for run from init) -i
Print Monit's unique ID -r
Reset Monit's unique ID. Use with caution -t
Run syntax check for the control file -v
Verbose mode, work noisy (diagnostic output) -vv
Very verbose mode, same as -v plus log stack-trace on error -H [filename]
Print MD5 and SHA1 hashes of the file or of stdin if the
filename is omitted; Monit will exit afterwards -V
Print version number and patch level -h
Print a help text
Arguments¶
Once you have Monit running as a daemon process, you can call Monit with one of the following arguments. Monit will then connect to the Monit daemon (on TCP port 127.0.0.1:2812 by default) and ask the Monit daemon to perform the requested action. In other words; calling monit without arguments starts the Monit daemon, and calling monit with arguments enables you to communicate with the Monit daemon process.- start all
- Start all services listed in the control file and enable monitoring for them. If the group option is set ( -g), only start and enable monitoring of services in the named group ("all" is not required in this case).
- start name
- Start the named service and enable monitoring for it. The name is a service entry name from the monitrc file.
- stop all
- Stop all services listed in the control file and disable their monitoring. If the group option is set, only stop and disable monitoring of the services in the named group (all" is not required in this case).
- stop name
- Stop the named service and disable its monitoring. The name is a service entry name from the monitrc file.
- restart all
- Stop and start all services. If the group option is set, only restart the services in the named group ("all" is not required in this case).
- restart name
- Restart the named service. The name is a service entry name from the monitrc file.
- monitor all
- Enable monitoring of all services listed in the control file. If the group option is set, only start monitoring of services in the named group ("all" is not required in this case).
- monitor name
- Enable monitoring of the named service. The name is a service entry name from the monitrc file. Monit will also enable monitoring of all services this service depends on.
- unmonitor all
- Disable monitoring of all services listed in the control file. If the group option is set, only disable monitoring of services in the named group ("all" is not required in this case).
- unmonitor name
- Disable monitoring of the named service. The name is a service entry name from the monitrc file. Monit will also disable monitoring of all services that depends on this service.
- status
- Print status information of each service.
- summary
- Print a short status summary.
- reload
- Reinitialize a running Monit daemon, the daemon will reread its configuration, close and reopen log files.
- quit
- Kill the Monit daemon process
- validate
- Check all services listed in the control file. This action is also the default behavior when Monit runs in daemon mode.
- procmatch regex
- Allows for easy testing of pattern for process match check. The command takes regular expression as an argument and displays all running processes matching the pattern.
THE MONIT CONTROL FILE¶
Monit is configured and controlled via a control file called monitrc. The default location for this file is ~/.monitrc. If this file does not exist, Monit will try /etc/monitrc, then @sysconfdir@/monitrc and finally ./monitrc. The value of @sysconfdir@ is given at configure time as ./configure --sysconfdir. For instance, using ./configure --sysconfdir /var/monit/etc will make Monit search for monitrc in /var/monit/etc To protect the security of your control file and passwords the control file must have permissions no more than 0700 (u=xrw,g=,o=); Monit will complain and exit otherwise. When there is a conflict between the command-line arguments and the arguments in this file, the command-line arguments take precedence. Monit uses its own Domain Specific Language (DSL); The control file consists of a series of service entries and global option statements in a free-format, token-oriented syntax. Comments begin with a '#' and extend through the end of the line. Otherwise the file consists of a series of service entries or global option statements in a free-format, token-oriented syntax. You can use noise keywords like 'if', 'and', 'with(in)', 'has', 'us(ing|e)', 'on(ly)', 'then', 'for', 'of' anywhere in an entry to make it resemble English. They're ignored, but can make entries much easier to read at a glance. Keywords are case insensitive. There are three kinds of tokens: grammar, numbers (i.e. decimal digit sequences) and strings. Strings can be either quoted or unquoted. A quoted string is bounded by double quotes and may contain whitespace (and quoted digits are treated as a string). An unquoted string is any whitespace-delimited token, containing characters and/or numbers. On a semantic level, the control file consists of three types of entries:- 1. Global set-statements
- A global set-statement starts with the keyword set and the item to configure.
- 2. Global include-statement
- The include statement consists of the keyword include and a glob string.
- 2. One or more service entry statements.
- Each service entry consists of the keywords check, followed by the service type. Each entry requires a unique descriptive name, which may be freely chosen. This name is used by monit to refer to the service internally and in all interactions with the user.
- 1. CHECK PROCESS <unique name> <PIDFILE <path> | MATCHING <regex>>
- <path> is the absolute path to the program's pidfile. If the pidfile does not exist or does not contain the pid number of a running process, Monit will call the entry's start method if defined. <regex> is alternative process specification using pattern matching to process name (command line) from process table instead of pidfile. The first match is used so this form of check is useful for unique pattern matching - the pidfile should be used where possible as it defines expected pid exactly (pattern matching won't be useful for Apache in most cases or for processes which start child processes using fork/clone as the child will match the same pattern temporarily). The pattern can be obtained using monit procmatch ".*" CLI command which lists all processes visible to Monit or using the ps utility. The "procmatch" CLI command can be used to test your pattern as well. If Monit runs in passive mode or the start methods is not defined, Monit will just send alerts on errors.
- 2. CHECK FILE <unique name> PATH <path>
- <path> is the absolute path to the file. If the file does not exist or disappeared, Monit will call the entry's start method if defined, if <path> does not point to a regular file type (for instance a directory), Monit will disable monitoring of this entry. If Monit runs in passive mode or the start methods is not defined, Monit will just send alerts on errors.
- 3. CHECK FIFO <unique name> PATH <path>
- <path> is the absolute path to the fifo. If the fifo does not exist or disappeared, Monit will call the entry's start method if defined, if <path> does not point to a fifo type (for instance a directory), Monit will disable monitoring of this entry. If Monit runs in passive mode or the start methods is not defined, Monit will just send alerts on errors.
- 4. CHECK FILESYSTEM <unique name> PATH <path>
- <path> is the path to the filesystem block special device, mount point, file or a directory which is part of a filesystem. It is recommended to use a block special file directly (for example /dev/hda1 on Linux or /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 on Solaris, etc.) If you use a mount point (for example /data), be careful, because if the filesystem is unmounted the test will still be true because the mount point exist. If the filesystem becomes unavailable, Monit will call the entry's start method if defined. if <path> does not point to a filesystem, Monit will disable monitoring of this entry. If Monit runs in passive mode or the start methods is not defined, Monit will just send alerts on errors.
- 5. CHECK DIRECTORY <unique name> PATH <path>
- <path> is the absolute path to the directory. If the directory does not exist or disappeared, Monit will call the entry's start method if defined, if <path> does not point to a directory, monit will disable monitoring of this entry. If Monit runs in passive mode or the start methods is not defined, Monit will just send alerts on errors.
- 6. CHECK HOST <unique name> ADDRESS <host address>
- The host address can be specified as a hostname string or as an ip-address string on a dotted decimal format. Such as, tildeslash.com or "64.87.72.95".
- 7. CHECK SYSTEM <unique name>
- The system name is usually hostname, but any descriptive name can be used. You can use the variable $HOST as the name, which will expand to the hostname. This test allows one to check general system resources such as CPU usage (percent of time spent in user, system and wait), total memory usage or load average. The unique name is used as the system hostname in mail alerts and when M/Monit is configured, then also as initial name of the host entry in M/Monit.
- 8. CHECK PROGRAM <unique name> PATH <executable file> [TIMEOUT <number> SECONDS]
- <path> is the absolute path to the executable program or script. The status test allows one to check the program's exit status. If program will not finish within <number> seconds, Monit will terminate it. The default program timeout is 600 seconds (5 minutes). The output of the program is recorded (up to 1kB).
LOGGING¶
Monit will log status and error messages to a log file. Use the set logfile statement in the monitrc control file. To setup Monit to log to its own logfile, use e.g. set logfile /var/log/monit.log. If syslog is given as a value for the -l command-line switch (or the keyword set logfile syslog is found in the control file) Monit will use the syslog system daemon to log messages with a priority assigned to each message based on the context. To turn off logging, simply do not set the logfile in the control file (and of course, do not use the -l switch)DAEMON MODE¶
Useset daemon n (where n is a number in seconds)to specify Monit's poll cycle length and run Monit in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric argument which is a polling interval in seconds. In daemon mode, Monit detaches from the console, puts itself in the background and runs continuously, monitoring each specified service and then goes to sleep for the given poll interval, wakes up and start monitoring again in an endless cycle. Alternatively, you can use the -d command line switch to set the poll interval, but it is strongly recommended to set the poll interval in your ~/.monitrc file, by using set daemon. Monit will then always start in daemon mode. If you do not use this statement and do not start monit with the -d option, Monit will just run through the service checks once and then exit. This may be useful in some situations, but Monit is primarily designed to run as a daemon process. Calling monit with a Monit daemon running in the background sends a wake-up signal to the daemon, forcing it to check services immediately. Calling monit with the quit argument will kill a running Monit daemon process instead of waking it up.
INIT SUPPORT¶
The set init statement prevents Monit from transforming itself into a daemon process. Instead Monit will run as a foreground process. (You should still use set daemon to specify the poll cycle). This is required to run Monit from init. Using init to start Monit is probably the best way to run Monit if you want to be certain that you always have a running Monit daemon on your system. Another option is to run Monit from crontab. In any case, you should make sure that the control file does not have any syntax errors before you start Monit from init or crontab. To setup Monit to run from init, you can either use the set init statement in Monit's control file or use the -I option from the command line. Here is what you must add to /etc/inittab:# Run Monit in standard run-levels mo:2345:respawn:/usr/local/bin/monit -Ic /etc/monitrcAfter you have modified init's configuration file, you can run the following command to re-examine /etc/inittab and start Monit:
telinit qFor systems without telinit:
kill -1 1If Monit is used to monitor services that are also started at boot time (e.g. services started via SYSV init rc scripts or via inittab) then, in some cases, a race condition could occur. That is; if a service is slow to start, Monit can assume that the service is not running and possibly try to start it and raise an alert, while, in fact the service is already about to start or already in its startup sequence. Please see the FAQ for a solution to this problem.
INCLUDE FILES¶
The Monit control file, monitrc, can include additional configuration files. This feature helps one to maintain a certain structure or to place repeating settings into one file. Include statements can be placed at virtually any spot. The syntax is the following:include globstringThe globstring is any kind of string as defined in glob(7). Thus, you can refer to a single file or you can load several files at once. If you want to use whitespace in your string the globstring need to be embedded into quotes (') or double quotes ("). If the globstring matches a directory instead of a file, it is silently ignored. Any include statements in included files are parsed as in the main control file. If the globstring matches several results, the files are included in a non sorted manner. If you need to rely on a certain order, you might need to use single include statements. An example,
include /etc/monit.d/*.cfgThis will load any file matching the globstring. That is, all files in /etc/monit.d that ends with the prefix .cfg.
MONIT HTTPD¶
If specified in the control file, Monit will start a Monit daemon with http support. From a Browser you can then start and stop services, disable or enable service monitoring as well as view the status of each service. Also, if Monit logs to its own file, you can view the content of this logfile in a Browser. The status page displayed by the Monit web server is automatically refreshed with the same poll time set for the monit daemon. The Monit web interface is required for CLI interface operation, as all CLI commands (such as "monit status") are handled by the web interface. Syntax:- SET HTTPD PORT <number> ALLOW <user:password | IP-address | IP-range>+ [ADDRESS <hostname | IP-address>] [SSL <ENABLE | DISABLE>] [PEMFILE <path>] [CLIENTPEMFILE <path>] [ALLOWSELFCERTIFICATION] [SIGNATURE <ENABLE | DISABLE>]
set httpd port 2812 allow myuser:mypasswordAnd you can use http://localhost:2812/ to access the Monit web interface from a browser. PORT option sets the port where Monit should listen. Monit uses usually port 2812. ADDRESS option allows one to make Monit listen on specific interface only. For example if you don't want to expose Monit web interface on external network, bind it to localhost only. Monit will accept connections on any address by default (if ADDRESS option is missing). For example to limit the web interface to localhost only:
set httpd port 2812 use address 127.0.0.1 allow myuser:mypasswordSSL, PEMFILE allows one to enable SSL for Monit web interface. The pemfile holds both the server's private key and certificate. This file should be stored in a safe place on the filesystem and should have strict permissions, no more than 0700. Please see README.SSL file accompanying the software to get more information about certificates and generating pem files. For example:
set httpd port 2812 ssl enable pemfile /etc/certs/monit.pem allow myuser:mypasswordYou can use https://localhost:2812/ to access the Monit web server over a SSL encrypted connection. OpenSSL FIPS is supported, to enable FIPS mode (provided your OpenSSL library supports it), add this statement to Monit control file:
SET FIPSCLIENTPEMFILE, ALLOWSELFCERTIFICATION options allow to set client certificate based authentication. A connecting client has to provide a certificate known to Monit in order to connect. This file also needs to have all necessary CA certificates. By default self-signed client certificates are not allowed. If you want to use a self signed certificate from a client it has to be allowed explicitly with the ALLOWSELFCERTIFICATION statement. For example:
set httpd port 2812 ssl enable pemfile /etc/certs/monit.pem clientpemfile /etc/certs/monit-client.pemSIGNATURE option can be used to hide Monit version from the HTTP response header and error pages. For example:
set httpd port 2812 signature disable allow myuser:mypassword
Authentication¶
Monit web interface access is controlled primarily controlled via the ALLOW option. If the Monit command line interface is being used, at least one cleartext password is necessary (see bellow), otherwise the Monit command line interface will not be able to connect to the Monit web interface. Clients trying to connect to the server but supply the wrong username and/or password are logged with their ip-address. Client certificates See the CLIENTPEMFILE option above. Host and network allow list The http server maintains an access-control list of hosts and networks allowed to connect to the server. You can add as many hosts as you want to, but only hosts with a valid domain name or its IP address are allowed. Networks require a network IP and a netmask to be accepted. The http server will query a name server to check any hosts connecting to the server. If a host (client) is trying to connect to the server, but cannot be found in the access list or cannot be resolved, the server will shutdown the connection to the client promptly. Control file example:set httpd port 2812 allow localhost allow my.other.work.machine.com allow 10.1.1.1 allow 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 allow 10.0.0.0/8Clients, not mentioned in the allow list, trying to connect to the server are logged with their ip-address. Basic Authentication Monit supports Basic Authentication schema described in RFC 2617. In short; a server challenge a client (e.g. a Browser) to send authentication information (username and password) and if accepted, the server will allow the client access to the requested document. The biggest weakness with Basic Authentication is that the username and password is sent in clear-text (i.e. base64 encoded) over the network. It is therefor recommended that you do not use this authentication method unless you run the Monit http server with ssl support. With ssl support it is completely safe to use Basic Authentication since all http data, including Basic Authentication headers will be encrypted. Cleartext user and password Monit will use Basic Authentication if an allow statement contains a username and a password separated with a single ':' character. Special characters can be used but the password has to be quoted. Syntax:
ALLOW <username>:<password>PAM PAM is supported on platforms which provide PAM (such as Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD). Syntax:
ALLOW @<group>where group is the group name allowed to access Monit web interface. Monit uses PAM service called monit for PAM authentication, see PAM manual page for detailed instructions how to set the PAM service and PAM authentication plugins. Sample PAM service for Monit on Mac OS X (store as "/etc/pam.d/monit" file):
# monit: auth account password session auth sufficient pam_securityserver.so auth sufficient pam_unix.so auth required pam_deny.so account required pam_permit.soAnd monitrc setting which allows only group admin authenticated via PAM to access the web interface:
set httpd port 2812 allow @adminhtpasswd file Alternatively you can use files in "htpasswd" format (one user:passwd entry per line), like so: allow [cleartext|crypt|md5] /path [users]. By default cleartext passwords are read. In case the passwords are digested it is necessary to specify the cryptographic method. If you do not want all users in the password file to have access to Monit you can specify only those users that should have access, in the allow statement. Otherwise all users are added. Example1:
set httpd port 2812 allow hauk:password allow md5 /etc/httpd/htpasswd john paul ringo georgeIf you use this method together with a host list, then only clients from the listed hosts will be allowed to connect to the Monit http server and each client will be asked to provide a username and a password. Example2:
set httpd port 2812 allow localhost allow 10.1.1.1 allow hauk:"password"If you only want to use Basic Authentication, then just provide allow entries with username and password or password files as in example 1 above. Read-only users Finally it is possible to define some users as read-only. A read-only user can read the Monit web pages but will not get access to push-buttons and cannot change a service from the web interface.
set httpd port 2812 allow admin:password allow hauk:password read-only allow @admins allow @users read-onlyA user is set to read-only by using the read-only keyword after username:password. In the above example the user hauk is defined as a read-only user, while the admin user has all access rights.
ALERT MESSAGES¶
Monit will raise an event in the following situations:o A service does not exist (e.g. process is not running) o Cannot read service data (e.g. cannot get filesystem usage) o Execution of a service related script failed (e.g. start failed) o Invalid service type (e.g. if path points to directory instead of file) o Custom test script returned error o Ping test failed o TCP/UDP connection and/or port test failed o Resource usage test failed (e.g. cpu usage too high) o Checksum mismatch or change (e.g. file changed) o File size test failed (e.g. file too large) o Timestamp test failed (e.g. file is older then expected) o Permission test failed (e.g. file mode doesn't match) o An UID test failed (e.g. file owned by different user) o A GID test failed (e.g. file owned by different group) o A process' PID changed out of Monit's control o A process' PPID changed out of Monit control o Too many service recovery attempts failed o A file content test found a match o Filesystem flags changed o A service action was performed by administrator o Monit was started, stopped or reloadedTo get an alert via e-mail, set the alert target using global set alert statement (for all services) or using alert statement in the context of the service entry (for single service).
Setting an alert recipient¶
If an event occurred, Monit will send an alert. There are two kinds of alert statement: global and local. Global syntax:- SET ALERT mail-address [[NOT] {event, ...}] [REMINDER cycles]
set alert foo@barwill send a default email to the address foo@bar whenever any event occurred on any service. If you want to send alert messages to more email addresses, add a set alert 'email' statement for each address. It is also possible to use the local alert statement in the context of some service to enable alert for the given service only:
- ALERT mail-address [[NOT] {event, ...}] [REMINDER cycles]
check host myhost with address 1.2.3.4 if failed port 25 protocol http then alert if failed port 80 protocol http then alert alert foo@barYou can combine global and local alert statements. In the case of conflict, the local alert has precedence and overrides the global statement. Setting an event filter If you only want an alert message sent for certain events, then list them in the {event, ...} block, e.g.:
set alert foo@bar only on { timeout, nonexist }You can also set exclude list (negate the list) to send alerts for all events except those which are listed, by prepending the list with the word not. For example to receive all alerts except notification about Monit program start or stop:
set alert foo@bar but not on { instance }List of all possible event types (value from the first column can be used in the event filter:
Event: | Failure state: | Success state: --------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION | "Action done" | "Action done" CHECKSUM | "Checksum failed" | "Checksum succeeded" CONNECTION | "Connection failed" | "Connection succeeded" CONTENT | "Content failed", | "Content succeeded" DATA | "Data access error" | "Data access succeeded" EXEC | "Execution failed" | "Execution succeeded" FSFLAGS | "Filesystem flags failed" | "Filesystem flags succeeded" GID | "GID failed" | "GID succeeded" ICMP | "Ping failed" | "Ping succeeded" INSTANCE | "Monit instance changed" | "Monit instance changed not" INVALID | "Invalid type" | "Type succeeded" NONEXIST | "Does not exist" | "Exists" PERMISSION | "Permission failed" | "Permission succeeded" PID | "PID failed" | "PID succeeded" PPID | "PPID failed" | "PPID succeeded" RESOURCE | "Resource limit matched" | "Resource limit succeeded" SIZE | "Size failed" | "Size succeeded" STATUS | "Status failed" | "Status succeeded" TIMEOUT | "Timeout" | "Timeout recovery" TIMESTAMP | "Timestamp failed" | "Timestamp succeeded" UID | "UID failed" | "UID succeeded" UPTIME | "Uptime failed" | "Uptime succeeded"Each alert recipient can have its own filter, for example:
set alert foo@bar { nonexist, timeout, resource, icmp, connection } set alert security@bar on { checksum, permission, uid, gid } set alert admin@barSetting an error reminder Monit by default sends just one notification if a service failed and another notification when it recovered. If you want to be notified that the service is still failed, you can use the reminder option in the alert statement:
- SET ALERT mail-address [WITH] REMINDER [ON] number [CYCLES]
alert foo@bar with reminder on 10 cyclesLikewise if you want to be notified on each failed cycle, you can use:
alert foo@bar with reminder on 1 cycle
Disabling alerts for some service¶
To suppress alerts for some user and service, add the NOALERT statement in the context of the service which show not generate alerts:- NOALERT mail-address
set alert foo@bar check process p1 with pidfile /var/run/p1.pid check process p2 with pidfile /var/run/p2.pid check process p3 with pidfile /var/run/p3.pid noalert foo@bar
Message format¶
Monit provides a default message format. You can set custom message format using set mail-format statement:- SET MAIL-FORMAT {mail-format}
set mail-format { from: monit@foo.bar reply-to: support@domain.com subject: $SERVICE $EVENT at $DATE message: Monit $ACTION $SERVICE at $DATE on $HOST: $DESCRIPTION. Yours sincerely, monit }The from: option is the sender email address. The reply-to: option can be used to set the reply-to mail header. The subject: option allows one to set message subject and must be on only one line. The message: option sets the mail body. This option should always be the last in a mail-format statement. The mail body can be as long as needed, but must not contain the '}' character. You can set only the option which you want to override. For example to change sender address only:
set mail-format { from: bofh@foo.bar }The subject and body may contain $XYZ variables, which are expanded by Monit:
- •
- $EVENT
A string describing the event that occurred.
- •
- $SERVICE
The service name
- •
- $DATE
The current time and date (RFC 822 date style).
- •
- $HOST
The name of the host Monit is running on
- •
- $ACTION
The name of the action which was done by Monit.
- •
- $DESCRIPTION
The description of the error condition
Setting a mail server for alert delivery¶
The mail server Monit should use to send alert messages is defined with a set mailserver statement:SET MAILSERVER <hostname|ip-address [PORT number] [USERNAME string] [PASSWORD string] [using SSLAUTO|SSLV2|SSLV3|TLSV1|TLSV11|TLSV12] [CERTMD5 checksum]>, ... [with TIMEOUT X SECONDS] [using HOSTNAME hostname]Multiple mailservers can be set using a comma separated list. If Monit cannot connect to the first server, it will try the next in the list. The port statement allows one to override the default SMTP port (465 for SSL, or 25 for TLS and non secure connection). Monit supports AUTH PLAIN and AUTH LOGIN for SMTP authentication. You can set a username and a password using the USERNAME and PASSWORD options. You can enable SSL or TLS with optional certificate checksum. The default connection timeout is 5 seconds. You can rise this limit using the TIMEOUT option. Example (setting two mail servers for failover):
set mailserver mail1.foo.bar, mail2.foo.barBy default, Monit uses the local host name in SMTP HELO/EHLO and in the Message-ID header. You can override it using the HOSTNAME option.
Event queue¶
If no mail server is available, Monit can queue events on the local file-system for retry until mail server recovery. If Monit is configured with M/Monit, the event queue provides safe event store for M/Monit in the case of temporary problems as well. The event queue is persistent across Monit restarts and provided that the back-end filesystem is persistent too, across system restart as well. By default, the queue is disabled and if the alert handler fails, Monit will simply drop the alert message. To enable the event queue, add the following statement:SET EVENTQUEUE BASEDIR <path> [SLOTS <number>]The <path> is the path to the directory where events will be stored. Optionally if you want to limit the queue size, use the slots option to only store up to number event messages. Example:
set eventqueue basedir /var/monit slots 5000If you are running more then one Monit instance on the same machine, you must use separated event queue directories.
SERVICE METHODS¶
Each service can have start, stop and restart methods which allow Monit to perform corresponding action with the service. Syntax:- <START | STOP | RESTART> [PROGRAM] = "program" [[AS] UID <number | string>] [[AS] GID <number | string>] [[WITH] TIMEOUT <number> SECOND(S)]
stop = "/bin/bash -c 'kill -s SIGTERM `cat /var/run/myproc.pid`'"By default the program is executed as the user under which Monit is running. If Monit is running as root, you may optionally specify the UID and GID the executed program should switch to. Example:
check process mmonit with pidfile /usr/local/mmonit/mmonit/logs/mmonit.pid start program = "/usr/local/mmonit/bin/mmonit -d" as uid "mmonit" and gid "mmonit" stop program = "/usr/local/mmonit/bin/mmonit stop" as uid "mmonit" and gid "mmonit"In the case of process check, Monit waits up to 30 seconds for the start/stop action to finish by checking the process table. You can override the action timeout using the TIMEOUT option. Example:
check process foobar with pidfile /var/run/foobar.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/foobar start" with timeout 60 seconds stop program = "/etc/init.d/foobar stop"
SERVICE POLL TIME¶
Services are checked in regular intervals given by the set daemon n statement. Checks are performed in the same order as they are written in the .monitrc file, except if dependencies are setup between services, in which case the services hierarchy may alternate the order of the checks. It is possible to modify the check schedule using the every statement. There are three variants:- 1. custom interval based on poll cycle length multiple
-
EVERY [number] CYCLES
- 2. test schedule based on cron-style string
-
EVERY [cron]
- 3. do-not-test schedule based on cron-style string
-
NOT EVERY [cron]
Name: | Allowed values: | Special characters: --------------------------------------------------------------- Minutes | 0-59 | * - , Hours | 0-23 | * - , Day of month | 1-31 | * - , Month | 1-12 (1=jan, 12=dec) | * - , Day of week | 0-6 (0=sunday, 6=saturday) | * - ,The special characters:
Character: | Description: --------------------------------------------------------------- * (asterisk) | The asterisk indicates that the expression will | match for all values of the field; e.g., using | an asterisk in the 4th field (month) would | indicate every month. - (hyphen) | Hyphens are used to define ranges. For example, | 8-9 in the hour field indicate between 8AM and | 9AM. Note that range is from time1 until and | including time2. That is, from 8AM and until | 10AM unless minutes are set. Another example, | 1-5 in the weekday field, specify from monday to | friday (including friday). , (comma) | Comma are used to specify a sequence. For example | 17,18 in the day field indicate the 17th and 18th | day of the month. A sequence can also include | ranges. For example, using 1-5,0 in the weekday | field indicate monday to friday and sunday.Example 1: Check once per two cycles
check process nginx with pidfile /var/run/nginx.pid every 2 cyclesExample 2: Check every workday 8AM-7PM
check program checkOracleDatabase with path /var/monit/programs/checkoracle.pl every "* 8-19 * * 1-5"Example 3: Do not run the check in the backup window on Sunday 0AM-3AM
check process mysqld with pidfile /var/run/mysqld.pid not every "* 0-3 * * 0"Limitations: The current test scheduler is poll cycle based. When Monit starts testing and the service test is constraint with the every cron statement, it checks whether the current time match the cron-string pattern. If it does, the test is done, otherwise it is skipped. The cron specification thus does not guarantee when exactly the test will run - that depends on the default poll time and the length of the testing cycle. In other words, we cannot guarantee that Monit will run on a specific time. Therefor we strongly recommend to use an asterix in the minute field or at minimum a range, e..g. 0-15. Never use a specific minute as Monit may not run on that minute. We will address this limitation in a future release and convert the test scheduler from serial polling into a parallel non-blocking scheduler where checks are guaranteed to run on time and with seconds resolution.
SERVICE GROUPS¶
Service entries in the control file, monitrc, can be grouped together by the group statement. The syntax is simply (keyword in capital):GROUP groupnameWith this statement it is possible to group similar service entries together and manage them as a whole. Monit provides functions to start, stop, restart, monitor and unmonitor a group of services, like so: To start a group of services from the console:
monit -g <groupname> startTo stop a group of services:
monit -g <groupname> stopTo restart a group of services:
monit -g <groupname> restartNote: the status and summary commands don't support the -g option and will print the state of all services. Service can be added to multiple groups by adding group statement multiple times:
group www group filesystem
SERVICE MONITORING MODE¶
Monit supports three monitoring modes per service: active, passive and manual. See also the example section below for usage of the mode statement. In active mode, Monit will pro-actively monitor a service and in case of problems Monit will raise alerts and/or restart the service. Active mode is the default mode. In passive mode, Monit will passively monitor a service and will raise alerts, but will not try to fix a problem. In manual mode, Monit will enter active mode only if a service was started via Monit:monit start <servicename>Use "monit stop <servicename>" to stop the service and take it out of Monit control. The manual mode can be used to build simple cluster with active/passive HA-services. A service's monitoring state is persistent across Monit restart. If you use Monit in a HA-cluster you should place the state file in a temporary filesystem so if the machine which runs HA-services should crash and the stand-by machine take over its services, the HA-services won't be started after the crashed node will boot again:
set statefile /tmp/monit.state
SERVICE TIMEOUT¶
Monit provides a service timeout mechanism for situations where a service simply refuses to start or respond over a longer period. The timeout mechanism is based on number of service restarts and number of poll-cycles. For example, if a service had x restarts within y poll-cycles (where x <= y) then Monit will perform an action (for example unmonitor the service). If a timeout occurs, Monit will send an alert message if you have register interest for this event. The syntax for the timeout statement is as follows (keywords are in capital):- IF <number> RESTART <number> CYCLE(S) THEN <action>
if 2 restarts within 3 cycles then unmonitorTo have Monit check the service again after a monitoring was disabled, run 'monit monitor <servicename>' from the command line. Example for setting custom exec on timeout:
if 5 restarts within 5 cycles then exec "/foo/bar"Example for stopping the service:
if 7 restarts within 10 cycles then stop
SERVICE DEPENDENCIES¶
If specified in the control file, Monit can do dependency checking before start, stop, monitoring or unmonitoring of services. The dependency statement may be used within any service entries in the Monit control file. The syntax for the depend statement is simply:- DEPENDS on service[, service [,...]]
(1) check process apache (2) with pidfile "/usr/local/apache/logs/httpd.pid" (3) ... (4) depends on httpd (5) (6) check file httpd with path /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd (7) if failed checksum then unmonitorThe first entry is the process entry for apache shown before (abbreviated for clarity). The fourth line sets up a dependency between this entry and the service entry named httpd in line 6. A depend tree works as follows, if an action is conducted in a lower branch it will propagate upward in the tree and for every dependent entry execute the same action. In this case, if the checksum should fail in line 7 then an unmonitor action is executed and the apache binary is not checked anymore. But since the apache process entry depends on the httpd entry this entry will also execute the unmonitor action. In short, if the checksum test for the httpd binary file should fail, both the check file httpd entry and the check process apache entry is set in un-monitoring mode. A dependency tree is a general construct and can be used between all types of service entries and span many levels and propagate any supported action (except the exec action which will not propagate upward in a dependency tree for obvious reasons). Here is another different example. Consider the following common server setup:
WEB-SERVER -> APPLICATION-SERVER -> DATABASE -> FILESYSTEM (a) (b) (c) (d)You can set dependencies so that the web-server depends on the application server to run before the web-server starts and the application server depends on the database server and the database depends on the file-system to be mounted before it starts. See also the example section below for examples using the depend statement. Here we describe how Monit will function with the above dependencies:
- If no servers are running
- Monit will start the servers in the following order: d, c, b, a
- If all servers are running
- When you run 'Monit stop all' this is the stop order: a, b, c, d. If you run 'Monit stop d' then a, b and c are also stopped because they depend on d and finally d is stopped.
- If a does not run
- When Monit runs it will start a
- If b does not run
- When Monit runs it will first stop a then start b and finally start a again.
- If c does not run
- When Monit runs it will first stop a and b then start c and finally start b then a.
- If d does not run
- When Monit runs it will first stop a, b and c then start d and finally start c, b then a.
- If the control file contains a depend loop.
- A depend loop is for example; a->b and b->a or a->b->c->a. When Monit starts it will check for such loops and complain and exit if a loop was found. It will also exit with a complaint if a depend statement was used that does not point to a service in the control file.
SERVICE TESTS¶
GENERIC SYNTAX¶
Monit provides several tests you can use in a 'check' statement to test a service. You can test either for some expected value or range or take action if the value changed. General syntax for testing specific value or range:- IF <TEST> THEN ACTION [ELSE IF SUCCEEDED THEN ACTION]
- IF CHANGED <TEST> THEN ACTION
- •
- ALERT sends the user an alert event on each state change.
- •
- RESTART restarts the service and sends an alert. Restart is conducted by calling service's registered restart method or by first calling the stop method followed by start method if restart is not set.
- •
- START starts the service by calling the service's registered start method and sends an alert.
- •
- STOP stops the service by calling the service's registered stop method and sends an alert. If Monit stops a service it will not be checked by Monit anymore nor restarted again later. To reactivate monitoring of the service again you must explicitly enable monitoring from the web interface or from the console.
- •
- EXEC can be used to execute an arbitrary program and send an
alert. If you choose this action you must state the program to be executed
and if the program require arguments you must enclose the program and its
arguments in a quoted string. You may optionally specify the uid and gid
the executed program should switch to upon start. For instance:
exec "/usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh" as uid nobody and gid nobody
Remember, if Monit is run by the superuser, then all programs executed by Monit will be started with superuser privileges unless the uid and gid extension was used.
- •
- UNMONITOR will disable monitoring of the service and send an alert. The service will not be checked by Monit anymore nor restarted again later. To reactivate monitoring of the service you must explicitly enable monitoring from the web interface or from the console.
- ... [FOR] <X> CYCLES ...
- ... <X> [TIMES WITHIN] <Y> CYCLES ...
if failed port 80 for 10 cycles then alertThe second format is more advanced and allows one to tolerate intermitent issues, but still catch excessive problems, where the service is flapping between error and success states frequently. For example if every second cycle is failure (1-0-1-0-1-0-...), then "for 2 cycles" condition will never match, despite the service has serious problems. The following statement will catch such state:
if failed port 80 for 3 times within 5 cycles then alertExample which sets multiple error levels and actions:
check filesystem rootfs with path /dev/hda1 if space usage > 80% for 5 times within 15 cycles then alert if space usage > 90% for 5 cycles then exec '/try/to/free/the/space'
EXISTENCE TESTING¶
Monit's default action when services does not exist (for example a process is not running, a file doesn't exist, etc.) is to perform restart action. You can override the default action with following statement:- IF [DOES] NOT EXIST THEN action
check file with path /cifs/mydata if does not exist then exec "/usr/bin/mount_cifs.sh"
RESOURCE TESTING¶
Monit can examine how much system resources a service is using. This test can only be used within a system or process service entry in the Monit control file. Depending on system or process characteristics, services can be stopped or restarted and alerts can be generated. Thus it is possible to utilize systems which are idle and to spare system under high load. The full syntax for a resource-statement used for resource testing is as follows (keywords are in capital and optional statements in [brackets]),- IF resource operator value THEN action
if cpu is greater than 50% for 5 cycles then restart
FILE CHECKSUM TESTING¶
The checksum statement may only be used in a file service entry and allows one to check MD5 or SHA1 checksum. Check specific checksum:- IF FAILED [MD5|SHA1] CHECKSUM [EXPECT checksum] THEN action
- IF CHANGED [MD5|SHA1] CHECKSUM THEN action
if failed checksum expect 8f7f419955cefa0b33a2ba316cba3659 then alertYou can, for example, use the GNU utility md5sum(1) or sha1sum(1) to create a checksum string for a file and use this string in the expect-statement. Reloading a server if its configuration file was changed:
check file apache_conf with path /etc/apache/httpd.conf if changed checksum then exec "/usr/bin/apachectl graceful"action is a choice of "ALERT", "RESTART", "START", "STOP", "EXEC" or "UNMONITOR".
TIMESTAMP TESTING¶
The timestamp statement may only be used in a file, fifo or directory service entry. Specific timestamp syntax:- IF TIMESTAMP [[operator] value [unit]] THEN action
- IF CHANGED TIMESTAMP THEN action
check file apache_conf with path /etc/apache/httpd.conf if changed timestamp then exec "/usr/bin/apachectl graceful"For example testing directory for file addition or removal:
check directory mydir path /foo/directory if timestamp < 1 hour then alert
FILE SIZE TESTING¶
The size statement may only be used in a check file service entry. If specified in the control file, Monit will compute a size for a file. Testing specific size or range:- IF SIZE [[operator] value [unit]] THEN action
- IF CHANGED SIZE THEN action
check file mydb with path /data/mydatabase.db if size > 1 GB then alert
FILE CONTENT TESTING¶
The match statement allows one to incrementally test the content of a text file by using regular expressions. Syntax:- IF [NOT] MATCH {regex|path} THEN action
- IGNORE [NOT] MATCH {regex|path}
check file syslog with path /var/log/syslog ignore match "^monit" if match "^mrcoffee" then alert
FILESYSTEM FLAGS TESTING¶
Monit can test the flags of a filesystem for changes. This test is implicit and Monit will send alert in case of failure by default. This test is useful for detecting changes of the filesystem flags such as when the filesystem became read-only (on disk error) or mount flags were changed (such as nosuid). The syntax for the fsflags statement is:- IF CHANGED FSFLAGS THEN action
check filesystem rootfs with path / if changed fsflags then exec "/my/script"
SPACE TESTING¶
Monit can test filesystem space usage. This test may only be used in the context of a filesystem service type. Monit checks a total space usage, including reserved blocks. Syntax:- IF SPACE operator value unit THEN action
check filesystem rootfs with path / if space usage > 90% then alert
INODE TESTING¶
Monit can test filesystem inode usage. This test may only be used in the context of a filesystem service type. Syntax:- IF INODE(S) operator value [unit] THEN action
check filesystem rootfs with path / if inode usage > 90% then alert
PERMISSION TESTING¶
Monit can test the permissions of file objects. This test may only be used in the context of a file, fifo, directory or filesystem service types. Syntax:- IF FAILED PERM(ISSION) octalnumber THEN action
check file shadow with path /etc/shadow if failed permission 0640 then alert
UID TESTING¶
Monit can monitor the owner user id (uid) of a file, fifo, directory or owner and effective user of a process. Syntax:- IF FAILED [E]UID user THEN action
check file shadow with path /etc/shadow if failed uid root then alert
GID TESTING¶
Monit can monitor the owner group id (gid) of a file, fifo, directory or process. Syntax:- IF FAILED GID group THEN action
check file shadow with path /etc/shadow if failed gid shadow then alert
PID TESTING¶
Monit can test the process' PID. This test is implicit and Monit will send a alert in the case that the PID changed outside of Monit control. Syntax:- IF CHANGED PID THEN action
check process sshd with pidfile /var/run/sshd.pid if changed pid then alert
PPID TESTING¶
Monit can test the process' parent PID (PPID) for changes. This test is implicit and Monit will send alert in the case that the PPID changed outside of Monit control. The syntax for the ppid statement is:- IF CHANGED PPID THEN action
check process myproc with pidfile /var/run/myproc.pid if changed ppid then exec "/my/script"
PROCESS UPTIME TESTING¶
The uptime statement may only be used in a process service type context. Syntax:- IF UPTIME [[operator] value [unit]] THEN action
check process myapp with pidfile /var/run/myapp.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/myapp start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/myapp stop" if uptime > 3 days then restart
PROGRAM STATUS TESTING¶
You can check the exit status of a program or a script. This test may only be used within a check program service entry in the Monit control file. Syntax for testing specific exit value:- IF STATUS operator value THEN action
- IF CHANGED STATUS THEN action
check program myscript with path /usr/local/bin/myscript.sh with timeout 500 seconds if status != 0 then alertSample script for the above example (/usr/local/bin/myscript.sh):
#!/bin/bash echo test exit $?You can also send parameters with the program:
check program list-files with path "/bin/ls -lrt /tmp/" if status != 0 then alertArguments to the program or script is a sequence of whitespace separated strings. In the above example the strings '-lrt' and '/tmp/' are arguments to the program '/bin/ls'. If arguments are used, it is recommended to use quotes " to enclose the string, otherwise, if no arguments are used, quotes are not needed. Notes: If the program is a script, the interpreter is required in the first line. The program or script must also be executable. If Monit is run as the super user, you can optionally run the program as a different user and/or group. In this example we run the ls program as user www and as group staff:
check program ls with path "/bin/ls /tmp" as uid "www" and gid "staff" if status != 0 then alertMonit will execute the program periodically and if the exit status of the program does not match the expected result, Monit can perform an action. In the example above, Monit will raise an alert if the exit value is different from 0. By convention, 0 means the program exited normally. Program checks are asynchronous. Meaning that Monit will not wait for the program to exit, but instead, Monit will start the program in the background and immediately continue checking the next service entry in monitrc. At the next cycle, Monit will check if the program has finished and if so, collect the programs exit status - if the status indicate a failure, Monit will raise an alert message containing the program's error (stderr) output, if any. If the program has not exited after the first cycle, Monit will wait another cycle and so on. If the program is still running after 5 minutes, Monit will kill it and generate a program timeout event. It is possible to override the default timeout (see the syntax below). The asynchronous nature of the program check allows for non-blocking behavior in the current Monit design, but it comes with a side-effect: when the program has finished executing and is waiting for Monit to collect the result, it becomes a so-called "zombie" process. A zombie process does not consume any system resources (only the PID remains in use) and it is under Monit's control and the zombie process is removed from the system as soon as Monit collects the exit status. This means that every "check program" will be associated with either a running process or a temporary zombie. This unwanted zombie side-effect will be removed in a later release of Monit. Multiple status tests can be used, for example:
check program hwtest with path /usr/local/bin/hwtest.sh if status = 1 then alert if status = 3 for 5 cycles then exec "/usr/local/bin/emergency.sh"
NETWORK PING TEST¶
Monit can perform a network ping test by sending ICMP echo request datagram packets to a host and wait for the reply. This test can only be used within a check host statement. Monit must also run as the root user in order to be able to perform the ping test (because a ping test must use raw sockets which usually only the super user is allowed to do). Syntax:IF FAILED PING [COUNT number] [WITH] [TIMEOUT number SECONDS] THEN actionThe COUNT parameter specifies how many consecutive ping requests will be sent to the host in one cycle. If no reply arrive within TIMEOUT seconds, Monit reports an error. If at least one reply was received, the ping test is considered a success. Monit will, by default, send three ping request packets in one cycle to prevent false alarm (i.e. up to 66% packet loss is tolerated). You can set the COUNT option to a value between 1 and 20 to send more or less packets. If you require 100% ping success, set the count to 1 (i.e. just one request will be sent, and if the packet was lost an error will be reported). Note that many ISPs have started to filter out ping or ICMP packets now, in which case there will be no reply from the host. If a ping test is used in a check host entry, this test is run first and if the ping test should fail, we assume that the connection to the host is down and Monit does not continue to test any ports. Example:
check host mmonit.com with address mmonit.com if failed ping then alertor with all parameters; Send 5 pings to mmonit.com and wait for up to 10 seconds for a reply
check host mmonit.com with address mmonit.com if failed ping count 5 with timeout 10 seconds then alert
CONNECTION TESTING¶
Monit can perform connection testing via network ports or via Unix sockets. A connection test may only be used within a process or host service type context. If a service listens on one or more sockets, Monit can connect to the port (using TCP or UDP) and verify that the service will accept a connection and that it is possible to write and read from the socket. If a connection is not accepted or if there is a problem with socket I/O, Monit will execute a specified action. TCP/UDP port test syntax:- IF FAILED [host] <port> [type] [protocol | {send/expect}+] [timeout] [retry] THEN action
- IF FAILED <unixsocket> [type] [protocol | {send/expect}+] [timeout] [retry] THEN action
if failed port 80 then alert if failed port 53 type udp protocol dns then alert if failed unixsocket /var/run/sophie then alertOptions: host: HOST hostname. Optionally specify the host to connect to. If the host is not given then localhost is assumed if this test is used inside a process entry. If this test was used inside a remote host entry then the entry's remote host is assumed. port: PORT number. The port number to connect to unixsocket: UNIXSOCKET path. Specifies the path to a Unix socket (local machine only). type: TYPE {TCP|UDP|TCPSSL}. Optionally specify the socket type Monit should use when trying to connect to the port. The different socket types are; TCP, UDP or TCPSSL, where TCP is a regular stream based socket, UDP is a datagram socket and TCPSSL specifies that Monit should use a TCP socket with SSL when connecting to a port. The default socket type is TCP. If TCPSSL is used you may optionally specify the SSL/TLS protocol to be used and the MD5 checksum of the server's certificate. The TCPSSL options are:
TCPSSL [SSLAUTO|SSLV2|SSLV3|TLSV1|TLSV11|TLSV12] [CERTMD5 md5sum]protocol: PROTO(COL) protocol. Optionally specify the protocol Monit should speak when a connection is established. At the moment Monit knows how to speak:
APACHE-STATUS
DNS
DWP
FTP
GPS
HTTP
IMAP
CLAMAV
LDAP2
LDAP3
LMTP
MEMCACHE
MYSQL
NNTP
NTP3
PGSQL
POP
POSTFIX-POLICY
RADIUS
RDATE
RSYNC
SIP
SMTP
SSH
TNS
WEBSOCKET If the target server's protocol is not found in this list, simply do not specify the protocol and Monit will use a default connection test. timeout: [WITH] TIMEOUT number SECONDS. Optionally specifies the connect and read timeout for the connection. If Monit cannot connect to the server within this time it will assume that the connection failed and execute the specified action. The default connect timeout is 5 seconds. retry: RETRY number. Optionally specifies the number of consecutive retries within the same testing cycle in the case that the connection failed. The default is fail on first error. action is a choice of "ALERT", "RESTART", "START", "STOP", "EXEC" or "UNMONITOR". Specific protocol test options GENERIC (SEND/EXPECT) If Monit does not support the protocol spoken by the server, you can write your own protocol-test using send and expect strings. The SEND statement sends a string to the server port and the EXPECT statement compares a string read from the server with the string given in the expect statement. Syntax:
[{SEND|EXPECT} "string"]+Monit will send a string as it is, and you must remember to include CR and LF in the string sent to the server if the protocol expects such characters to terminate a string (most text based protocols used over Internet do). Monit will by default read up to 255 bytes from the server and use this string when comparing the EXPECT string. You can override the default value by using this statement at the top of the Monit configuration file:
SET EXPECTBUFFER <number> ["b"|"kb"]Max value for the expect buffer is 100 kb. For example, to set the expect buffer to read 10 kilobytes: set expectbuffer 10 kb You can use non-printable characters in a SEND string if needed. Use the hex notation, \0xHEXHEX to send any char in the range \0x00-\0xFF, that is, 0-255 in decimal. For example, to test a Quake 3 server:
send "\0xFF\0xFF\0xFF\0xFFgetstatus" expect "sv_floodProtect|sv_maxPing"If your system supports POSIX regular expressions, you can use regular expressions in the EXPECT string, see regex(7) to learn more about the types of regular expressions you can use in an expect string. Since both regex and string compare operates on a zero terminated string, you cannot test for '\0' in an EXPECT buffer since this character marks the end of the buffer. However, we escape '\0' in the expect buffer as "\0" which you can test for. That is, '\' followed by the ascii value for 0. For instance, here is how to test for an expect string that starts with zero followed by any number of characters.
expect "^[\\]0.*"Here is a simple SMTP protocol example:
if failed port 25 and expect "^220.*" send "HELO localhost.localdomain\r\n" expect "^250.*" send "QUIT\r\n" then alertSEND/EXPECT can be used with any socket type, such as TCP sockets, UNIX sockets and UDP sockets. HTTP Syntax:
PROTO(COL) HTTP [REQUEST "string"] [STATUS operator number] [CHECKSUM checksum] [HTTP HEADERS list of headers] [CONTENT {= | != } STRING]REQUEST option can set an URI string specifying a document on the HTTP server. If the request statement isn't specified, the default "/" page will be requested. For example:
if failed port 80 protocol http request "/data/show?a=b&c=d" then restartSTATUS option can be used to explicitly test the HTTP status code returned by the HTTP server. If not used, the http protocol test will fail if the status code returned is greater than or equal to 400. You can override this behaviour by using the status qualifier. For example to test that a page does not exist (404 should be returned in this case):
if failed port 80 protocol http request "/non/existent.php" status = 404 then alertCHECKSUM You can test the checksum for documents returned by a HTTP server. Either MD5 or SHA1 hash can be used. Monit will not test the checksum for a document if the server does not set the HTTP Content-Length header. A HTTP server should set this header when it server a static document (i.e. a file). There are no limitation on the document size, but keep in mind that Monit will use time to download the document over the network. Example:
if failed port 80 protocol http request "/page.html" checksum 8f7f419955cefa0b33a2ba316cba3659 then alertHTTP HEADERS can be used to send a list of any HTTP headers with a http protocol test. For instance, the host header. If the host header is not set, Monit will use the hostname or IP-address of the host as specified in the check host statement. Specifying a host header is useful if you want to connect to and test a name-based virtual host. The syntax for setting HTTP headers is
http headers [name:value, name:value,..]where each name:value pair is separated with ','. If you need to use ':' in the value string, for instance to set port number for a host header, you must enclose the value in quotes. For example,
http headers [Host: "mmonit.com:443"]In a check host context, using this statement might look like
check host mmonit.com with address mmonit.com if failed port 80 protocol http with http headers [Host: mmonit.com, Cache-Control: no-cache, Cookie: csrftoken=nj1bI3CnMCaiNv4beqo8ZaCfAQQvpgLH] and request /monit/ with content = "Monit [0-9.]+" then alertSetting http headers is associated with the http protocol test and must come before request as in the example above. CONTENT option sets the pattern which is expected in the data returned by the server. If the pattern doesn't match, event is triggered. For example:
if failed port 80 protocol http content = "foobar [0-9.]+" then alertAPACHE-STATUS The APACHE-STATUS test allows one to check server performance by examination of the status page generated by Apache's mod_status, which is expected to be at its default address of http://www.example.com/server-status. Syntax:
PROTOCOL APACHE-STATUS <limit operator number>+limit is acronym for child status:
o logging (loglimit)
o closing connections (closelimit)
o performing DNS lookups (dnslimit)
o in keepalive with a client (keepalivelimit)
o replying to a client (replylimit)
o receiving a request (requestlimit)
o initialising (startlimit)
o waiting for incoming connections (waitlimit)
o gracefully closing down (gracefullimit)
o performing cleanup procedures (cleanuplimit) operator is one of "<", "=", ">". number is percentual numeric limit. Each of these limits can be compared against a value relative to the total number of active Apache child processes. You can combine all of these tests into one expression or you can choose to test a certain limit only. If you combine the limits you must connect them together using the OR keyword. Example:
if failed port 80 protocol apache-status loglimit > 10% or dnslimit > 50% or waitlimit < 20% then alertSIP The SIP protocol is used by communication platform servers such as Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. Syntax:
PROTOCOL SIP [TARGET valid@uri] [MAXFORWARD n]TARGET you may specify an alternative recipient for the message, by adding a valid sip uri after this keyword. MAXFORWARD Limit the number of proxies or gateways that can forward the request to the next server. It's value is an integer in the range 0-255, set by default to 70. If max-forward = 0, the next server may respond 200 OK (test succeeded) or send a 483 Too Many Hops (test failed) For example:
check host openser_all with address 127.0.0.1 if failed port 5060 type udp protocol sip with target "localhost:5060" and maxforward 6 then alertRADIUS Syntax:
PROTOCOL RADIUS [SECRET string]SECRET you may specify an alternative secret, default is "testing123". For example:
check process radiusd with pidfile /var/run/radiusd.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/freeradius start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/freeradius stop" if failed host 127.0.0.1 port 1812 type udp protocol radius secret testing123 then alertWEBSOCKET Syntax:
PROTOCOL WEBSOCKET [REQUEST string] [HOST string] [ORIGIN string] [VERSION number]HOST you may specify an alternative Host header REQUEST you may specify an alternative request, default is "/" ORIGIN you may specify an alternative origin, default is "http://www.mmonit.com" VERSION you may specify an alternative version, default is "0" For example:
check host websocket.org with address "echo.websocket.org" if failed port 80 protocol websocket host "echo.websocket.org" request "/" origin 'http://websocket.com' version 13 then alert
CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES¶
The simplest form is just the check statement. In this example we check to see if the server is running and log a message if not:check process nginx with pidfile /var/run/nginx.pidChecking process without pidfile (based on pattern):
check process pager matching "/sbin/dynamic_pager -F /private/var/vm/swapfile"To have Monit start the server if it's not running, add a start statement:
check process nginx with pidfile /var/run/nginx.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/nginx start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/nginx stop"Here's a more advanced example for monitoring an apache web-server listening on the default port number for HTTP and HTTPS. In this example Monit will restart apache if it's not accepting connections at the port numbers. The method Monit use for a process restart is to first execute the stop-program, wait up to 30s for the process to stop and then execute the start-program and wait up to 30s for it to start. The length of start or stop timeout can be overridden using the 'timeout' option. If Monit was unable to stop or start the service a failed alert message will be sent if you have requested alert messages to be sent.
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/httpd start" with timeout 60 seconds stop program = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if failed port 80 then restart if failed port 443 with timeout 15 seconds then restartThis example demonstrate how you can run a program as a specified user (uid) and with a specified group (gid). Many daemon programs will do the uid and gid switch by them self, but for those programs that does not (e.g. Java programs), monit's ability to start a program as a certain user can be very useful. In this example we start the Tomcat Java Servlet Engine as the standard nobody user and group. Please note that Monit will only switch uid and gid for a program if the super-user is running monit, otherwise Monit will simply ignore the request to change uid and gid.
check process tomcat with pidfile /var/run/tomcat.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/tomcat start" as uid nobody and gid nobody stop program = "/etc/init.d/tomcat stop" # You can also use id numbers instead and write: as uid 99 and with gid 99 if failed port 8080 then alertIn this example we use udp for connection testing to check if the name-server is running and also use timeout:
check process named with pidfile /var/run/named.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/named start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/named stop" if failed port 53 use type udp protocol dns then restart if 3 restarts within 5 cycles then timeoutThe following example illustrates how to check if the service 'sophie' is answering connections on its Unix domain socket:
check process sophie with pidfile /var/run/sophie.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/sophie start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/sophie stop" if failed unix /var/run/sophie then restartIn this example we check an apache web-server running on localhost that answers for several IP-based virtual hosts or vhosts, hence the host statement before port:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if failed host www.sol.no port 80 then alert if failed host shop.sol.no port 443 then alert if failed host chat.sol.no port 80 then alert if failed host www.tildeslash.com port 80 then alertTo make sure that Monit is communicating with a http server a protocol test can be added:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if failed host www.sol.no port 80 protocol http then alertThis example shows a different way to check a webserver using the send/expect mechanism:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if failed host www.sol.no port 80 and send "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.sol.no\r\n\r\n" expect "HTTP/[0-9\.]{3} 200.*" then alertHere we use an icmp ping test to check if a remote host is up and if not send an alert:
check host www.tildeslash.com with address www.tildeslash.com if failed ping then alertIn the following example we ask Monit to compute and verify the checksum for the underlying apache binary used by the start and stop programs. If the the checksum test should fail, monitoring will be disabled to prevent possibly starting a compromised binary:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if failed host www.tildeslash.com port 80 then restart depends on apache_bin check file apache_bin with path /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd if failed checksum then unmonitorIn this example we ask Monit to test the checksum for a document on a remote server. If the checksum was changed we send an alert:
check host tildeslash with address www.tildeslash.com if failed port 80 protocol http and request "/monit/dist/monit-5.7.tar.gz" with checksum f9d26b8393736b5dfad837bb13780786 then alertHere are a couple of tests for some popular communication servers, using the SIP protocol. First we test a FreeSWITCH server and then an Asterisk server
check process freeswitch with pidfile /usr/local/freeswitch/log/freeswitch.pid start program = "/usr/local/freeswitch/bin/freeswitch -nc -hp" stop program = "/usr/local/freeswitch/bin/freeswitch -stop" if total memory > 1000.0 MB for 5 cycles then alert if total memory > 1500.0 MB for 5 cycles then alert if total memory > 2000.0 MB for 5 cycles then restart if cpu > 60% for 5 cycles then alert if failed port 5060 type udp protocol SIP target me@foo.bar and maxforward 10 then restart check process asterisk with pidfile /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.pid start program = "/usr/sbin/asterisk" stop program = "/usr/sbin/asterisk -r -x 'shutdown now'" if total memory > 1000.0 MB for 5 cycles then alert if total memory > 1500.0 MB for 5 cycles then alert if total memory > 2000.0 MB for 5 cycles then restart if cpu > 60% for 5 cycles then alert if failed port 5060 type udp protocol SIP and target me@foo.bar maxforward 10 then restartSome servers are slow starters, like for example Java based Application Servers. So if we want to keep the poll-cycle low (i.e. < 60 seconds) but allow some services to take its time to start, the every statement is handy:
check process dynamo with pidfile /etc/dynamo.pid every 2 cycles start program = "/etc/init.d/dynamo start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/dynamo stop" if failed port 8840 then alertHere is an example where we group together two database entries so you can manage them together, e.g.; 'Monit -g database start all'. The mode statement is also illustrated in the first entry and have the effect that Monit will not try to (re)start this service if it is not running:
check process sybase with pidfile /var/run/sybase.pid start = "/etc/init.d/sybase start" stop = "/etc/init.d/sybase stop" mode passive group database check process oracle with pidfile /var/run/oracle.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/oracle start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/oracle stop" mode active # Not necessary really, since it's the default if failed port 9001 protocol tns then restart group databaseHere is an example to show the usage of the resource checks. It will send an alert when the CPU usage of the http daemon and its child processes raises beyond 60% for over two cycles. Apache is restarted if the CPU usage is over 80% for five cycles or the memory usage over 100Mb for five cycles or if the machines load average is more than 10 for 8 cycles:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start program = "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop program = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" if cpu > 40% for 2 cycles then alert if total cpu > 60% for 2 cycles then alert if total cpu > 80% for 5 cycles then restart if mem > 100 MB for 5 cycles then stop if loadavg(5min) greater than 10.0 for 8 cycles then stopThis examples demonstrate the timestamp statement with exec and how you may restart apache if its configuration file was changed.
check file httpd.conf with path /etc/httpd/httpd.conf if changed timestamp then exec "/etc/init.d/httpd graceful"In this example we demonstrate usage of the extended alert statement and a file check dependency:
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start = "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" alert admin@bar on {nonexist, timeout} with mail-format { from: bofh@$HOST subject: apache $EVENT - $ACTION message: This event occurred on $HOST at $DATE. Your faithful employee, monit } if failed host www.tildeslash.com port 80 then restart if 3 restarts within 5 cycles then timeout depend httpd_bin group apache check file httpd_bin with path /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd alert security@bar on {checksum, timestamp, permission, uid, gid} with mail-format {subject: Alaaarrm! on $HOST} if failed checksum and expect 8f7f419955cefa0b33a2ba316cba3659 then unmonitor if failed permission 755 then unmonitor if failed uid root then unmonitor if failed gid root then unmonitor if changed timestamp then alert group apacheIn this example, we demonstrate usage of the depend statement. In this case, we want to start oracle and apache. However, we've set up apache to use oracle as a back end, and if oracle is restarted, apache must be restarted as well.
check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid start = "/etc/init.d/httpd start" stop = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop" depends on oracle check process oracle with pidfile /var/run/oracle.pid start = "/etc/init.d/oracle start" stop = "/etc/init.d/oracle stop" if failed port 9001 for 5 cycles then restartNext, we have 2 services, oracle-import and oracle-export that need to be restarted if oracle is restarted, but are independent of each other.
check process oracle with pidfile /var/run/oracle.pid start = "/etc/init.d/oracle start" stop = "/etc/init.d/oracle stop" if failed port 9001 for 3 cycles then restart check process oracle-import with pidfile /var/run/oracle-import.pid start = "/etc/init.d/oracle-import start" stop = "/etc/init.d/oracle-import stop" depends on oracle check process oracle-export with pidfile /var/run/oracle-export.pid start = "/etc/init.d/oracle-export start" stop = "/etc/init.d/oracle-export stop" depends on oracle
FILES¶
~/.monitrcDefault run control file /etc/monitrc
If the control file is not found in the default
location and /etc contains a monitrc file, this
file will be used instead. ./monitrc
If the control file is not found in either of the
previous two locations, and the current working
directory contains a monitrc file, this file is
used instead. ~/.monit.pid
Lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (non-root
mode). /run/monit.pid
Lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (root mode,
Linux systems, if /run directory is available). /var/run/monit.pid
Lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (root mode,
Linux systems). /etc/monit.pid
Lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (root mode,
systems without /var/run). ~/.monit.state
Monit saves its state to this file and utilizes
information found in this file to recover from
a crash. This is a binary file and its content is
only of interest to monit. You may set the location
of this file in the Monit control file or by using
the -s switch when Monit is started. ~/.monit.id
Monit save its unique id to this file.
ENVIRONMENT¶
No environment variables are used by Monit. However, when Monit execute a script or a program Monit will set several environment variables which can be utilized by the executable. The following and only the following environment variables are available:- MONIT_EVENT
- The event that occurred on the service
- MONIT_DESCRIPTION
- A description of the error condition
- MONIT_SERVICE
- The name of the service (from monitrc) on which the event occurred.
- MONIT_DATE
- The time and date (RFC 822 style) the event occurred
- MONIT_HOST
- The host the event occurred on
- MONIT_PROCESS_PID
- The process pid. This may be 0 if the process was (re)started,
- MONIT_PROCESS_MEMORY
- Process memory. This may be 0 if the process was (re)started,
- MONIT_PROCESS_CHILDREN
- Process children. This may be 0 if the process was (re)started,
- MONIT_PROCESS_CPU_PERCENT
- Process cpu%. This may be 0 if the process was (re)started,
SIGNALS¶
If a Monit daemon is running, SIGUSR1 wakes it up from its sleep phase and forces a poll of all services. SIGTERM and SIGINT will gracefully terminate a Monit daemon. The SIGTERM signal is sent to a Monit daemon if Monit is started with the quit action argument. Sending a SIGHUP signal to a running Monit daemon will force the daemon to reinitialize itself, specifically it will reread configuration, close and reopen log files. Running Monit in foreground while a background Monit daemon is running will wake up the daemon.NOTES¶
This is a very silent program. Use the -v switch if you want to see what Monit is doing, and tail -f the logfile. Optionally for testing purposes; you can start Monit with the -Iv switch. Monit will then print debug information to the console, to stop monit in this mode, simply press CTRL^C (i.e. SIGINT) in the same console. The syntax (and parser) of the control file was inspired by Eric S. Raymond et al. excellent fetchmail program. Some portions of this man page also receive inspiration from the same authors.COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (C) 2001-2014 by Tildeslash Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This product is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT any warranty; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS for a particular purpose.SEE ALSO¶
GNU text utilities; md5sum(1); sha1sum(1); openssl(1); glob(7); regex(7); http://www.mmonit.com/www.mmonit.com | September 23. 2014 |