Service monitoring

[skullone]

I'm wondering how Hyperic does the service checks, for example SMTP or IMAP.
Many products simply open a TCP port to the respective server, if the port opens then it assumes the service is running.
However, in some instances, the service is running, and accepts an initial connection, but no data will pass.

For instance, telneting to port 25 will open a connection, but you will not receive any greeting, cannot perform a EHLO, or receive a 220 string when disconnecting.

Does Hyperic know to make those extended checks for SMTP, IMAP, etc...?

[jvalkeal_hyperi]

Checks are done on top of tcp socket. For smtp checks, hq is expecting first received line to start with string '220'. Similar you should be able to check this with telnetting to that port.

If your telnet session to your smtp doesn't 'respond' then there is something wrong with your telnet session. I think its part of the smtp specs that server first responds with 220 if it's ok.

Other checks are similar, hq knows how to talk with service.

[excowboy · Accepted solution]

Hi,

if you are interested in more details, have a look at the sourcecode of the netservices plugins:
http://svn.hyperic.org/projects/hq/trunk/plugins/netservices/src/org/hyperic/hq/plugin/netservices/

Cheers,
Mirko

[skullone]

Ah nice, I'm not well versed in Java, but I can follow the process flow and see what it's looking for.

Zabbix can only check to see if a port is open, not if the service actually responds. It's such a simple thing, but one I see Hyperic has already addressed

Thanks