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Small oddity - specifying max number of processes but no minimum.

4 messages in this thread

list Betsy Schwartz · Fri, 7 Sep 2012 14:31:48 -0400 ·
I have a process named "foo". It is ok if there are zero instances of
this process running, or one or more. I want to alert when there are
more than three instances.

If I put in analysis.cfg:

PROC  foo  -1 3 yellow

and there are no foo processes, the procs page shows:
          green foo (found 0, req. 1 or more)

Color is correct, message is inaccurate
Then if I have more than three I see:

yellow foo  (found 11, req. 1 or more)

So I think the test is correct but the message is confusing.

also it's not explicitly documented that you can use -1 to mean "no minimum"

(server and client are 4.3.7)
list Larry Barber · Fri, 7 Sep 2012 14:06:06 -0500 ·
I think -1 only works as the max value. For the minimum, zero is the more
natural number to use.

Thanks,
Larry Barber
quoted from Betsy Schwartz


On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 1:31 PM, Betsy Schwartz <user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid>wrote:
I have a process named "foo". It is ok if there are zero instances of
this process running, or one or more. I want to alert when there are
more than three instances.

If I put in analysis.cfg:

PROC  foo  -1 3 yellow

and there are no foo processes, the procs page shows:
          green foo (found 0, req. 1 or more)

Color is correct, message is inaccurate
Then if I have more than three I see:

yellow foo  (found 11, req. 1 or more)

So I think the test is correct but the message is confusing.

also it's not explicitly documented that you can use -1 to mean "no
minimum"

(server and client are 4.3.7)

list Betsy Schwartz · Fri, 7 Sep 2012 16:14:00 -0400 ·
Doesn't "0" mean that it should NOT be running, or is that only if the
minimum AND maximum are zero?
quoted from Larry Barber

On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 3:06 PM, Larry Barber <user-6ef9c2864140@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I think -1 only works as the max value. For the minimum, zero is the more
natural number to use.

Thanks,
Larry Barber


On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 1:31 PM, Betsy Schwartz <user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid>
quoted from Larry Barber
wrote:
I have a process named "foo". It is ok if there are zero instances of
this process running, or one or more. I want to alert when there are
more than three instances.

If I put in analysis.cfg:

PROC  foo  -1 3 yellow

and there are no foo processes, the procs page shows:
          green foo (found 0, req. 1 or more)

Color is correct, message is inaccurate
Then if I have more than three I see:

yellow foo  (found 11, req. 1 or more)

So I think the test is correct but the message is confusing.

also it's not explicitly documented that you can use -1 to mean "no
minimum"

(server and client are 4.3.7)
list Jeremy Laidman · Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:26:21 +1000 ·
quoted from Betsy Schwartz
On 8 September 2012 06:14, Betsy Schwartz <user-c61747246f66@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Doesn't "0" mean that it should NOT be running, or is that only if the
minimum AND maximum are zero?

The latter, or if min=0 and max=-1.

The min and max define the permitted range, and are inclusive (a value of
exactly the min or the max is permitted).

min max -> meaning, "display text"
0 -1 -> must have exactly 0 running, "found X, req. none"
1 -1 -> must have 1 or more running, "found X, req. 1 or more"
0 0 -> must have exactly 0 running (ie, not running), "found X, req. at
most 0"
0 1 -> must have zero or one instances, "found X, req. at most 1"
1 1 -> must have exactly 1 running, "found X, req. between 1 and 1"
0 3 -> must have no more than 3 running, but can have as few as zero,
"found X, req. at most 3"

As Larry said, -1 is only special when it is a maximum.

J