Hello google bot!

Just a quick heads up that the first draft of the migration guide as well as the concepts guide is now live!

• doc/about/0.4.x
• doc/migrate
• doc/migrate/0.4.0

Now I am off to make some last minute changes before releasing RC1!

Michael Medin

I have started to write documentation for the 0.4.x version. Currently we have the following documents:

• doc/configuration/0.4.x
• doc/usage/0.4.x
• doc/usage/0.4.x/client
• doc/usage/0.4.x/settings
• doc/usage/0.4.x/service
• doc/usage/0.4.x/test

Next up is a migration guide as well as a concept document. RC1 is still scheduled for this weekend so please help out next week to do some testing!

Note that all documents are "first draft" so it is a bit all over the place currently :P

Michael Medin

Well, I sort of promised to release rc1 of 0.4.0 on which has now become last year. This was in fact almost about to happen but unfortunately I grew ill shortly after xmas (nothing serious really). But this has keep me away from the computer for about 2 weeks now meaning I am slightly behind. And what is worse I missed the golden "holiday opportunity" to do some serious documentation.

Now it is not too bad I finished the NRPE unit test last night and hopefully I will get some spare time during night this week to document the initial usage of 0.4.0 so with luck next week we will in fact see the first RC of 0.4.0!

Michael Medin

First RC of the up-coming 0.3.9 is out now!

Main highlights are:

• Overhauls of all disk related checks.
• Introduce a brand new (CheckEventLog inspired) CheckFiles (notice the plural s) commands (CheckFile2 is now deprecated and CheckFile has been removed)
• Volume support (for real this time)
• A lot of "out of the box" aliases to get people started
• NSCA bug fixes
• Brand new (CheckEventLog inspired and documented) Scheduled task checks wich includes "windows vista" support.
• Crash Handling (same as Google and Mozilla has in their browsers)
• Many bug fixes and other things

The details are found (as always) in the change log:

2011-04-01 MickeM
 * Fixed (finally!!) the NSCA issue with multiple commands and missing "data"

2011-03-24 MickeM
 * Added check_updates.vbs script
 * Added a lot of useful(?) aliases

2011-03-22 MickeM
 * Added magic modifier (shamelessly stolen from check_mk) to CheckDriveSize

2011-03-17 MickeM
 * Added proper volume support to CheckDriveSize

2011-03-15 MickeM
 * Added suport for delayed start to service check (default ignored)
 * Added new option to CheckDriveSize ignore-unreadable which will ignore checking any unreadable disk drive.

2011-02-16 MickeM
 * Added new module CheckTaskSched2 which is the same as CheckTaskSched but designed for Vista and beyond.
   So if you want to check "new tasks" on modern Windows use this module instead of the CheckTaskSched mosule.
   They are exactly the same excep using different APIs (and somewhat different options)
   The CheckTaskSched2 is somewhat limited as the only supported keys are: title, exit_code, status, most_recent_run_time

2011-02-10 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with where filters and & operator
 * Added exact bounds to CheckTaskSched
 * Added conversion of status from string
 * Fixed time handling in CheckTaskSched to be "UTC" (hence the %most_recent_run_time% syntax string is also UTC)
 
2011-02-01 MickeM
 ! BREAKING CHANGE!
 * Removed deprecated command CheckFile
 * Deprecated command CheckFile2
 * Added new command CheckFiles which replaces CheckFile2 and CheckFile
   Command has the new where filter syntax like so:
   CheckFiles path=D:\tmp pattern=*.exe "filter=version != 1.0" "syntax=%filename%: %version%" MaxWarn=1
 * Replaced undocumented CheckTaskSched with a new where filter based command.
   CheckTaskSched debug "filter=exit_code != 0" "syntax=%title%: %exit_code%"

2010-12-26 MickeM
 * Improved crash reporter to support BOTH archive and send.
 * Improved crash reporter to archive under APPDATA (Local Settings/NSClient++/crash dumps)
 * Started on the new CheckNSCP (internal health plugin)
 * Added a "text description" file to crash dump folder to see which version crashed and what not.
 * General improvments to the crash helper.
 * Added check_nscp which is a basic command to check the internal health of NSClient++
 * Added check_files (script) submitted by 

2010-12-25 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with performance coutners and erroneouse pointers in some rare cases.
   (Thank you google breakpad)
 * Added date to crash reports (to make it simpler to find correct symbols)
 
2010-12-14 MickeM
 * CheckEventLog: Fixed so type can be compared to various string keys: error, warning, info, auditSuccess, auditFailure
 * CheckEventLog: Fixed so invalid parses are reported better (check the "rest" buffer)
    CheckEventLog file=Application "filter=generated gt -600m AND message LIKE 'Click2Run'" ...
    WARNING:Parsing failed: AND message LIKE 'Click2Run'
 * CheckEventLog: Added support for "not like" operator.
    CheckEventLog file=Application "filter=generated gt -600m AND message not like 'Click2Run'" ...
 * CrashHandler: Added several options to the crash handler (so it can be configurable)
    Everything reside under the [crash] sectiuon and the avalible keys are:
     * restart=1 # if we shall restart the service when a crash is detected.
     * service_name=<name of service to restart>
     * submit=0 # if we shall submit crash reports to crash.nsclient.org
     * url=http://crash.nsclient.org/submit
     * archive=1 # Archive crashdumps
     * folder=<appfolder>/dumps
 
2010-12-13 MickeM
 + Added not responding detection to CheckProcState
   All "hung" processes will be considerd "hung" (and not started/stopped)
   When process is "not hung" (badapp.exe)
    CheckProcState quake.exe=stopped badapp.exe=started notepad++.exe=started
     OK:OK: All processes are running.
    CheckProcState quake.exe=stopped badapp.exe=hung notepad++.exe=started
     CRITICAL:CRITICAL: BadApp.exe: started (critical)
   Where as when it is hung:
    CheckProcState quake.exe=stopped badapp.exe=started notepad++.exe=started
     CRITICAL:CRITICAL: BadApp.exe: hung (critical)
    CheckProcState quake.exe=stopped badapp.exe=hung notepad++.exe=started
     OK:OK: All processes are running.
   
2010-12-12 MickeM
 + Added initial support for google breakpad
   This means if nsclient++ crash two things will happen now.
   1. Crash reports will be sent to crash.nsclient.org (this will be optionalin the near future)
   2. service will restart
   You can try this out in /test mode using the "assert" command.
   
2010-11-14 MickeM
 * Added the "extended NRPE payload packet patch"
   Should have done this years ago but alas I have not.
   This allows you to (with a patched NRPE) send and recieve more then 1024 chars (in a backwards compatible way)
   cf: https://dev.icinga.org/attachments/113/nrpe_multiline.patch
   To enable this you set the following. The value is the number of packets we allow.
   [NRPE]
   packet_count=10
   NOTICE for this to make sence you need to extend the "main payload buffer" which will most likely run out.
   [Settings]
   string_length=16000
   This value "should" be NRPE:packet_count*NRPE:string_length(1024)


2010-10-17 MickeM
 * Added new command timeout which runs a command in a thread and timeouts after a given time.
   *NOTICE* this is not a good command to use since it will leak memory/resources when it "kills threads"
 * Added new command: negate which can alter the result of other commands

2010-09-29 MickeM
 * Reverted a merge miss in CheckDisk
 * Added so IN (...) accepts strings without qoutes in the SQL Query syntax of CheckEventlog
 * Added new "parsing structure" str(...) to create strings in the SQL query without using ticks (') to allow "nasty meta char thingy")
 * Extended error parsing (eventlog messages) to allow up to 24 arguments (up from 11)

2010-08-04 MickeM
 * Added performance data display when missing bounds

2010-07-28 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with NSCA server and closing sockets (no flushes the datat before)
 * Fixed issue with performance data units beeing incorrect:
    before: B, K, M, G, ... noew: B, KB, MB, GB, ...
 * Fixed syntax errors in performance data extra ';' dropped and spaces added propperly
   Result now looks like so: ... |'C:\ %'=42%;10;5 'C:\'=229.66GB;39.06;19.53;0;390.62 'D:\ %'=99%;10;5 'D:\'=3.39GB;20.55;10.27;0;205.54
 * Fixed issues with caluclating netmask (also added support for spaces and tabs in the hostlist string.

2010-06-02 MickeM
 * Fixed a few issues with listCounterInstances

Hello google bot! (and some happy weeks even the yahoo bot).

I have just released the final (I hope) release candidate for the 0.3.8 version. It has a lot of new features and, I am especially, proud of the new event log filters.

For those who has not seen the eventlog filter I recommend reading up on the quick guide i wrote on the CheckEventLog/CheckEventLog page. It has a fairly good getting started guide I hope. But a quick note is that the new default filter is:

generated > -2d AND severity NOT IN ('success', 'informational')

Which I believe is a lot more readable the before.

Other news are many minor changes and fixes in the file7disk related checks as well as index in CheckCounter to allow handling multiple languages and locales.

The changelog grouped by module can be found here:

New commands 
 - CheckSingleFile - to check spects of a single file use like so:
	CheckSingleFile file=d:\nrpe_512.pem warn=>100 check=line-count warn=>100 crit=>170 check=size
 - CheckSingleRegEntry
	CheckSingleRegEntry path=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\eventlog\Application\MaxSize "syntax=%path%: %int%"  warn==20971520 crit==20971520 check=int ShowAll=long

Scripts
 - Cleaned up scripts folder
 - Added new "NagiosPlugin library" from op5
 - Added check_no_rdp.vbs (Checks that no RDP connection is online)
 - Added check_battery.vbs which checks batterys via WMI
 - Added check_printer.vbs to check printers via WMI

CheckExternalScript
 - Added new "script templating" thing to simplify adding scripts:
	[Wrapped Scripts]
	test=check_test.ps1 ; (will use correct template for running ps1 commands)
 - Fixed erroneous error message "Failed to peek buffer"

NSCA
 - Added obfuscated_password to NSCA section
 - Added so "global" ([Settings] password=...) passwords are read from the NSCA module

CheckEventLog
 - Brand new filter syntax based on SQL where clauses
	Avalible operators are: =, !=, >, <, >=, <=, eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le, OR, AND, like, IN, NOT IN
 
CheckCounter
 - Added new index option to CheckCounter to allow looking up index and thus you can use the same checks on multiple locales and also use characters not present in "NRPE charset)
	CheckCounter index "Counter=\1450(_Total)\1458" ShowAll MaxWarn=500 MaxCrit=1000
	nsclient++ -noboot CheckSystem pdhlookup Utskrifter
 - Optional new "safe" PDH subsystem (slower, but possibly safer)
	pdh_subsystem=thread-safe
 - Added checks for missing counters to CheckCounter
 
CheckDriveSize
 - Added volume support for CheckDriveSize (CHeckAll) like so:
	CheckDriveSize MinWarn=50% MinCrit=25% CheckAll=volumes FilterType=FIXED FilterType=REMOTE
 - Changed "missing" disks are now a critical error and not unknown
 - Improved CheckDriveSize bad FilterType error message
 - Added option to return error messages to the client [CheckDisk] show_errors=1 (defauilt is off 0)

CheckFile2
 - Dates are signed (means you can use neagitve dates to check the future)
	CheckFile2 debug path=D:\tmp\dates filter+creation=<-30m MaxWarn=1 MaxCrit=1 "syntax=%filename%: %creation%"
	CRITICAL:future.txt: C: Thursday, December 31, 2009 12:47:11, found files: 1 > critical|'found files'=1;1;1;
 - Added checks for missing path and missing filter on CheckFile2 thus
 - Fixed so files locked for reading can be checked (basic checks)
 - Improved speed of file chyecking (does not check file data twice)
 - Changed so missing files and such generate an error
 - Fixed major issue with date matching in CheckFile* which was not working at all.

- Exe file version checks: 
	CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.exe filter+version=!=6.0.2900.5512 "syntax=%filename%: %version%" MaxWarn=1
 - Line count check: 
	CheckFile2 path=D:\tmp pattern=*.txt filter+line-count=ne:3 "syntax=%filename%: %line-count%" MaxWarn=1
 - Added ignore-errors to "ignore" any filesystem related errors (NOTICE this is probably not what you want)
 - Added master-syntax to CheckFile2 to change the overall message like so: %list%, %files%, %matches%
	CheckFile2 MinWarn=10 MinCrit=10 path=D:\WINDOWS\system32 filter+size=gt:0 truncate=10 ignore-errors "master-syntax=%matches%/%files%"
 - Added %user% to syntax to print user who generated message
	CheckEventLog file=application file=system filter=new filter=out MaxWarn=1 MaxCrit=1 filter-generated=>2w filter-severity==success filter-severity==informational truncate=1023 unique descriptions "syntax=%user% (%count%)"
	CRITICAL: (1),  (2), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), NT INSTANS\SYSTEM (3), missing (3), missing (5),  (4), missing (2), missing (2), missing (2), missing (2),  (1), eventlog: 33 > critical|'eventlog'=33;1;1;

Generic:
 - Added != to all string comparisons
 - Changes syntax of performance counters: Alias is '<alias> %' and it also has the "full" non % data as '<alias>'
	CheckDriveSize CheckAll MaxWarnUsed=80% MaxCritUsed=90%
	CRITICAL:CRITICAL: C:\: Total: 146G - Used: 140G (95%) - Free: 6.31G (5%) > critical, D:\: Total: 152G - Used: 148G (97%) - Free: 3.59G (3%) > critical|'C:\ %'=95%;80;90; 'C:\'=140.17G;117.18;131.83;0;146.48; 'D:\ %'=97%;80;90; 'D:\'=147.93G;121.21;136.3;0;151.52;
 - Added warning message ewhen numerical filters evaluate to zero (and are not 0)
 -  added a new "option" in conjunction with -c you can now do -m to specify the module to load.
	nsclient++ -m CheckDisk.dll -c CheckDriveSize MaxWarn=100 CheckAll

Please try it and let me know, if nothing major pops up I will release 0.3.8 tomorrow.

Michael Medin

A new version (release candidate) for the next minor release is out.

Nothing major in the application this version mainly installer work as well as some bugfixes. But and this is a big but it now features both an reference manual as well as a Nagios guide to get you started from Nagios. The material comes from the now up-dated wiki so it is nothing new but a nice touch I hope.

2009-09-20 MickeM
 * Fixed alias in CheckWMI (now works)
 + Added columnSyntax to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is %column%=%value%)
 + Added columnSeparator to CheckWMI to allow formating of returned data (default is ", ")

2009-09-13 MickeM
 * Fixed some more issues with the installer should not "work" on Windows 2008 as well as slightly simpler to configure.

2009-09-06 MickeM
 + Added new option to [NSCA Agent] string_length=<size> of the NSCA_MAX_PLUGINOUTPUT_LENGTH option on the NSCA server.
 * Readded all the "installer configuration" crap which I accidentaly removed when I fixed the installer... *sigh*

2009-08-30 MickeM
 + Added -c and -d command line options like so:
   NSClient++ -c CheckFile2 path=c:\test pattern=*.txt MaxCrit=1 filter+written=gt:2h
   NSClient++ -c <command> <argument 1> <argument 2> ...
   -d Is the same thing but with debug enabled.
 + Added uninstall of old client (sort of broken but works)

2009-08-29 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckFile (directory)
 * Rewrote the CA:s in the installer to work "better" (hopefully) in general it should be have more like a propper installer.

2009-07-18 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with no loggers avalible and "memory leak"
 * Added "firewall exception" to installer
 * Fixed an issue with the socket data buffer
 * Added new option to NSC.ini [NSCA] socket_timeout=30 (timeout in seconds when reading from NSCA sockets)
 * Fixed issue with NSCA socket.

2009-07-05 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not adding the commands properly.
 * Fixed issue with CheckExternalScripts and script_dir: not using relative paths (#310).

2009-06-20 MickeM
 * Fixed issue with CheckDisk and paths not working out properly

Michael Medin

Not much news in this build which contains a bunch of bug-fixes as well as a compleate version of the new installer.

• CheckFileAge? (was broken)
• NSCA config option time_delay was off by 1000.
• Eventlog monitoring with descriptions flag was crashing on x64.
• CheckProc? works better on x64
• New installer is "finalized"

The RC is called X this time as I did not want to rename all the others. If no one reports in bugs this will become 0.3.6 release in 24 hours or so.

Full change log:

2009-06-07 MickeM 
 * Fixed issue with CheckFileAge incorrectly working in recursive mode.
 * Finalized the installer

2009-05-22 MickeM 
 * Fixed time_delay option in NSCA config (now uses the correct base was 1000 times to large before)

2009-05-21 MickeM 
 * Fixed issue with eventlog parsing and 64 bit machines (descriptions option)
 * Fixed issue with "modern windows" and installing the service (should not have the correct privlaiges)

2009-05-17 MickeM 
 * Changed default buffer size for process enumeration (64K now instead of 1K should I hope work better on 64bit OS:es)

2009-05-10 MickeM 
 + Added write support for modules to installer

Michael Medin