[Nagiosplug-devel] A different ping

[Karl DeBisschop]

On Fri, 2002-12-20 at 02:24, Rodger Allen wrote:
> Hello plugin developers
> 
> 
> I have written a different type of tcp ping plugin which some may find
> useful for "check-host-alive" type host checking commands, particularly 
> in firewalled DMZ environment.
> 
> We found the normal check_ping to be inadequate in our firewalled
> environment, where ICMP (and other traffic) is heavily restricted.  We
> needed to know whether a machine was actually alive, even though all of
> the services defined in nagios may be down.
> 
> 
> This plugin will attempt to connect on a designated tcp port, and will
> return CRITICAL if it fails, but, importantly, it will return OK if the
> connection is refused.  If the machine is refusing connections, it means
> that at least the IP stack is alive.
> 
> There is also a switch "-w" that will issue a WARNING if the plugin
> receives a connection refused, which some may also find useful, but
> should not be used in a host check command.

Since this shares most of its code with check_tcp, it seems to me that
another approach might be implmenting it as another mode for the
existing plugin. Have you considered that approach? Might it be viable?

The benefit would be less installed footprint and less code to maintain.

-- 
Karl DeBisschop <karl at debisschop.net>