[Nagiosplug-devel] Working on testcases

[Ton Voon]

On 14 Nov 2005, at 11:42, sean finney wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 10:32:42AM +0000, Ton Voon wrote:
>>
>> Given the above definition, both failures should be UNKNOWN. I'm with
>> Andreas on this. But there's Sean and Ethan on CRITICAL. So the
>> voting currently stands at 2-2.
>>
>> If we go with CRITICAL, then this needs to be marked as an exception
>> in the guidelines.
>
> i disagree that this would be an "exception", and has more to do with
> individual interpretation of the two classes of errors.

Think of it as trying to "nail down the interpretation" :)


> in the case that name resolution fails entirely, this would be  
> indicative
> of a problem outside the control of both the plugin and the remove  
> service
> being checked(maybe someone tripped over the nagios servers' cable).
> in such a case, nothing can be divined about the ability to reach a
> specified host, and the contact for the service is not the proper  
> person
> to notify.
>
> but... if the lookup operation succeeds (that is, it talks with a name
> server, but was unable to find a specified host), then dns is working
> "just fine" (or working, anyway).  in such a case, there is nothing
> wrong with the plugin's attempt to prepare and/or execute the check,
> but the host does not seem to exist.

Surely this is a problem with preparation?

   address = gethostbyname( hostname );
   address is empty, can't get socket to connect

So there is no way check_http can execute the check. Going back to  
the proposed definition:

"UNKNOWN is for invalid command args, or failures in other systems  
preventing the plugin from performing the specified operation"

This would be a failure in another system (name resolution, which  
could be files, DNS, LDAP, NIS+). So this must be UNKNOWN.

However, I'm willing to concede and define this particular scenario  
as CRITICAL as long as it is documented in the guidelines (with  
recommended library routine to use).

Ton

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