Re: [munin-users] unknown_limit usage

[Steve W. <st...@pu...>]

On 09/28/2010 04:29 PM, Joe Williams wrote:
> Steve,
>
> I am seeing a lot of the following:
>
> cluster001;node015;error_codes;d500;unknown Value is unknown.
> cluster001;node015;error_codes;d500;state unknown
>
> I assume "unknown Value is unknown" should actually be something like "unknown Value is 1".
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -Joe
>
>    

Joe,

When the state is in transition to the UNKNOWN state, you should see a 
line with the UNKNOWN counter like the following:

    Monitoring;frodo.bio.purdue.edu;microserver_lb131_2a;temp;ok OK
    Monitoring;frodo.bio.purdue.edu;microserver_lb131_2a;temp;num_unknowns 1
    Monitoring;frodo.bio.purdue.edu;microserver_lb131_2a;temp;state ok

Once the unknown_limit is reached, then you should start seeing what you 
have, i.e., the state is now UNKNOWN.  Anytime a good value comes back 
from the plugin, then the state gets reset to OK and we have to see 
unknown_limit of consecutive UNKNOWN values before the state transitions 
to UNKNOWN.  At least that's how it's supposed to work.... :-)

Steve

>
> On Sep 28, 2010, at 11:45 AM, Steve Wilson wrote:
>
>    
>>
>> On 09/27/2010 03:07 PM, Joe Williams wrote:
>>      
>>> On Jun 2, 2010, at 2:29 PM, Nicolai Langfeldt wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>>>> Steve Wilson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>          
>>>>> I don't think there is a way to globally set a value for unknown_limit
>>>>> although I think it's a good idea and shouldn't be too difficult to
>>>>> implement.
>>>>>
>>>>> I use a plugin section with a wildcard in its name and then use an
>>>>> environment variable to pass an unknown_limit value to my plugins.  But
>>>>> the plugin itself needs to know about unknown_limit and print it out
>>>>> when a config is requested.
>>>>>
>>>>>            
>>>> This means that the plugin needs to support unknown_limit, which seems
>>>> to be putting the buggy in front of the horse since unknown_limit is a
>>>> master setting.  But of course it works that way too.
>>>>
>>>> To set unknown_limit globaly, edit munin.conf (or a file in your
>>>> includedir if you use such) so it contains
>>>>
>>>>    unknown_limit 3
>>>>
>>>> alone on a line.  That sets it globaly.  Or should.  If it doesn't it's
>>>> a bug.
>>>>
>>>>          
>>> Nicolai,
>>>
>>> I believe there may actually be a bug. Since originally starting this thread I have tried a few different uknown_limit settings and haven't seen any improvement in the number of "unknown" emails that I receive. AFAIK my configuration should be good.
>>>
>>> $ grep "unknown_limit" /etc/munin/munin.conf
>>> unknown_limit 10
>>>
>>> I am running 1.4.4 (supplied with ubuntu 10.04).
>>>
>>> Any suggestions on debugging this would be helpful. If this is indeed believed to be a bug I'll open a ticket.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>> -Joe
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>> For debugging, I would monitor the limits file (I think it's /var/lib/munin/limits by default).  This file should show the current state of your plugins as of the last run of munin-cron.  If the state is UNKNOWN there should also be a numeric value showing the number of UNKNOWNs that have been seen in succession.
>>
>> I am using a later version (1.4.5) and it seems to be working for me.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> -- 
>> Steven M. Wilson, Systems and Network Manager
>> Markey Center for Structural Biology
>> Purdue University
>> (765) 496-1946
>>
>>      
>