The expressions used in triggers are very flexible. You can use them to create complex logical tests regarding monitored statistics.
A simple useful expression might look like:
Trigger functions allow to reference the collected values, current time and other factors.
A complete list of supported functions is available.
Most of numeric functions accept the number of seconds as a parameter.
You may use the prefix # to specify that a parameter has a different meaning:
FUNCTION CALL | MEANING |
---|---|
sum(600) | Sum of all values within 600 seconds |
sum(#5) | Sum of the last 5 values |
The function last uses a different meaning for values when prefixed with the hash mark - it makes it choose the n-th previous value, so given the values 3, 7, 2, 6, 5 (from most recent to least recent), last(#2) would return 7 and last(#5) would return 5.
Several functions support an additional, second time_shift
parameter. This parameter allows to reference data from a period of time in the past. For example, avg(1h,1d) will return the average value for an hour one day ago.
You can use the supported unit symbols in trigger expressions, for example '5m' (minutes) instead of '300' seconds or '1d' (day) instead of '86400' seconds. '1K' will stand for '1024' bytes.
The following operators are supported for triggers (in descending priority of execution):
PRIORITY | OPERATOR | DEFINITION | Notes for unknown values |
---|---|---|---|
1 | - | Unary minus | -Unknown → Unknown |
2 | not | Logical NOT | not Unknown → Unknown |
3 | * | Multiplication | 0 * Unknown → Unknown (yes, Unknown, not 0 - to not lose Unknown in arithmetic operations) 1.2 * Unknown → Unknown |
/ | Division | Unknown / 0 → error Unknown / 1.2 → Unknown 0.0 / Unknown → Unknown |
|
4 | + | Arithmetical plus | 1.2 + Unknown → Unknown |
- | Arithmetical minus | 1.2 - Unknown → Unknown | |
5 | < | Less than. The operator is defined as: A<B ⇔ (A<B-0.000001) |
1.2 < Unknown → Unknown |
<= | Less than or equal to. The operator is defined as: A<=B ⇔ (A≤B+0.000001) |
Unknown <= Unknown → Unknown | |
> | More than. The operator is defined as: A>B ⇔ (A>B+0.000001) |
||
>= | More than or equal to. The operator is defined as: A>=B ⇔ (A≥B-0.000001) |
||
6 | = | Is equal. The operator is defined as: A=B ⇔ (A≥B-0.000001) and (A≤B+0.000001) |
|
<> | Not equal. The operator is defined as: A<>B ⇔ (A<B-0.000001) or (A>B+0.000001) |
||
7 | and | Logical AND | 0 and Unknown → 0 1 and Unknown → Unknown Unknown and Unknown → Unknown |
8 | or | Logical OR | 1 or Unknown → 1 0 or Unknown → Unknown Unknown or Unknown → Unknown |
not, and and or operators are case-sensitive and must be in lowercase. They also must be surrounded by spaces or parentheses.
All operators, except unary - and not, have left-to-right associativity. Unary - and not are non-associative (meaning -(-1) and not (not 1) should be used instead of --1 and not not 1).
Evaluation result:
Values required for trigger evaluation are cached by Zabbix server. Because of this trigger evaluation causes a higher database load for some time after the server restarts. The value cache is not cleared when item history values are removed (either manually or by housekeeper), so the server will use the cached values until they are older than the time periods defined in trigger functions or server is restarted.
Processor load is too high on www.zabbix.com
'www.zabbix.com:system.cpu.load[all,avg1]' gives a short name of the monitored parameter. It specifies that the server is 'www.zabbix.com' and the key being monitored is 'system.cpu.load[all,avg1]'. By using the function 'last()', we are referring to the most recent value. Finally, '>5' means that the trigger is in the PROBLEM state whenever the most recent processor load measurement from www.zabbix.com is greater than 5.
www.zabbix.com is overloaded
{www.zabbix.com:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].last()}>5 or {www.zabbix.com:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].min(10m)}>2
The expression is true when either the current processor load is more than 5 or the processor load was more than 2 during last 10 minutes.
/etc/passwd has been changed
Use of function diff:
The expression is true when the previous value of checksum of /etc/passwd differs from the most recent one.
Similar expressions could be useful to monitor changes in important files, such as /etc/passwd, /etc/inetd.conf, /kernel, etc.
Someone is downloading a large file from the Internet
Use of function min:
The expression is true when number of received bytes on eth0 is more than 100 KB within last 5 minutes.
Both nodes of clustered SMTP server are down
Note use of two different hosts in one expression:
{smtp1.zabbix.com:net.tcp.service[smtp].last()}=0 and {smtp2.zabbix.com:net.tcp.service[smtp].last()}=0
The expression is true when both SMTP servers are down on both smtp1.zabbix.com and smtp2.zabbix.com.
Zabbix agent needs to be upgraded
Use of function str():
The expression is true if Zabbix agent has version beta8 (presumably 1.0beta8).
Server is unreachable
The expression is true if host "zabbix.zabbix.com" is unreachable more than 5 times in the last 30 minutes.
No heartbeats within last 3 minutes
Use of function nodata():
To make use of this trigger, 'tick' must be defined as a Zabbix trapper item. The host should periodically send data for this item using zabbix_sender. If no data is received within 180 seconds, the trigger value becomes PROBLEM.
Note that 'nodata' can be used for any item type.
CPU activity at night time
Use of function time():
{zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].min(5m)}>2 and {zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].time()}>000000 and {zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].time()}<060000
The trigger may change its status to true, only at night (00:00-06:00) time.
CPU activity at any time with exception
Use of function time() and not operator:
{zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].min(5m)}>2
and not ({zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].dayofweek(0)}=7 and {zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].time(0)}>230000)
and not ({zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].dayofweek(0)}=1 and {zabbix:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].time(0)}<010000)
The trigger may change its state to true at any time, except for 2 hours on a week change (Sunday, 23:00 - Monday, 01:00).
Check if client local time is in sync with Zabbix server time
Use of function fuzzytime():
The trigger will change to the problem state in case when local time on server MySQL_DB and Zabbix server differs by more than 10 seconds.
Comparing average load today with average load of the same time yesterday (using a second time_shift
parameter).
This expression will fire if the average load of the last hour tops the average load of the same hour yesterday more than two times.
Using the value of another item to get a trigger threshold:
{Template PfSense:hrStorageFree[{#SNMPVALUE}].last()}<{Template PfSense:hrStorageSize[{#SNMPVALUE}].last()}*0.1
The trigger will fire if the free storage drops below 10 percent.
Using evaluation result to get the number of triggers over a threshold:
({server1:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].last()}>5) + ({server2:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].last()}>5) + ({server3:system.cpu.load[all,avg1].last()}>5)>=2
The trigger will fire if at least two of the triggers in the expression are over 5.
Sometimes we need an interval between an OK and Problem states, rather than a simple threshold. For example, we would like to define a trigger which becomes Problem when server room temperature goes above 20C and we want it to stay in that state until the temperature drops below 15C.
In order to do this, we first define the trigger expression for the problem event. Then select 'Recovery expression' for OK event generation and enter a recovery expression for the OK event.
Note that the recovery expression will be evaluated only when the problem event is resolved first. It is not possible to resolve a problem by recovery expression if the problem condition still persists.
Temperature in server room is too high.
Problem expression:
Recovery expression:
Free disk space is too low.
Problem expression: it is less than 10GB for last 5 minutes
Recovery expression: it is more than 40GB for last 10 minutes
Versions before Zabbix 3.2 are very strict about unsupported items in a trigger expression. Any unsupported item in the expression immediately renders trigger value to Unknown
.
Since Zabbix 3.2 there is a more flexible approach to unsupported items by admitting unknown values into expression evaluation:
or
Unsuported_item1.some_function() or
Unsuported_item2.some_function() or
..." can be evaluated to '1' (True),and
Unsuported_item1.some_function() and
Unsuported_item2.some_function() and
..." can be evaluated to '0' (False).Unknown
values. In the two cases mentioned above a known value will be produced; in other cases trigger value will be Unknown
.Unknown
and it takes part in further expression evaluation.Note that unknown values may "disappear" only in logical expressions as described above. In arithmetic expressions unknown values always lead to result Unknown
(except division by 0).
If a trigger expression with several unsupported items evaluates to Unknown
the error message in the frontend refers to the last unsupported item evaluated.