3 Custom alert scripts

Overview

If you are not satisfied with the existing media types for sending alerts, there is an alternative way to do that. You can create a script that will handle the notification your way.

Alert scripts are executed on Zabbix server. These scripts must be located in the directory specified in the server configuration file AlertScriptsPath parameter.

Here is an example of a custom alert script:

#!/bin/bash
       
       to=$1
       subject=$2
       body=$3
       
       cat <<EOF | mail -s "$subject" "$to"
       $body
       EOF

Starting from version 3.4 Zabbix checks for the exit code of the executed commands and scripts. Any exit code which is different from 0 is considered as a command execution error. In such case Zabbix will try to repeat failed execution.

Environment variables are not preserved or created for the script, so they should be handled explicitly.

Configuration

To configure custom alert scripts as the media type:

Go to Administration → Media types
Click on Create media type

The Media type tab contains general media type attributes:

All mandatory input fields are marked with a red asterisk.

The following parameters are specific for the script media type:

Parameter	Description
Script name	Enter the name of the script file (e.g., notification.sh) that is located in the directory specified in the server configuration file `AlertScriptsPath` parameter.
Script parameters	Add command-line parameters to the script. {ALERT.SENDTO}, {ALERT.SUBJECT} and {ALERT.MESSAGE} macros are supported in script parameters. Customizing script parameters is supported since Zabbix 3.0.

See common media type parameters for details on how to configure default messages and alert processing options.

Even if an alert script doesn't use default messages, message templates for operation types used by this media type must still be defined, otherwise a notification will not be sent.

As parallel processing of media types is implemented since Zabbix 3.4.0, it is important to note that with more than one script media type configured, these scripts may be processed in parallel by alerter processes. The total number of alerter processes is limited by the StartAlerters parameter.

User media

Once the media type is configured, go to the Administration → Users section and edit user profile to assign media of this type to the user. Steps for setting up user media, being common for all media types, are described on the Media types page.

Note that when defining a user media, the Send to field cannot be empty. If this field is not used in the alert script, enter any combination of supported characters to bypass validation requirements.

Documentation

3 Custom alert scripts

Overview

Configuration

User media