15 Troubleshooting
15.1 Log levels#
Table 15.1. Log levels
| Level | What is logged |
|---|---|
| 3 | Errors (default value). |
| 4 | Warnings. |
| 5 | Relevant events: monitor startup, connection errors and retries. |
| 6 | Operational information: executions and time to the next cycle. |
| 7 | Debug, including the monitor’s full configuration at startup. |
| 9 | Also, the text of every SQL statement run and every row obtained. |
| 10 | Also, the full structure of the XML files parsed. |
The level can be set for the whole daemon in databbix.conf or for a single monitor in its file. Levels 9 and 10 produce a lot of output: use them only while testing.
Security. High log levels are meant for debugging and record sensitive data. From level 7, the log includes the session tokens obtained by the web service authenticators. From level 9, it also includes the full credentials (user, password and any other data) sent to the service, because they may be the cause of the problem being debugged. Log files are created with permissions 0640; even so, when you finish debugging, lower the level and delete the logs written at those levels.
Each monitor writes to its own file, by default /var/log/databbix/<Name>.log. The main process writes to databbix.log.
15.2 Common problems#
| Symptom | Likely cause and solution |
|---|---|
| The monitor does not start: “General.Name is not present” or another mandatory parameter | That parameter is missing from the .conf. Check the [General], [Zabbix] and [Data] sections and the engine section. |
| “Monitor initialization error” with a syntax error | Error in the XML file: unknown attribute, query without module, duplicate item… The message names the affected query. |
| “Item name … already defined” | Two queries define the same item name in the loaded files. |
| “Zabbix server error …, retry in 60 seconds” | The Zabbix server cannot be reached, or the server does not know the host. Check Server, Port, the firewall and that the Zabbix Host name matches General.Name. |
| “Error connecting to data source” | Wrong connection string, user or password, or TNS_ADMIN/ODBCINI not set for the service. |
| The item shows as not supported in Zabbix | The item name does not exist in the loaded XML files, the number of key parameters does not match, the requested row does not exist (use default), the basic query returns 0 or several rows, or the SQL fails (see the log at level 9). |
| “Excessive execution time” | The query takes longer than maxExecTime/MaxQueryExecTimeLog. Optimise the SQL or raise maxCache to run it less often. |
| “Too many errors …, exiting” | The monitor exceeded MaxErrors consecutive failed executions and stopped. Fix the cause and restart the service. |
| New items take a while to receive data | Databbix requests the item list every Zabbix.Refresh seconds. Wait or restart the service. |
Changes to the XML or .conf files are not applied |
They are only read at startup. Restart the service. |