Zabbix PHP Loadable Module :

This directory contains Zabbix Loadable module v3.x-6.x and v7.x, which extends functionality of Zabbix Agent/Server/Proxy.

This module add the ability to load PHP interpreter inside Zabbix Server/Proxy/Agent address space.

Is based on my precedente work https://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8305 to add the possibility to call script inside the zabbix engine. At this time I talked with Alexei Vladishev when it's comme to Paris to add the ability to load module ... Now it's done!

With that module you can extend functionality of the Zabbix with PHP module at the infinite.

Prerequisite :

• Support PHP Embed SAPI v5.x and v7.x.
• Support Zabbix 4.0.x/5.0.x/6.0.x/7.0.x.

Has been only tested with Linux Ubuntu 14.04/20.04/24.04 with php5.6 and 7.4..

Install php needed packages:

Install it on Ubuntu Trusty :

# apt-get install libphp5-embed php5-dev autoconf automake gcc make libpcre3-dev libbz2-dev libbz2-dev libxml2-dev libkrb5-dev libdb5.3-dev

Install it on Ubuntu Focal :

# apt-get install libphp-embed php-dev autoconf automake gcc make libpcre3-dev libbz2-dev libbz2-dev libxml2-dev libkrb5-dev libargon2-dev libargon2-1 libargon2-0 libsodium-dev

Install it on Ubuntu noble :

# apt-get update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive TZ=Europe/Paris apt-get install -y software-properties-common
# add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
# DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive TZ=Europe/Paris  apt-get -y install libz-dev wget \
                                           libphp7.4-embed php7.4-dev autoconf automake gcc make \
                                           libpcre3-dev libbz2-dev libbz2-dev libxml2-dev libkrb5-dev libargon2-dev libargon2-1 libsodium-dev

Or compile it (the important option are "--enable-embed") from php source :

# wget https://github.com/php/php-src/archive/PHP-x.x.tar.gz
# tar xzvf php-x.x.tar.gz
# cd php*/
# ./buildconf
# ./configure --enable-embed --prefix=/path/to/php/install/dir \
		      --with-snmp=shared --with-ldap=shared --enable-shared=yes  \
		      --with-curl=shared  --with-mysqli=shared 
# make
# make install

For example to have libphp[57].so embeded library with snmp, ldap, curl and mysqli shared module.

How to Build the module

Compile the zbx_php module with php :

We need Zabbix source for building the module, because we need the zabbix include header to build the module.

You must download zabbix source :

# wget --content-disposition "https://cdn.zabbix.com/zabbix/sources/stable/5.0/zabbix-5.0.8.tar.gz"
# tar xzvf zabbix*.tar.gz
# cd zabbix*
# ./configure
# cd -

Them compile the PHP module.

# ./bootstrap.sh
# ./configure --with-php=/path/to/php/script/php-config 
              --with-zabbix-include=./zabbix/include 
              --prefix=/path/to/zabbix/install/modules/dir
# make
# make install

It should produce zbx_php.so in /path/to/zabbix/install/modules/dir.

Configure zbx_php with zabbix

Zabbix agent, server and proxy support two parameters to deal with modules:

• LoadModulePath – full path to the location of loadable modules, where to copy zbx_php.so
• LoadModule – module(s) to load at startup. The modules must be located in a directory specified by LoadModulePath. It is allowed to include multiple LoadModule parameters.

For example, to extend Zabbix agent we could add the following parameters:

	LoadModulePath=/path/to/zabbix/install/modules/dir
	LoadModule=zbx_php.so

Upon agent startup it will load the zbx_php.so modules from the /path/to/zabbix/install/modules/dir directory. It will fail if a module is missing, in case of bad permissions or if a shared library is not a Zabbix module.

Zabbix Frontend configuration

Loadable modules are supported by Zabbix agent, server and proxy. Therefore, item type in Zabbix frontend depends on where the module is loaded. If the module is loaded into the agent, then the item type should be “Zabbix agent” or “Zabbix agent (active)”. If the module is loaded into server or proxy, then the item type should be “Simple check”.

• zbx_php.ping - always returns '1'
• zbx_php.version - returns the php version
• php[phpscript.php, param1, param2, ...] - execute phpscript with params

Configure module

The module as config file in the same place of the Zabbix Agentd/Server/proxy are, named zbx_php.conf.

for the moment containt only one parameter PHP_SCRIPT_PATH, that specify where php script are searched to execute:

	PHP_SCRIPT_PATH=/usr/local/lib/zabbix/phpscripts

How to test module

To get php version with what the module are compiled :

# zabbix_get  -s 127.0.0.1 -k zbx_php.version
5.6.23

To ping the module:

# zabbix_get  -s 127.0.0.1 -k zbx_php.ping
1

How to code script

Generale example are :

<?php
   return $myitemvalue;

$myitemvalue can be numeric (integer or float/double), string or boulean.

The module set the type returned correctly accordingly to the dectected type from php variable.

The module set "max_execution_time" according to "Timeout" zabbix configuration setting, after this time the php interpreter interupt the script and zabbix receve "ZBX_NOT_SUPPORTED" on the metric item.

Warning note : http://php.net/manual/en/function.sleep.php#33732

The set_time_limit() function and the configuration directive max_execution_time only affect the execution time of the script itself. Any time spent on activity that happens outside the execution of the script such as system calls using system(), the sleep() function, database queries, etc. is not included when determining the maximum time that the script has been running.

You must pay attention on this when you code your scripts because Zabbix not abort your script on timeout and they can block zabbix unlimitedly if you call PHP extension that block...

The module set tree variable to the script:

• zabbix_timeout - setted to "Timeout" zabbix configuration parametter, by default to 3 in zabbix configuration.
• zabbix_key - while be "php[param1,param2,...]"
• zabbix_params - array starting with php at indice 0 and followed by argument sended to the module (that are in [...])

By default the php ini parametter are to :

• html_errors = 0
• register_argc_argv = 1
• implicit_flush = 1
• output_buffering = 0
• max_input_time = -1

To execute the script "test.php" in "PHP_SCRIPT_PATH" directory with arguments "mon test a moi" by the module:

# zabbix_get  -s 127.0.0.1 -k php[test.php,mon test a moi]
....

Samples

With this items php[snmpget.php,<hostname>,<community>,<oid>] they do snmp get of the oid on <hostname>, with <community>.

snmpget.php :

<?php
	$zabbix_hostname=$zabbix_params[1];
	$zabbix_community=$zabbix_params[2];
	$zabbix_oid=$zabbix_params[3];
	snmp_set_quick_print(1);
	$snmp_retval = snmpget($zabbix_hostname, $zabbix_community, $zabbix_oid);
	return $snmp_retval;

to use:

# zabbix_get  -s 127.0.0.1 -k php[snmpget.php,myhost,mycommunity,IF-MIB::ifInOctets.1]

You can find sample script in "scripts_examples" folder of the project.

Some idea that can do with this module

• Monitoring ldap directory in ldap:

  • https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19476-01/821-0506/monitoring-using-cn-monitor.html
  • http://www.openldap.org/devel/admin/monitoringslapd.html
  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.ldap.php

• Monitoring sql database with sql requesting:

  • https://www.vividcortex.com/blog/2014/11/03/mysql-query-performance-statistics-in-the-performance-schema/
  • http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo-mysql.php
  • https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/performance-schema.html
  • https://blog.serverdensity.com/how-to-monitor-mysql/

• SNMP equipement that need data manipulation before sending result to zabbix

  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.snmp.php

• With ssh2 you can call script on other machine in php

  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.ssh2.php

• With rpc protocol (soap/rest/xml-rpc/trait...) you can get remote information

  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.soap.php
  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.xmlrpc.php
  • http://thrift.apache.org/
  • https://thrift.apache.org/tutorial/php

• With sockets you can call many network service to retreive information

  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.sockets.php

• You can check dns

  • http://php.net/manual/en/function.dns-get-record.php
  • https://netdns2.com/documentation/examples/

• With curl you can use many protocol to retrieve information

  • http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php

• Many nosql have there statistics acessible with her protocol like memcache

  • http://php.net/manual/en/memcached.getstats.php

• Linux kernel monitoring in parsing /proc

  • https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
  • http://blog.tsunanet.net/2011/03/out-of-socket-memory.html
  • http://kaivanov.blogspot.fr/2013/01/troubleshooting-out-of-socket-memory.html

• Disk drive space

  • http://php.net/manual/en/function.disk-total-space.php
  • http://php.net/manual/en/function.disk-free-space.php

• nginx with http get or curl module

  • http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_stub_status_module.html?utm_campaign=monitor-nginx-2014-aug&utm_medium=post&utm_source=blog

• apache with mod_status ou mod_status_text

  • https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_status.html
  • https://github.com/ZenProjects/Apache-Status-Text-Module

• docker with docker api... using "/containers/(id or name)/stats" api...

  • https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/api/docker_remote_api/
  • https://github.com/docker-php/docker-php

• many kernel statistics of /proc like /proc/diskstats or /proc/net/tcp or /proc/net/sockstat

  • http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/linux/2000/11/16/LinuxAdmin.html
  • http://linux.die.net/man/5/proc