Monitor ping other host using zabbix agent

We needed to monitor ping times from one server to another, neither being the Zabbix server.  Zabbix doesn’t have a way to do this; the only pings that Zabbix can do are from the Zabbix server to another server.

I wrote the attached script to solve this problem.  Install the script onto each client that you need to do this sort of monitoring, in the /etc/zabbix/externalscripts directory (or wherever you have configured them to be).  Make it executable, and add the following lines to the /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf file:

       # For pingserver.sh
       UserParameter=pingTimeToServer[*],/bin/bash /etc/zabbix/externalscripts/pingserver.sh $1 $2 $3 $4 $5

Restart the Zabbix client after you put this line in.

You can run the script by hand if you like, the options are:

       pingserver.sh server [option] [count] [maxage] [interval]

server    Server to ping, either ip or dns
option    blank for a single ping
“loss” to get the percentage of lost pings in a range of pings
“min” to get the minimum time in a range of pings
“avg” to get the average time
“max” to get the max time
count     How many times to ping when doing a range of pings
maxage    Max age of tmpfile before doing pings again
interval    Interval between pings during a range.  Must be
greater than 0.2 (only root can go less than 0.2)
To use as an item inside Zabbix, create an item (either in a template or a host) with the following options:

Type:    Zabbix agent
Key:    pingTimeToServer[server [,option [,count [,maxage [,interval]]]]
Type of info:    Numeric (float) (except for “loss”)
For loss option:  Numeric (unsigned)
Units:    all options except loss:        ms
for loss option:                    %

#cat /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/userparameter_ping.conf
UserParameter=custom.ping.reachable[*],/bin/ping -c 1 -W 1 -q -n $1 &> /dev/null && echo 1 || echo 0
#systemctl restart zabbix-agent

Zabbix:
Add new item: Key: custom.ping.reachable[8.8.8.8]
Add new trigger: {Hostname:custom.ping.reachable[8.8.8.8].max(#3)}=0