title: Check Windows services
agents: windows
author: Mathias Kettner <mk@mathias-kettner.de>
license: GPL
distribution: check_mk
description:
 Check the current state of a Windows service.  Each service is either {running} or {stopped}
 or in a transitional state like {starting} or {stopping}.  This check becomes critical if the
 service in question is not in the state {running}. It is getting UNKNOWN if the service is missing
 on the system at all.

 If you have just a small number of Windows hosts to monitor, 
 manual check configuration with {checks +=} will probably do.
 With a larger number of hosts we propose using {inventory_services}.
 This allows auto-detection of services according to their names, 
 current states and start types. The auto-detection can also make use
 of host tags in order to use different rules on different sets of
 hosts (for example for monitoring certain services only on production
 servers). Inventory and manual checks can be used in parallel.

item:
 The name of the service as string. Please note, that the agent replaces
 spaces in the service names with underscores. If you are unsure
 about the correct spelling of the name then please look at the
 output of the agent (cmk -d HOSTNAME). The service names are in the first column
 of the section {<<<services>>>}. Please do not mix up the service
 names with the display names of the services. Those are just being displayed
 as a further information.

inventory:
 The inventory function of this check helps you to auto-detect then services
 that should be monitored on your hosts. Because Check_MK cannot know, which
 services are important for you, you have to configure some rules.
 
 As of version 1.1.10i2 it is very flexible, while still being compatible
 with the old simple-style format.
 In the variable {inventory_services} you specify a list of inventory
 declarations. In the easiest form, such a declaration is simply 
 a string: the name of a service. On every host that service is found
 {running}, a check for that service will be created during inventory.

 If you prefix the name with a tilde {~}, then the string is interpreted
 as a regular expression matching the {beginning} of the service name.
 So the declaration {"~Audio"} will mach {AudioSrv}, and {".*Mobile"}
 will match all services containing the work {Mobile}. All patterns
 are case sensitive. Please note: the check being created will
 {not} contain the regular expression but the precise spelling of the
 service. One rule with a regular expression can create several checks.

 It is also possible to depend on the current state and/or the start
 type of the service when deciding whether to create a check. States
 and start types are appended and separated by a space. For example
 {"LanmanServer auto"} will match all services with the name {LanmanServer}
 which have the start type {auto}. Other possible start types are
 {boot}, {demand}, {disabled} and {system}. Please look at the agent output
 if you want to know, which kind of start types exist in your
 environment. The declaration {"Browser running"} means the same as
 just ommitting { running}, since that is the default. If you want
 to combine a state and start type, do this like the agent does,
 by using a slash: {"LmHosts running/auto"} will create a check for 
 the service {LmHosts}, if that service if found running {and} has
 the start type auto.

 If you need your inventory rules to depend on properties of the host
 or just apply on some selected hosts, you can use "tuple"-entries
 instead of strings. Such an entries consist of an optional list of
 host tags, the keyword {ALL_HOSTS} or an explicit list of hosts and
 a {list} of service declarations like the one discussed above. Please
 consult the examples for details.

examples:
 # inventory will add checks for the following services
 # if found running on the target host:

 inventory_services = [ 
   # Monitor "MySQL_Server" if found running on a host
   "MySQL_Server", 
   # Monitor "TSMMgR" if start type is auto (regardless if running)
   "TSMMgR auto", 
   # Monitor "LmHosts", if found running and start type is auto
   "LmHosts running/auto",
   # Monitor all services containing "OraLsnr", if start type auto
   "~.*OraLsnr auto",
   # Pick *all* services with start type auto (a lot!)
   "~ auto",

   # Rules based on host tags (service declarations are in a list!)
   # On all hosts with the tag prod look for "Browser" and "CiSvc":
   ( [ "prod" ], ALL_HOSTS, [ 
       "Browser running", 
       "CiSvc running/auto",
     ]
   ),

   # On super mega important hosts, monitor all services
   # with start type auto as separate checks!
   ( [ "super", "mega" ], ALL_HOSTS, [ "~ auto" ] ),
   ]

 # Manual checks without inventory. Those checks will be created
 # without calling cmk -I - regardless of whether those services
 # exist and that hosts.
 checks += [
  # make sure, that service "cimlistener" is running on all hosts
  # with the tag "win"
  ( [ "win" ], ALL_HOSTS, "services", "cimlistener", None ),
  # The service "Apache" should is monitored only on two specific hosts
  ( ["websrv01", "websrv02"], "services", "Apache", None ),
 ]

[configuration]
inventory_services (list of entries): List of service declarations.
 For each matching service found on the target host, one check will
 be added to your monitoring.

