Zabbix Quick Reference

Too many processes on {$HOSTNAME}

The Zabbix standard template for Linux has a constant value of 325 for the maximum number of processes that should run. On some systems, this is too low.

The solution is to change the constant to a macro. You can then use the default value for systems, but change it for individual machines if desired.

I created a macro named {$TRIGGER_THRESHOLD_PROCESSES_RUNNING}, then edited the Template OS Linux trigger to do this.

  1. Administration | General | Macros
  2. Add macro {$TRIGGER_THRESHOLD_PROCESSES_RUNNING} with value 325
  3. Configuration | Templates | Template OS Linux | Triggers
  4. In Template OS Linux, changed “Too many processes on {HOST.NAME}” trigger to “{Template OS Linux:proc.num[].last(0)}>{$TRIGGER_THRESHOLD_PROCESSES_RUNNING}”
  5. Configuration | Hosts | your host name | Macros
  6. Add Macro {$TRIGGER_THRESHOLD_PROCESSES_RUNNING} with value specific for that machine
  7. Click Update

This allows you to customize individual machines.