Process memory check

The process memory check (check_process_memory) checks the amount of memory consumed by a process as reported by OS. Retrieved memory percentage is compared against --warning and --critical thresholds and an appropriate check result is output.

Linux process memory check

On linux machines ps command will be used to retrieve memory percentage. Valid PIDs will be discovered based on /proc/[pid]/stat files.

Windows process memory check

On windows machines Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) will be used. WMI will be queried for each running process memory consumption. Processes matching <PROCESS_NAME>.exe and children of those processes will be added to the calculation.

NOTE: It is possible that parent id of the process refers to a different (reused) PID, which theoretically may yield incorrect results.

This check uses WorkingSetSize field of a process to calculate percentage. Sum of all processes' WorkingSetSize should be equal to what is observed in Task Manager as total used memory. Sum of a particular processes' WorkingSetSize MIGHT NOT be equal to what is reported as total consumed memory of a process in Task Manager.

Flags

Run this check with help command to get latest information, i.e. check_process_memory help

• --warning: The percentage of used memory required to trigger a warning condition. Default 85.
• --critical: The percentage of used memory required to trigger a critical condition. Default 95.
• --metric_name: The name used in the nagios portion of the message output. Default memory_used_process_percentage
• --process_name: Required. The name of the process for which to query memory usage. Process name is case-sensitive.

Examples

Issue a warning if memory usage is over 50% for chrome

check_process_memory --process_name chrome --warning 50