tpl-host-generic: Check related vars

[thesefer]

Describe the solution you'd like

We have several hosts which are a bit slow and therefore alert too early. Sometimes a short interruption which does not necessarily mean the host is down (i.e. a PDU).

It would be great if you could set the template specific variables: max_check_attempts, check_interval, retry_interval, check_timeout on a per host basis instead of changing the whole template.

Additional context

No response

[markuslf]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. For example, we set max_check_attempts to 4 in tpl-host-generic, which is imported by other host templates, such as tpl-host-linux. Would you like us to set max_check_attempts to 4 directly in tpl-host-linux?

[slalomsk8er]

I don't think this is possible as the service vars take precedence over the host variables.
Cloning the service set / template, setting the modified values and switching the tags / imports on the host is what I do.

[thesefer]

I have a pdu which I added as import i.e. tpl-host-other
This template imports tpl-host-generic which has the following default options:

    max_check_attempts = "4"
    check_interval = 1m
    retry_interval = 15s
    check_timeout = 10s

The host(alive) is checked every 15seconds for 4 times. This equals to a minute and the soft state changed to a hard state. 1 second later the pdu responded again but the notification already went through because it failed 4 checks.

Changing the max attempts / retry interval would have prevented that for this host. Some hosts simply need more time.

Using the service ping additionally wouldn't change this because the host check is the problem. Or am I using this wrong here?

EDIT: I am running on a default basket import (all-the-rest.json combined with all check-plugins plus my custom sms notification plugin and dmesg overwrite).

[slalomsk8er]

How about creating a template tpl-host-needs-more-time, set your values there and import it after tpl-host-other?

[thesefer]

You are right, I could and probably will create a new template for that for every category. I just thought it would be a neat idea to var this, too, like done in many other cases.

[slalomsk8er]

Yes, this would be great to have the field directly accessible on the host and single services but I guess it was a design decisions of the director to force users to use templates.