I’m having troubles within my telegraf.conf file using the inputs.exec method to call on my powershell script to check the status of DFSR between nodes.
I have a simple powershell script that when ran on its own returns the results using write-host
What am I missing here? I’ve tried different quotations on the powershell file path, forward and back slashes, testing the powershell script on its own
The command is executed by telegraf using cmd, so try to run the script directly from the cmd to simulate what telegraf does.
You can also try the “-File” or “-Command” arguments after powershell, there is some difference between the two.
in the cmd try to run:
1. powershell C:\dfsr.ps1
2. powershell -Command C:\dfsr.ps1
3. powershell -File C:\dfsr.ps1
the final telegraf conf may look like this one
## Commands array
commands = [
'powershell -Command C:\dfsr.ps1'
]
Be aware that error thrown in the PowerShell script won’t be correctly received by the cmd and telegraf unless you use exit codes, I opened an issue (now closed) on this topic, in the reply you may find a solution/explanation.
Are you running the tests (using cmd) on the same machine and with the same user as telegraf? If not, I recommend you to do so.
Also you don’t need to “force” an exit code, especially since a fixed one will show the execution as successful/failed even if it’s not true and makes debugging harder.
I’m running the tests on the server 2019 where telegraf already runs and collects Cpu/memory/server metrics. Telegraf is running as the Local System service account. I can manually test my other .conf files just fine by using this command and see that data in influx
.\telegraf.exe --config telegraf.conf --test
When I test the dfsr-telegraf.conf file with the same command I don’t get any results
only modifications from what you suggested is where the comma is between powershell commands, and running powershell -File C:\dfsr.ps1 from test.ps1
[[inputs.exec]]
## Commands array
commands = [
'powershell -Command Write-Host TestCommand,host=DFS1, DfsrBacklogCount=0i',
'powershell -File C:\dfsr.ps1'
]
## Timeout for each command to complete.
timeout = "20s"
## measurement name suffix (for separating different commands)
name_suffix = "_mycollector"
## Data format to consume.
## Each data format has its own unique set of configuration options, read
## more about them here:
## https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md
data_format = "influx"
Here is the updated powershell dfsr.ps1 per the recommendation of just a string
My last idea is related to the “Powershell Execution Policy” settings.
Have a look at it and if it’s too restrictive and change it more generous level (if possible of course), otherwise you can set it before executing the command
In my previous answer there is a mistake, today I got a similar issue while trying some test configurations.
Looks like that “Write-Host” ignores characters like commas and adds spaces when using an expression inside a string.
I’ve never noticed this before because I use the powershell module “PowerShell-Influx” to manage formatting. and looks like that objects are not affected by this problem
ie:
As you can see the commas are missing, and also there is a space before the field value.
passing through cmd also causes more complications, even if powershell shows the commas (in some cases), the cmd will remove them.
The solution I’ve found so far is to escape the commas using the backtick (`).
Write-Host GatewayInput`,Source=Gatherer_1 Value=10
# which will also produce the correct result if used in cmd
powershell -Command Write-Host GatewayInput`,Source=Gatherer_1 Value=10
In general, if you don’t see any output string that means that what you write is not a valid LineProtocol syntax.
If you put this in the config and test the configuration you should see the output
Yes this is absolutely the problem and I’m super close to being done. I’m just having issues passing in the powershell variable and getting its results
I don’t know why telegraf returns a count of 0.
To debug this you can try to add another command in the script to append its result to a file, this will allow you to see which ps objects Get-DfsrBacklog returns to telegraf. (before serializing them in influx line protocol.
You can also let your telegraf session run for a bit and see what it gets. (simply using PowerShell, without using the --test param), if you don’t want to write to the DB write to a file using the file output
I still see a potential error, an extra comma after the tags. It works because that comma is not escaped and gets ignored. (have a look at the line protocol)
