Nagios, 2nd Edition

7.8 Regularly Checking the Status of the Mail Queue

The check_mailq plugin can be used to monitor the mail queue of a mail server for e-mails that have not yet been delivered. check_mailq runs the program mailq of the mail service installed. Unfortunately each MTA interprets the mail queue differently, so the plugin can evaluate only mail queues from mail services that the programmer has taken into account. These are, specifically: sendmail, qmail, postfix, and exim. The check_mailq plugin has the following options:

-w number / --warning=number

If there are at least number mails in the mail queue, the plugin gives a warning.

-c number / --critical=number

As soon as there are at least number of mails in the queue waiting to be delivered, then the critical ...