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Check apache-tomcat-version

Overview

Checks the installed Apache Tomcat version against the endoflife.date API and alerts if the version is end-of-life or if newer major, minor, or patch releases are available. By default, alerts 30 days before the official EOL date. The offset is configurable.

Important Notes:

  • The check must run locally on the Tomcat server because it reads the version from the installation directory.

  • Point --catalina-home at the Tomcat installation directory (CATALINA_HOME). The location depends on how Tomcat was installed:

    • /usr/share/tomcat on Red Hat family packages (default)
    • /usr/share/tomcat10, /usr/share/tomcat9 and similar on Debian/Ubuntu packages (the path carries the major version)
    • the unpacked directory (often /opt/tomcat) for the upstream binary distribution

Data Collection:

  • Runs bin/version.sh below --catalina-home to read the installed Apache Tomcat version, and falls back to lib/catalina.jar where that script is absent, which is the case for Red Hat family packages
  • Compares against the endoflife.date API to determine EOL status and available updates
  • Where the software comes from a package the distribution maintains itself, the end of life is the one the distribution gives it rather than the upstream one: on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its rebuilds such as AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux the date Red Hat gives the package or its Application Stream, on Debian the end of the release's security support including LTS, on Ubuntu the end of its standard support for main and restricted. Software from EPEL, Ubuntu's universe, backports or a third-party repository keeps the upstream date
  • Caches endoflife.date responses locally for 24 hours to reduce external requests

Fact Sheet

Fact Value
Check Plugin Download https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/tree/main/check-plugins/apache-tomcat-version
Nagios/Icinga Check Name check_apache_tomcat_version
Check Interval Recommendation Every day
Can be called without parameters Yes
Runs on Cross-platform
Compiled for Windows No (runs with Python interpreter)
Uses State File $TEMP/linuxfabrik-lib-version.db

Help

usage: apache-tomcat-version [-h] [-V] [--always-ok]
                             [--catalina-home CATALINA_HOME] [--check-major]
                             [--check-minor] [--check-patch] [--insecure]
                             [--no-perfdata] [--no-proxy]
                             [--offset-eol OFFSET_EOL] [--proxy PROXY]
                             [--timeout TIMEOUT]
                             [--unreachable-severity {ok,warn,crit,unknown}]

Checks the installed Apache Tomcat version against the endoflife.date API and
alerts if the version is end-of-life or if newer major, minor, or patch
releases are available. By default, alerts 30 days before the official EOL
date. The offset is configurable.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit
  --always-ok           Always returns OK.
  --catalina-home CATALINA_HOME
                        Tomcat installation directory (CATALINA_HOME)
                        containing `bin/version.sh`. Default:
                        /usr/share/tomcat
  --check-major         Alert when a new major release is available, even if
                        the current version is not yet EOL. Example: running
                        v26 (not yet EOL) and v27 is available.
  --check-minor         Alert when a new major.minor release is available,
                        even if the current version is not yet EOL. Example:
                        running v26.2 (not yet EOL) and v26.3 is available.
  --check-patch         Alert when a new major.minor.patch release is
                        available, even if the current version is not yet EOL.
                        Example: running v26.2.7 (not yet EOL) and v26.2.8 is
                        available.
  --insecure            This option explicitly allows insecure SSL
                        connections.
  --no-perfdata         Suppress the performance data section from the output.
                        The status message and the exit code are unaffected,
                        so alerting keeps working while trending data is
                        dropped.
  --no-proxy            Do not use a proxy, not even one the environment
                        names. Overrides `--proxy`.
  --offset-eol OFFSET_EOL
                        Alert n days before ("-30") or after an EOL date ("30"
                        or "+30"). Default: -30 days
  --proxy PROXY         Proxy to reach the target through. The scheme defaults
                        to `http` when omitted. Overrides the proxy the
                        environment names (`http_proxy`, `https_proxy`,
                        `all_proxy`) together with the exceptions it lists in
                        `no_proxy`, and is itself overridden by `--no-proxy`.
                        Without either parameter the environment applies.
                        Credentials belong into the environment variable
                        rather than here, because a command-line argument is
                        visible to every user on the host. Example:
                        `--proxy=http://proxy.example.com:3128`.
  --timeout TIMEOUT     Network timeout in seconds. Default: 8 (seconds)
  --unreachable-severity {ok,warn,crit,unknown}
                        State to report when the online source is unreachable.
                        What is used instead - bundled offline data, a cached
                        copy, or nothing at all - is named in the output, and
                        a clean result then only covers what that fallback
                        could confirm. Default: ok

Documentation:
https://linuxfabrik.github.io/monitoring-plugins/check-plugins/apache-tomcat-version/

Usage Examples

./apache-tomcat-version --catalina-home=/usr/share/tomcat --offset-eol=-30

Output:

Apache Tomcat v10.1.49 (EOL unknown, major 11.0.23 available)

States

  • UNKNOWN if Apache Tomcat is not found.

The end-of-life verdict, the --check-major / --check-minor / --check-patch alerts, --offset-eol, --always-ok and what happens when endoflife.date cannot be reached work the same way in every endoflife.date-based version plugin. They are described in Version Plugins.

Perfdata / Metrics

Name Type Description
apache-tomcat-version Number Installed Apache Tomcat version as float. For example, "10.1.49" becomes "10.001049".

Credits, License