Skip to content

Check users

Overview

Counts how many users are currently logged in, both via tty (on Windows: Console) and pts (on Linux: typically ssh, on Windows: RDP). Also counts the disconnected users on Windows (closed connections without logging out).

Hints:

  • A tty is a native terminal device, the backend is either hardware or kernel emulated.
  • A pty (pseudo terminal device) is a terminal device which is emulated by applications such as network login services (ssh, rlogin, telnet), terminal emulators such as xterm, script, screen, tmux, unbuffer, and expect.
  • A pts is a pseudo terminal slave part of a pty.
  • If running on hardware, use --critical 1,20 (Linux) and --critical 1,50,3 (Windows).

Fact Sheet

Fact Value
Check Plugin Download https://github.com/Linuxfabrik/monitoring-plugins/tree/main/check-plugins/users
Check Interval Recommendation Once a minute
Can be called without parameters Yes
Compiled for Windows Yes
Requirements w on Linux, query users on Windows

Help

usage: users [-h] [-V] [-c CRIT] [--test TEST] [-w WARN]

Counts how many users are currently logged in, both via tty (on Windows:
Console) and pts (on Linux: typically ssh, on Windows: RDP). Also counts the
disconnected users on Windows (closed connections without logging out).

options:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  -V, --version        show program's version number and exit
  -c, --critical CRIT  Set the critical threshold for logged in tty/pts users,
                       in the format "3,10". On Windows, you can additionally
                       set it for disconnected users, in the format "3,10,1".
                       Default: [None, None, None]
  --test TEST          For unit tests. Needs "path-to-stdout-file,path-to-
                       stderr-file,expected-retc".
  -w, --warning WARN   Set the warning threshold for logged in tty/pts users,
                       in the format "1,5". On Windows, you can additionally
                       set it for disconnected users, in the format "1,5,10".
                       Default: [1, 20, 1]

Usage Examples

On Linux, if one user is connected to the console:

./users --warning=1,20 --critical=1,20

Output:

TTY: 1 [WARNING], PTS: 0

USER     TTY        LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
markus.f :0         Mon06   ?xdm?  6:02m  0.03s /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session --run-script /usr/bin/gnome-session

On Linux, if one user is connected via SSH using IPv6 (no TTY allocated):

./users

Output:

TTY: 0, PTS: 1

USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
clox              2001:db8::ff30   16:05   15:44m  0.00s   ?    sshd: clox [priv]

On Windows, if one user is connected via RDP:

./users --warning 1,20,1 --critical None,50,5

TTY: 0, PTS: 1, Disconnected: 0

USERNAME              SESSIONNAME        ID  STATE   IDLE TIME  LOGON TIME
administrator         rdp-tcp#11          1  Active          .  24.08.2022 17:42|'disc'=0;1;;0; 'tty'=0;1;;0; 'pts'=1;20;;0;

States

  • WARN or CRIT if number of users is above a given threshold.

Perfdata / Metrics

Name Type Description
tty Number Number of TTY users on Linux, Number of Console users on Windows.
pts Number Number of PTY users on Linux (for example ssh), Number of RDP users on Windows.
disc Number Number of disconnected users (on Windows only).

Credits, License