CMD not valid. Partial Result:

[BelgianViking]

I 'm trying to to better understand and use scripting in Cacti, although I have no programming background at all. I thought the great "Script to Graph Walkthrough" was a good challenge to start with. I had to change some of the details to make it work on Windows, but that went smoothly. I created a VBS script that generates a random number. Than I create a php script that prints this number.
This script is as simple as this:
<?
$Return = `cscript //Nologo random.vbs`;
print trim($Return);
?>

Running it from the command line gives me the right output:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\scripts>c:\php\php.exe random.php
0.4340479

However, the graph is not displaying values, and the gprint of the 'current value' displays the famous "-1,#J". The RRD file is created and the Graph debug mode says OK.

When turning on the debug level I found this in the cacti log:

06/08/2005 10:27:27 AM - POLLER: Poller[0] CACTI2RRD: c:\rrdtool\rrdtool.exe update c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\rra\random_number_129.rrd --template random_number 1118219226:U

When I ran the poller manually [c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti>c:\php\php.exe poller.php], an "Open with ..." window pops up, saying : Click the program you want to use to open 'random.php'

So, I made the default application to use "php-win.exe". Now, I got the following error when debugging:
06/08/2005 01:42:02 PM - CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[0] CMD: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\scripts\random.php, output: U
06/08/2005 01:42:02 PM - CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[0] WARNING: Result from CMD not valid. Partial Result:


Anyone has some suggestions ?

For whom it is relevent; using Cacti 8.6.c and the CMD poller.

Thanks already !!

[BSOD2600]

Try simply running php poller.php with out the .EXE for starters.

Look in the debug a little more for when cacti runs the script and attemps to return something. What is the output / error?

[BelgianViking]

I ran the poller as you asked and set the logging to DEBUG. I've attached the full log, allthough it contains a lot of overhead from my other devices.
I can't find any more detailed stuff on the OUTPUT you indicate, but I might overlook something. Or do I need other/more loggings ?
Thanks already !!

[BSOD2600]

Hmm, did you grant the proper permissions to the user for the schedule task to cmd.exe, php-win.exe, random.php, and rrdtool.exe ?

[BelgianViking]

I think so. I made the Administrator the sheduled task user, and I logged in as Administrator and ran the poller manually. Same result. And since all the other stuff works, it could only have been random.php-rights, the others are used for all stats ...
Is there any way to get more information or error messages, maybe by changing some scripts ?

[TheWitness]

please include full path to vbs code in your script.

TheWitness

[BelgianViking]

My script is now
<?php
$Return = `cscript //Nologo c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti/random.vbs`;
print trim($Return);
?>
... but it doesn't do the trick ... Damn.
Allthough it doesn't make me less enthousiast about Cacto

[TheWitness]

that's vbs, make sure you use only back slashes...

TheWitness

[BelgianViking]

OK, fair enough. Tried this
<?php
$Return = `cscript //Nologo c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\\random.vbs`;
print trim($Return);
?>
Same result.

In order to skip the VBS sidestep (which I wanted to test) I now created this php script that generates the random number itself:
<?php
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$Return = rand(0,1000)/1000;
print trim($Return);
?>

It also works OK on the command line, but not through the poller. Same errors.

[TheWitness]

single backslash please

[BelgianViking]

The double backslash works fine when I run it manually. If I ommit the second, the '\r' gets interpreted as the carriage return.
Still, the version without the call to the vbs should do the job too...

[TheWitness]

What happens if you use all forward slashes?

TheWitness

[BelgianViking]

It does exactly the same thing; works on command line, same error in log when running through the poller.

[TheWitness]

Try this:

<?php
$command = addslashes("cscript //Nologo c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\random.vbs");
$Return = `$command`;
print trim($Return) . "\n";
?>

Larry

[BelgianViking]

Running this gave me the same '\r' interpretation (I attached a screenshot). Making it double backslashes does the trick (can see it in the screenshot too). Using slashes instead works too.
But in the cacti log ... it is the same error that appears...