title: How do I test a manual check in check_mk / Nagios
body: <p>My organization is using Nagios with the <a href="http://mathias-kettner.de/index.html" rel="nofollow">check_mk</a> plugin to monitor our nodes. My question is: is it possible run a <a href="http://mathias-kettner.de/checkmk_manualchecks.html" rel="nofollow">manual check</a> from the command line? It is important, process-wise, to be able to test a configuration change before deploying it.</p>
  
  <p>For example, I've prepared a configuration change which uses the <a href="http://mathias-kettner.de/checkmk_check_ps.perf.html" rel="nofollow">ps.perf</a> check type to check the number of httpd processes on our web servers. The check looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>checks = [
    ( ["web"], ALL_HOSTS, "ps.perf", "Number of httpd processes", ( "/usr/sbin/httpd", 1, 2, 80, 100 ) )
  ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to test this configuration change before committing and deploying it.</p>
  
  <p>Is it possible to run this check via the command line, without first adding it to <code>main.mk</code>? I'm envisioning something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>useful_program -H my.web.node -c ps.perf -A /usr/sbin/httpd,1,2,80,100
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I don't see any way to do something like this in the check_mk documentation, but am hoping there is a way to achieve something like this.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>