Handling of errors for ExternalParameter

[rz]

Hello,

1. I'd be usefull to notify admin that monitoring by using ExternalParameter/ExternalParameterShellExec commands is not working correctly.

If external command is failed, I expect that
 - event should be raised (e.g. SYS_DCI_UNSUPPORTED or any other new event) 
 - "Data collection error" of the ExternalParameter command should be set to <<ERROR>>, so it could be at least checked externally via thresholds.

I've tested these error conditions: invalid command is launched, script having no execution permission is launched, syntax-error happens in shell/perl scripts, command returns non zero return code. I've tested it on linux/solaris servers (version 1.2.14) with following result: default value (i.e. 0 for int) or first value send to stdout is returned, no error is shown in the logfile, no event is raised. So it is impossible to identify incorrect commands. The same happens for ExternalParameter and ExternalParameterShellExec parameters.

2. It could be probably better to raise event automatically if error happens, without explicit testing of "Data collection error" status via threshold for each external parameter.  The same behaviour could be applied for external commands with execution timeout exceeded (note: for timeouted external commands "Data collection error" status is set to <<ERROR>> and error could be seen in the logfile, but no event is raised).

3. I'd appreciate if it is possible to see raw output (stdout/stderr) for these external commands from the console.

Kind Regards,
Roman