badsmtp not working for yellow / unexpected response string?

Hi,

I am using Hobbit 4.2.0 (Ubuntu Hardy package) to monitor a few hosts.

I occasionally get yellow alarm on an "smtp" test, like this:

Thu Apr 2 12:02:14 2009 smtp NOT ok
Service smtp on mail.askmonty.org is not OK : Unexpected service response
Seconds: 0.138234

They seem sporadic (they next test 30 seconds later it is ok again), and I don't really know how to fix it, so I would like to use the badTEST feature to only get an alert if it stays bad for at least 3 attempts:

195.218.93.115  mail.askmonty.org  # smtp badsmtp:1:3:5

Now, this works as I expect if the smtp service goes RED: the test goes clear after one attempt, then yellow, and only red after 5 failed attempts.

However, it does not seem to work for the above yellow warning; the test goes to yellow immediately upon the first failed test.

I checked the docs on badTEST (http://hobbitmon.sourceforge.net/docs/man5/bb-hosts.5.html), but it was not 100% clear to me whether this is expected behaviour or not?

Is there a way to make badTEST work for yellow alarms like the one above, as well as red?

Is it a bug?

Thanks,

• Kristian.