Sends a ping message by executing the system ping command and reports the results.
This plugin has two main methods of operation: exec
and native
. The
recommended method is native
, which has greater system compatibility and
performance.
When using method = "exec"
, the systems ping utility is executed to send the
ping packets.
Most ping command implementations are supported, one notable exception being
that there is currently no support for GNU Inetutils ping. You may instead use
the iputils-ping implementation:
apt-get install iputils-ping
When using method = "native"
a ping is sent and the results are reported in
native Go by the agent process, eliminating the need to execute the system
ping
command.
Configuration
[[inputs.ping]]
instance_id = "" # unique instance identifier (REQUIRED)
## Hosts to send ping packets to.
urls = ["example.org"]
## Method used for sending pings, can be either "exec" or "native". When set
## to "exec" the systems ping command will be executed. When set to "native"
## the plugin will send pings directly.
##
# method = "native"
## Number of ping packets to send per interval. Corresponds to the "-c"
## option of the ping command.
# count = 3
## Time to wait between sending ping packets in seconds. Operates like the
## "-i" option of the ping command.
# ping_interval = 1.0
## If set, the time to wait for a ping response in seconds. Operates like
## the "-W" option of the ping command.
# timeout = 1.0
## If set, the total ping deadline, in seconds. Operates like the -w option
## of the ping command.
# deadline = 10
## Interface or source address to send ping from. Operates like the -I or -S
## option of the ping command.
# interface = ""
## Percentiles to calculate. This only works with the native method.
# percentiles = [50, 95, 99]
## Specify the ping executable binary.
# binary = "ping"
## Arguments for ping command. When arguments is not empty, the command from
## the binary option will be used and other options (ping_interval, timeout,
## etc) will be ignored.
# arguments = ["-c", "3"]
## Use only IPv6 addresses when resolving a hostname.
# ipv6 = false
## Number of data bytes to be sent. Corresponds to the "-s"
## option of the ping command. This only works with the native method.
# size = 56
File Limit
Since this plugin runs the ping command, it may need to open multiple files per
host. The number of files used is lessened with the native
option but still
many files are used. With a large host list you may receive a too many open files
error.
To increase this limit on platforms using systemd the recommended method is to
use the "drop-in directory", usually located at
/etc/systemd/system/circonus-unified-agent.service.d
.
You can create or edit a drop-in file in the correct location using:
systemctl edit circonus-unified-agent
Increase the number of open files:
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=8192
Restart circonus-unified-agent:
systemctl edit circonus-unified-agent
Linux Permissions
When using method = "native"
, agent will attempt to use privileged raw
ICMP sockets. On most systems, doing so requires CAP_NET_RAW
capabilities.
With systemd:
systemctl edit circonus-unified-agent
[Service]
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_RAW
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_RAW
systemctl restart circonus-unified-agent
Without systemd:
setcap cap_net_raw=eip /opt/circonus/unified-agent/sbin/circonus-unified-agentd
Reference man 7 capabilities
for more information about
setting capabilities.
When agent cannot listen on a privileged ICMP socket it will attempt to use
ICMP echo sockets. If you wish to use this method you must ensure agent's
group, usually cua
, is allowed to use ICMP echo sockets:
sysctl -w net.ipv4.ping_group_range="GROUP_ID_LOW GROUP_ID_HIGH"
Reference man 7 icmp
for more information about ICMP echo
sockets and the ping_group_range
setting.
Metrics
- ping
- tags:
- fields:
- packets_transmitted (integer)
- packets_received (integer)
- percent_packet_loss (float)
- ttl (integer, Not available on Windows)
- average_response_ms (integer)
- minimum_response_ms (integer)
- maximum_response_ms (integer)
- standard_deviation_ms (integer, Available on Windows only with native ping)
- errors (float, Windows only)
- reply_received (integer, Windows with method = "exec" only)
- percent_reply_loss (float, Windows with method = "exec" only)
- result_code (int, success = 0, no such host = 1, ping error = 2)
reply_received vs packets_received
On Windows systems with method = "exec"
, the "Destination net unreachable" reply will increment packets_received
but not reply_received
*.
ttl
There is currently no support for TTL on windows with "native"
; track
progress at https://github.com/golang/go/issues/7175 and
https://github.com/golang/go/issues/7174
Example Output
ping,url=example.org average_response_ms=23.066,ttl=63,maximum_response_ms=24.64,minimum_response_ms=22.451,packets_received=5i,packets_transmitted=5i,percent_packet_loss=0,result_code=0i,standard_deviation_ms=0.809 1535747258000000000