eBPF Socket icon

eBPF Socket

eBPF Socket

Plugin: ebpf.plugin Module: socket

Overview

Monitor bandwidth consumption per application for protocols TCP and UDP.

Attach tracing (kprobe, trampoline) to internal kernel functions according options used to compile kernel.

This collector is only supported on the following platforms:

  • Linux

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

The plugin needs setuid because it loads data inside kernel. Netada sets necessary permission during installation time.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

The plugin checks kernel compilation flags (CONFIG_KPROBES, CONFIG_BPF, CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL, CONFIG_BPF_JIT) and presence of BTF files to decide which eBPF program will be attached.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

This thread will add overhead every time that an internal kernel function monitored by this thread is called. The estimated additional period of time is between 90-200ms per call on kernels that do not have BTF technology.

Setup

Prerequisites

Compile kernel

Check if your kernel was compiled with necessary options (CONFIG_KPROBES, CONFIG_BPF, CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL, CONFIG_BPF_JIT) in /proc/config.gz or inside /boot/config file. Some cited names can be different accoring preferences of Linux distributions. When you do not have options set, it is necessary to get the kernel source code from https://kernel.org or a kernel package from your distribution, this last is preferred. The kernel compilation has a well definedd pattern, but distributions can deliver their configuration files with different names.

Now follow steps:

  1. Copy the configuration file to /usr/src/linux/.config.
  2. Select the necessary options: make oldconfig
  3. Compile your kernel image: make bzImage
  4. Compile your modules: make modules
  5. Copy your new kernel image for boot loader directory
  6. Install the new modules: make modules_install
  7. Generate an initial ramdisk image (initrd) if it is necessary.
  8. Update your boot loader

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is ebpf.d/network.conf.

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config ebpf.d/network.conf

Options

All options are defined inside section [global]. Options inside network connections are ignored for while.

Name Description Default Required
update every Data collection frequency. 5 no
ebpf load mode Define whether plugin will monitor the call (entry) for the functions or it will also monitor the return (return). entry no
apps Enable or disable integration with apps.plugin no no
cgroups Enable or disable integration with cgroup.plugin no no
bandwidth table size Number of elements stored inside hash tables used to monitor calls per PID. 16384 no
ipv4 connection table size Number of elements stored inside hash tables used to monitor calls per IPV4 connections. 16384 no
ipv6 connection table size Number of elements stored inside hash tables used to monitor calls per IPV6 connections. 16384 no
udp connection table size Number of temporary elements stored inside hash tables used to monitor UDP connections. 4096 no
ebpf type format Define the file type to load an eBPF program. Three options are available: legacy (Attach only kprobe), co-re (Plugin tries to use trampoline when available), and auto (plugin check OS configuration before to load). auto no
ebpf co-re tracing Select the attach method used by plugin when co-re is defined in previous option. Two options are available: trampoline (Option with lowest overhead), and probe (the same of legacy code). trampoline no
maps per core Define how plugin will load their hash maps. When enabled (yes) plugin will load one hash table per core, instead to have centralized information. yes no
lifetime Set default lifetime for thread when enabled by cloud. 300 no

Examples

There are no configuration examples.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per eBPF Socket instance

These metrics show total number of calls to functions inside kernel.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
ip.inbound_conn connection_tcp connections/s
ip.tcp_outbound_conn received connections/s
ip.tcp_functions received, send, closed calls/s
ip.total_tcp_bandwidth received, send kilobits/s
ip.tcp_error received, send calls/s
ip.tcp_retransmit retransmited calls/s
ip.udp_functions received, send calls/s
ip.total_udp_bandwidth received, send kilobits/s
ip.udp_error received, send calls/s

Per apps

These metrics show grouped information per apps group.

Labels:

Label Description
app_group The name of the group defined in the configuration.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
app.ebpf_call_tcp_v4_connection connections connections/s
app.ebpf_call_tcp_v6_connection connections connections/s
app.ebpf_sock_total_bandwidth received, sent kilobits/s
app.ebpf_call_tcp_sendmsg calls calls/s
app.ebpf_call_tcp_cleanup_rbuf calls calls/s
app.ebpf_call_tcp_retransmit calls calls/s
app.ebpf_call_udp_sendmsg calls calls/s
app.ebpf_call_udp_recvmsg calls calls/s

Per cgroup

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
cgroup.net_conn_ipv4 connections connections/s
cgroup.net_conn_ipv6 connections connections/s
cgroup.net_total_bandwidth received, sent kilobits/s
cgroup.net_tcp_recv calls calls/s
cgroup.net_tcp_send calls calls/s
cgroup.net_retransmit calls calls/s
cgroup.net_udp_send calls calls/s
cgroup.net_udp_recv calls calls/s
services.net_conn_ipv4 connections connections/s
services.net_conn_ipv6 connections connections/s
services.net_total_bandwidth received, sent kilobits/s
services.net_tcp_recv calls calls/s
services.net_tcp_send calls calls/s
services.net_tcp_retransmit calls calls/s
services.net_udp_send calls calls/s
services.net_udp_recv calls calls/s

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

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