Access Points
Access Points
Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: ap
Overview
This collector monitors various wireless access point metrics like connected clients, bandwidth, packets, transmit issues, signal strength, and bitrate for each device and its associated SSID.
This tool uses the iw command-line utility to discover nearby access points. It starts by running iw dev, which provides information about all wireless interfaces. Then, for each interface identified as an access point (type AP), the iw INTERFACE station dump command is executed to gather relevant metrics.
This collector is only supported on the following platforms:
- Linux
This collector only supports collecting metrics from a single instance of this integration.
Default Behavior
Auto-Detection
The plugin is able to auto-detect any access points on your Linux machine.
Limits
The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.
Performance Impact
The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.
Setup
Prerequisites
iw utility.
Make sure the iw utility is installed.
Configuration
File
The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/ap.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 go.d/ap.conf
Options
The following options can be defined globally: update_every.
| Name | Description | Default | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| update_every | Data collection frequency. | 10 | no |
| binary_path | Path to the iw binary. If an absolute path is provided, the collector will use it directly; otherwise, it will search for the binary in directories specified in the PATH environment variable. |
/usr/sbin/iw | yes |
| timeout | Timeout for executing the binary, specified in seconds. | 2 | no |
Examples
Custom binary path
The executable is not in the directories specified in the PATH environment variable.
jobs:
- name: custom_iw
binary_path: /usr/local/sbin/iw
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 wireless device
These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.
Labels:
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
| device | Wireless interface name |
| ssid | SSID |
Metrics:
| Metric | Dimensions | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| ap.clients | clients | clients |
| ap.net | received, sent | kilobits/s |
| ap.packets | received, sent | packets/s |
| ap.issues | retries, failures | issues/s |
| ap.signal | average signal | dBm |
| ap.bitrate | receive, transmit | Mbps |
Alerts
There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.
Troubleshooting
Debug Mode
Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.
To troubleshoot issues with the ap collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output
should give you clues as to why the collector isn’t working.
-
Navigate to the
plugins.ddirectory, usually at/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that’s not the case on your system, opennetdata.confand look for thepluginssetting under[directories].cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ -
Switch to the
netdatauser.sudo -u netdata -s -
Run the
go.d.pluginto debug the collector:./go.d.plugin -d -m ap
Getting Logs
If you’re encountering problems with the ap collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:
- Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
- Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.
System with systemd
Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:
journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep ap
System without systemd
Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector’s name:
grep ap /var/log/netdata/collector.log
Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.
Docker Container
If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named “netdata” (replace if different), use this command:
docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep ap