HTTP Endpoints icon

HTTP Endpoints

HTTP Endpoints

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: httpcheck

Overview

This collector monitors HTTP servers availability status and response time.

Possible statuses:

Status Description
success HTTP request completed successfully with a status code matching the configured status_accepted range (default: 200), and the response body and headers (if configured) match expectations.
timeout HTTP request timed out before receiving a response (default: 1 second).
no_connection Failed to establish a connection to the target.
redirect Received a redirect response (3xx status code) while not_follow_redirects is configured.
bad_status HTTP request completed with a status code outside the configured status_accepted range (default: non-200).
bad_content HTTP request completed successfully but the response body does not match the expected content (when using response_match).
bad_header HTTP request completed successfully but response headers do not match the expected values (when using header_match).

This collector is supported on all platforms.

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

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn’t support auto-detection.

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

You can configure the httpcheck collector in two ways:

Method Best for How to
UI Fast setup without editing files Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for httpcheck, then click + to add a job.
File If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible) Edit go.d/httpcheck.conf and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Group Option Description Default Required
Collection update_every Data collection interval (seconds). 5 no
autodetection_retry Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable. 0 no
Target url Target endpoint URL. yes
timeout HTTP request timeout (seconds). 1 no
Validation status_accepted HTTP accepted response statuses. Anything else results in ‘bad status’ in the status chart. [200] no
response_match If the status code is accepted, match the response body against this regular expression. no
header_match A set of rules to check for specific key-value pairs in response headers. [] no
header_match.exclude When yes, the rule asserts the key-value pair must be absent. no no
header_match.key Exact HTTP header name to check. yes
header_match.value The pattern to match against the header’s value. no
HTTP Auth username Username for Basic HTTP authentication. no
password Password for Basic HTTP authentication. no
bearer_token_file Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for Authorization: Bearer). no
TLS tls_skip_verify Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure). no no
tls_ca Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate. no
tls_cert Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS). no
tls_key Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS). no
Proxy proxy_url HTTP proxy URL. no
proxy_username Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. no
proxy_password Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. no
Request method HTTP method to use. GET no
body Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT). no
headers Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value). no
cookie_file Path to cookie file. See cookie file format. no
not_follow_redirects Do not follow HTTP redirects. no no
force_http2 Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP). no no
Virtual Node vnode Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node. no

via UI

Configure the httpcheck collector from the Netdata web interface:

  1. Go to Nodes.
  2. Select the node where you want the httpcheck data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
  3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
  4. In the Search box, type httpcheck (or scroll the list) to locate the httpcheck collector.
  5. Click the + next to the httpcheck collector to add a new job.
  6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
    • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
    • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/httpcheck.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

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/httpcheck.conf
Examples
Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
With HTTP request headers

Configuration with HTTP request headers that will be sent by the client.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    headers:
      Host: localhost:8080
      User-Agent: netdata/go.d.plugin
      Accept: */*
With status_accepted

A basic example configuration with non-default status_accepted.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    status_accepted:
      - 200
      - 204
With header_match

Example configurations with header_match. See the value pattern syntax.

jobs:
    # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header,
    # but the value of the header does not matter.
    # This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value.
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    header_match:
      - key: X-Robots-Tag

    # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header
    # only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow".
    # This config checks both the presence of the header and its value.
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    header_match:
      - key: X-Robots-Tag
        value: '= noindex,nofollow'

    # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header
    # but the value of the header does not matter.
    # This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value.
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    header_match:
      - key: X-Robots-Tag
        exclude: yes

    # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header
    # only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow".
    # This config checks both the presence of the header and its value.
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    header_match:
      - key: X-Robots-Tag
        exclude: yes
        value: '= noindex,nofollow'
HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
    username: username
    password: password
HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: https://127.0.0.1:8080
    tls_skip_verify: yes
Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8080

  - name: remote
    url: http://192.0.2.1:8080

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 target

The metrics refer to the monitored target.

Labels:

Label Description
url url value that is set in the configuration file.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
httpcheck.response_time time ms
httpcheck.response_length length characters
httpcheck.status success, timeout, redirect, no_connection, bad_content, bad_header, bad_status boolean
httpcheck.in_state time boolean

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name On metric Description
httpcheck_web_service_up httpcheck.status HTTP check endpoint ${label:url} liveness status
httpcheck_web_service_bad_content httpcheck.status Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected content in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_bad_status httpcheck.status Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected status in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_bad_header httpcheck.status Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected header in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_timeouts httpcheck.status Percentage of timed-out HTTP requests to ${label:url} in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_no_connection httpcheck.status Percentage of failed HTTP requests to ${label:url} in the last 5 minutes

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 httpcheck 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.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that’s not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

    cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

  • Switch to the netdata user.

    sudo -u netdata -s

  • Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m httpcheck

    To debug a specific job:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m httpcheck -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the httpcheck 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 httpcheck

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 httpcheck /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 httpcheck

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