Ping icon

Ping

Ping

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: ping

Overview

This module measures round-trip time and packet loss by sending ping messages to network hosts.

There are two operational modes:

  • Privileged (send raw ICMP ping, default). Requires the necessary permissions (CAP_NET_RAW on Linux, setuid bit on other systems).

    These permissions are automatically set during Netdata installation. However, if you need to set them manually:

    • set CAP_NET_RAW (Linux only). 
      sudo setcap CAP_NET_RAW=eip <INSTALL_PREFIX>/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin
    • set setuid bit (Other OS). 
      sudo chmod 4750 <INSTALL_PREFIX>/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin

  • Unprivileged (send UDP ping, Linux only). Requires configuring ping_group_range:

    This configuration is not set automatically and requires manual configuration.

    sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ping_group_range="0 2147483647"

    To persist the change add net.ipv4.ping_group_range=0 2147483647 to /etc/sysctl.conf and execute sudo sysctl -p.

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

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

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

Options

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

Name Description Default Required
update_every Data collection frequency. 5 no
autodetection_retry Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled. 0 no
hosts Network hosts. yes
network Allows configuration of DNS resolution. Supported options: ip (select IPv4 or IPv6), ip4 (select IPv4), ip6 (select IPv6). ip no
interface The network device name (e.g., eth0, wlan0) used as the source for ICMP echo requests. no
privileged Ping packets type. “no” means send an “unprivileged” UDP ping, “yes” - raw ICMP ping. yes no
packets Number of ping packets to send. 5 no
interval Timeout between sending ping packets. 100ms no

Examples

IPv4 hosts

An example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: example
    hosts:
      - 192.0.2.0
      - 192.0.2.1
Unprivileged mode

An example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: example
    privileged: no
    hosts:
      - 192.0.2.0
      - 192.0.2.1
Multi-instance

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

Multiple instances.

jobs:
  - name: example1
    hosts:
      - 192.0.2.0
      - 192.0.2.1

  - name: example2
    packets: 10
    hosts:
      - 192.0.2.3
      - 192.0.2.4

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 host

These metrics refer to the remote host.

Labels:

Label Description
host remote host

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
ping.host_rtt min, max, avg milliseconds
ping.host_std_dev_rtt std_dev milliseconds
ping.host_packet_loss loss percentage
ping.host_packets received, sent packets

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name On metric Description
ping_host_reachable ping.host_packet_loss network host ${lab1el:host} reachability status
ping_packet_loss ping.host_packet_loss packet loss percentage to the network host ${label:host} over the last 10 minutes
ping_host_latency ping.host_rtt average latency to the network host ${label:host} over the last 10 seconds

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 ping 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 ping

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the ping 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 ping

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 ping /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 ping

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