ping

The ping monitoring plugin probes whether remote target addresses respond to ping. If a machine does not block ping, this is a handy way to check whether it is alive.

Configuration

conf/input.ping/ping.toml in categraf.

Configure the machines to probe in targets, which is an array and can hold multiple entries. You can also split them into multiple [[instances]] sections, for example:

[[instances]]
targets = [ "10.4.5.6" ]
labels = { region="cloud", product="n9e" }

[[instances]]
targets = [ "10.4.5.7" ]
labels = { region="cloud", product="zbx" }

The example above pings two addresses, with region and product labels attached to make the data more informative.

File Limit

systemctl edit categraf

Increase the number of open files:

ini

[Service]
LimitNOFILE=8192

Restart Categraf:

systemctl restart categraf

Linux Permissions

On most systems, ping requires CAP_NET_RAW capabilities or for Categraf to be run as root.

With systemd:

systemctl edit categraf

ini

[Service]
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_RAW
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_RAW

systemctl restart categraf

Without systemd:

setcap cap_net_raw=eip /usr/bin/categraf

Reference man 7 capabilities for more information about setting capabilities.

Other OS Permissions

When using method = "native", you will need permissions similar to the executable ping program for your OS.