Introduction
Geneos X-Ping Plug-in checks the network path to a specified target node and the availability of the node. It sends ICMP or TCP packets to the target host and measures the time it takes to reply. If no reply received after a defined time interval, the target node is assumed to be down or unreachable. The target host does not need to run any special software to provide the replies.
Multiple hosts can be monitored by one X-Ping plug-in.
Views
View
Headline Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| localInterface | Name of the local interface used to send the packets. |
| sourceNode | The source IP address to be used in the outbound packets. |
Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| targetNode | Name of the host that the ping requests are sent to. |
| targetAddress | IP address of the target host. |
| serviceName |
If the plug-in is configured to use ICMP, then this shows ICMP_ECHO. If it is configured to use TCP, this shows the TCP service name that is used to send the echo packets. Defaults to ECHO (port 7), but can be configured to be any port/service. |
| servicePort | If the plug-in is configured to use ICMP, then this shows 0. Otherwise, it shows the service port number used. |
| turnaroundTime | Time in ms that a packet takes to travel to the target host and back. |
| status |
Status of the targetNode. Possible values are the following:
|
| failurePercent | Failure percentage from the initial packet sent up to the last (initial sampling up to the latest sampling). |
Plug-in Configuration
Basic Configuration
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Target nodes |
Name or the IP address of the target node that is being monitored. Mandatory: Yes |
| Recv interfaces |
Specifies a comma-separated list of network interface names to be used. On UNIX machines, interface names can be found using the
command On Windows machines, interface names can be listed
by running Netprobe using the Mandatory: Yes |
| Send interface |
Name of the network interface to be used to send packets (e.g. hme0). Usually the same as recvInterface parameter, but can be set to a different value in certain network configurations. Mandatory: Yes |
Advanced Configuration
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Source IP |
The Source IP address to be used in the outbound test packets. Mandatory: No Default: Defaults to the default IP address on the card. |
| Timeout |
Period within where a reply to a packet that was sent out is expected. If a reply is not received within this period, then the packet is considered lost. Packets are only fired on sample. This means that if a packet is considered lost, then the next packet fire would occur at the next sample. Packets will not be re-fired as soon as the timeout has been reached. Note: With the allowablePacketLoss setting,
multiple packets may be lost before the plugin
reports that the particular target is
unreachable.
Mandatory: No Default: |
| Allowable packet loss |
Maximum number of consecutive packets
that can be lost without setting the status to For example, if the allowable packet loss is set to See Example for timeout and allowablePacketLoss Mandatory: No Default: |
| Protocol |
Type of protocol to use. Possible values are Mandatory: No Default: |
| ICMP payload size |
Size of the payload to send with ICMP (ping) packets. The payload is an optional element in the packet sent to the target host, and is echoed back in the reply. Mandatory: No Default: 0 (no payload sent) |
| Check target host has changed IP |
Forces X-Ping to detect if the underlying IP address of a host name has changed. This will restart the packet capture engine so X-Ping will continue to ping the correct host. In between restarts there is a potential for losing packets. Note: Restarting the packet capture engine will affect all X-Set plug-ins as they too might miss packets. Mandatory: No Default: false |
Example for timeout and allowablePacketLoss
0 sec [sample] Fire packet.
1 sec
2 sec Timeout has occurred. Packet is considered lost. (Total lost: 1)
3 sec
4 sec [sample] Re-fire packet.
5 sec
6 sec Timeout has occurred. Packet is considered lost. (Total lost: 2)
7 sec
8 sec [sample] Re-fire packet.
9 sec
10 sec Timeout has occurred. Packet is considered lost. (Total lost: 3)
11 sec
12 sec [sample] Re-fire packet.
13 sec
14 sec Timeout has occurred. Packet is considered lost. (Total lost: 4)
15 sec
16 sec [sample] Re-fire packet. (report 'UNREACHABLE')TCP Protocol
If TCP is chosen as the protocol, then you need to define the port number that packets are sent to, and optionally, the name of the service. If the name of the service is provided, then it will be displayed in the dataview. Otherwise, only the port number is shown.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name |
Name of service to ping. Mandatory: No |
| Port |
Port number of the service to ping. Mandatory: Yes |
Permissions
The plug-in requires the netprobe to be run with root permissions (on Unix operating systems), as it needs to open network devices.
On Linux kernel versions 2.6.24 and up, an
alternative to running the netprobe as root is
available: Set the CAP_NET_RAW and CAP_NET_ADMIN Linux capability on
the netprobe binary with the command setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip <netprobebinary> replacing <netprobebinary> with the appropriate
netprobe binary file such as netprobe.linux_64.
When running the netprobe with set capabilities, the lib64 folder in the netprobe directory should be put in the ld.so trusted paths. Otherwise, the runtime libraries will not be loaded properly. For guidance, see Run Netprobe under elevated privileges in Linux in .
Third Party Libraries
Windows Vista/Server 2003: Version 4.0.2 of the Winpcap packet capture library (http://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm) must be installed on the host.
Windows 10 does not require Winpcap library.
Unix: The shared library libpcap.so (version 1.0.0 or later is recommended) needs to be in the netprobe lib64 directory.
Note: As the netprobe needs to be run as root, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is ignored for security reasons.