X Ping
Introduction Copied
Geneos X Ping plugin 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 plugin.
Views Copied
View Copied
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 plugin 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 plugin 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). |
Plugin Configuration Copied
Basic Configuration Copied
| 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 Copied
| 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: N o 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 plugins as they too might miss packets. Mandatory: No Default: false |
Example for timeout and allowablePacketLoss Copied
Sample period: 4 seconds
Timeout period: 2 seconds
allowablePacketLoss: 3 (default)
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 Copied
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 Copied
The plugin needs to open network devices, so you should run the Netprobe using root or administrator permission on Unix and Windows, respectively.
On Linux kernel versions 2.6.24 and higher, an alternative to running the Netprobe as root is by setting the CAP_NET_RAW and CAP_NET_ADMIN Linux capabilities on the Netprobe binary using the following command:
setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip <netprobe binary>
When running the Netprobe with set capabilities, the lib64/startup folder in the Netprobe directory should be in the ld.so trusted paths. Otherwise, the runtime libraries will not load properly. For guidance, see Run Netprobe under elevated privileges in Linux.
Third Party Libraries Copied
Windows: The Npcap packet capture library needs to be installed on the host. If Npcap is not installed using WinPcap API-compatible mode, then the Npcap installation directory must be added in the PATH environment variable or the DLL_PATH registry variable.
Unix: The shared library libpcap.so needs to be in the netprobe/lib64 directory. It is recommended to use libpcap.so version 1.0.0 or later.
Note: As the Netprobe needs to be run as root, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is ignored for security reasons.