ICMP Exporter

A prometheus ICMP exporter specifically designed to be able to measure the latency across point to point links.

Installation and Usage

The icmp_exporter listens on HTTP port 10035 by default. See the --help output for more options. You must provide a configuration file using the --collector.config.file option to start the exporter.

To allow the exporter to create raw ICMP sockets, you must set the required capability on the exporter binary as below. Alternatively, you may run the exporter as root (NOT RECOMMENDED).

setcap cap_net_raw=+ep /path/to/icmp_exporter

You may then run the exporter using the command below.

./icmp_exporter --collector.config.file=/path/to/config/file.yml

Configuration

Configuration of ping targets is done using a simple yaml file. No configuration option is required (although the exporter won't be very useful if you don't declare any targets).

General Configuration Options:

Option	Description	Required	Default
default_ttl	The TTL to use for a target if none is specified.	❌	64
default_size	The default size of packets sent if the target does not specify a value. The minimum value is 24.	❌	24
default_count	The default number of packets to send if the target does not specify a value.	❌	1
default_interval	The default interval between sending packets in milliseconds if the target does not specify a value.	❌	1000
timeout	Timeout in milliseconds for ICMP requests after which they are assumed lost.	❌	5000
targets	A list of targets to ping	❌

Target Configuration Options:

Option	Description	Required	Default
host	IP address or hostname of target.	✅
interface	Interface to ping target from.	❌
ttl	TTL for ICMP packet.	❌	Value of default_ttl
size	Size of ICMP packets to send. The minimum value is 24.	❌	Value of default_size
count	Number of packets to send.	❌	Value of default_count
interval	Interval between sending packets in milliseconds.	❌	Value of default_interval

Examples

Minimum configuration

targets:
  - host: 8.8.8.8
  - host: 192.168.150.150

All options

default_ttl: 1
default_size: 56
default_count: 2
default_interval: 500

targets:
  - host: 8.8.8.8
    ttl: 64
    count: 5
    size: 24
    interval: 1000

  - host: 192.168.150.150
    interface: eth0

Licence

This repo uses the REUSE standard in order to communicate the correct licence for the file. For those unfamiliar with the standard the licence for each file can be found in one of three places. The licence will either be in a comment block at the top of the file, in a .license file with the same name as the file, or in the dep5 file located in the .reuse directory. If you are unsure of the licencing terms please contact [email protected]. All files committed to this repo must contain valid licencing information or the pull request can not be accepted.