StrafePingMonitor

This monitor is used to monitor packet delay variation to a specific endpoint using ICMP. The main use case is to monitor a WAN end point and visualize packet loss and ICMP packet round trip time deviation. The StrafePingMonitor performs multiple ICMP echo requests (ping) and stores the response-time of each as well as the packet loss, in a RRD file. Credit is due to Tobias Oetiker, as this graphing feature is an adaptation of the SmokePing tool that he developed.

Figure 1. Visualization of a graph from the StrafePingMonitor

Monitor Facts

Class Name

org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.StrafePingMonitor

Remote Enabled

false

Configuration and Use

Monitor specific parameters for the StrafePingMonitor

Parameter Description Required Default value

Parameter	Description	Required	Default value
`timeout`	Time in milliseconds to wait before assuming that a packet has not responded	optional	`800`
`retry`	The number of retries to attempt when a packet fails to respond in the given timeout	optional	`2`
`ping-count`	The number of pings to attempt each interval	required	`20`
`failure-ping-count`	The number of pings that need to fail for the service to be considered down	required	`20`
`allow-fragmentation`	Whether to set the "Don’t Fragment" bit on outgoing packets	optional	`true`
`dscp`	DSCP traffic-control value.	optional	`0`
`packet-size`	Number of bytes of the ICMP packet to send.	optional	`64`
`wait-interval`	Time in milliseconds to wait between each ICMP echo-request packet	required	`50`
`rrd-repository`	The location to write RRD data. Generally, you will not want to change this from default	required	`${OPENNMS_HOME}/share/rrd/response`
`rrd-base-name`	The name of the RRD file to write (minus the extension, `.rrd` or `.jrb`)	required	`strafeping`

timeout

Time in milliseconds to wait before assuming that a packet has not responded

optional

800

retry

The number of retries to attempt when a packet fails to respond in the given timeout

optional

2

ping-count

The number of pings to attempt each interval

required

20

failure-ping-count

The number of pings that need to fail for the service to be considered down

required

20

allow-fragmentation

Whether to set the "Don’t Fragment" bit on outgoing packets

optional

true

dscp

DSCP traffic-control value.

optional

0

packet-size

Number of bytes of the ICMP packet to send.

optional

64

wait-interval

Time in milliseconds to wait between each ICMP echo-request packet

required

50

rrd-repository

The location to write RRD data. Generally, you will not want to change this from default

required

${OPENNMS_HOME}/share/rrd/response

rrd-base-name

The name of the RRD file to write (minus the extension, .rrd or .jrb)

required

strafeping

This monitor implements the Common Configuration Parameters.

Examples

The StrafePingMonitor is typically used on WAN connections and not activated for every ICMP enabled device in your network. Further this monitor is much I/O heavier than just a simple RRD graph with a single ICMP response time measurement. By default you can find a separate poller package in the 'poller-configuration.xml' called strafer. Configure the include-range or a filter to enable monitoring for devices with the service StrafePing.

Don’t forget to assign the service StrafePing on the IP interface to be activated.

The following example enables the monitoring for the service StrafePing on IP interfaces in the range 10.0.0.1 until 10.0.0.20. Additionally the Nodes have to be in a surveillance category named Latency.

<package name="strafer" >
   <filter>categoryName == 'Latency'</filter>
   <include-range begin="10.0.0.1" end="10.0.0.20"/>
   <rrd step="300">
     <rra>RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:2016</rra>
     <rra>RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:12:1488</rra>
     <rra>RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:288:366</rra>
     <rra>RRA:MAX:0.5:288:366</rra>
     <rra>RRA:MIN:0.5:288:366</rra>
   </rrd>
   <service name="StrafePing" interval="300000" user-defined="false" status="on">
     <parameter key="retry" value="0"/>
     <parameter key="timeout" value="3000"/>
     <parameter key="ping-count" value="20"/>
     <parameter key="failure-ping-count" value="20"/>
     <parameter key="wait-interval" value="50"/>
     <parameter key="rrd-repository" value="/opt/opennms/share/rrd/response"/>
     <parameter key="rrd-base-name" value="strafeping"/>
   </service>
   <downtime interval="30000" begin="0" end="300000"/>
   <downtime interval="300000" begin="300000" end="43200000"/>
   <downtime interval="600000" begin="43200000" end="432000000"/>
   <downtime begin="432000000" delete="true"/>
 </package>
 <monitor service="StrafePing" class-name="org.opennms.netmgt.poller.monitors.StrafePingMonitor"/>