Chrony

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: chrony

Overview

This collector monitors the system's clock performance and peers activity status

It collects metrics by sending UDP packets to chronyd using the Chrony communication protocol v6. Additionally, for data collection jobs that connect to localhost Chrony instances, it collects serverstats metrics (NTP packets, command packets received/dropped) by executing the 'chronyc serverstats' command.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This collector discovers Chrony instance running on the local host and listening on port 323. On startup, it tries to collect metrics from:

• 127.0.0.1:323

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per Chrony instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
chrony.stratum	stratum	level
chrony.current_correction	current_correction	seconds
chrony.root_delay	root_delay	seconds
chrony.root_dispersion	root_delay	seconds
chrony.last_offset	offset	seconds
chrony.rms_offset	offset	seconds
chrony.frequency	frequency	ppm
chrony.residual_frequency	residual_frequency	ppm
chrony.skew	skew	ppm
chrony.update_interval	update_interval	seconds
chrony.ref_measurement_time	ref_measurement_time	seconds
chrony.leap_status	normal, insert_second, delete_second, unsynchronised	status
chrony.activity	online, offline, burst_online, burst_offline, unresolved	sources
chrony.ntp_packets	received, dropped	packets/s
chrony.command_packets	received, dropped	packets/s

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/chrony.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name1

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/chrony.conf

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options

Name	Description	Default	Required
update_every	Data collection frequency.	5	no
autodetection_retry	Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.	0	no
address	Server address. The format is IP:PORT.	127.0.0.1:323	yes
timeout	Connection timeout. Zero means no timeout.	1	no

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:323

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:323

  - name: remote
    address: 192.0.2.1:323

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the chrony collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

• Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m chrony

  To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m chrony -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the chrony collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

• Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
• Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep chrony

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep chrony /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep chrony