Cato Networks

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: cato_networks

Overview

This collector monitors Cato Networks accounts through the Cato GraphQL API.

It discovers sites, collects site, device, and interface status, traffic and quality metrics, collects BGP peer status, and exposes Cato site/device/PoP/BGP topology data. Metrics for each selected site are emitted under a generated virtual node named after the Cato site and keyed by the Cato account ID and site ID. Site labels are still attached to metric series for grouping and aggregation.

The collector uses the Cato GraphQL API endpoint with an account ID and API key.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

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

A Cato API key with permission to read account snapshot, account metrics, entity lookup, and site BGP status data is required.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This collector does not auto-detect Cato accounts. Configure at least one job with account_id and api_key.

Limits

Site discovery is paginated and refreshed hourly. The optional site_selector filters sites before snapshot, metrics, BGP, topology, and generated site virtual-node creation. Account metrics use bounded concurrent one-site API requests to preserve per-Socket device and interface attribution. BGP status uses one per-site API request for each selected site that is not currently cached as having no BGP peers.

Performance Impact

The default interval is 60 seconds. Sites that return a successful BGP response with no peers are cached as non-BGP sites for about one hour, with deterministic per-site jitter across multiple collection cycles to avoid synchronized refresh bursts. If BGP is enabled on such a site, BGP metrics can appear after that cache expires.

Setup

You can configure the cato_networks collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for cato_networks, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/cato_networks.conf and add a job.

important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

Prerequisites

Cato API credentials

Create or obtain a Cato API key and account ID with read access to the required GraphQL API surfaces.

Configuration

Options

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

Config options

Group	Option	Description	Default	Required
Collection	update_every	Data collection interval, in seconds. Must be at least 60.	60	no
	autodetection_retry	Autodetection retry interval, in seconds. Set 0 to disable.	0	no
Target	url	Cato GraphQL API endpoint. Production endpoints must use HTTPS; HTTP is accepted only for loopback test endpoints.	https://api.catonetworks.com/api/v1/graphql2	no
Authentication	account_id	Cato account ID.		yes
	api_key	Cato API key.		yes
HTTP	timeout	HTTP request timeout.	30	no
	proxy_url	HTTP proxy URL. Empty value uses environment proxy variables.		no
Cardinality	site_selector	Space-separated simple patterns matched against the Cato site name when present, otherwise the site ID. Patterns use first-match ordering; put exclusions before broad includes, for example !lab-* *.	*	no
Virtual Node	vnode	Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node.		no

via UI

Configure the cato_networks collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the cato_networks data-collection job to run and click the ⚙ (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type cato_networks (or scroll the list) to locate the cato_networks collector.
5. Click the + next to the cato_networks collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

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

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

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

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/cato_networks.conf

Examples

Basic

Collect Cato Networks account metrics and topology.

Config

jobs:
  - name: account
    account_id: "12345"
    api_key: "replace-with-cato-api-key"

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name	On metric	Description
cato_networks_site_disconnected	cato_networks.site_connectivity_status	Cato site ${label:site_name} reports disconnected connectivity status
cato_networks_site_degraded	cato_networks.site_connectivity_status	Cato site ${label:site_name} reports degraded connectivity status
cato_networks_site_packet_loss	cato_networks.site_packet_loss	Cato site ${label:site_name} packet loss over the last 10 minutes
cato_networks_bgp_session_down	cato_networks.bgp_session_status	Cato BGP session to peer ${label:peer_ip} (${label:peer_asn}) is down

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 site

These metrics refer to a Cato site.

Labels:

Label	Description
site_id	Cato site ID.
site_name	Cato site name.
pop_name	Cato PoP name.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
cato_networks.site_connectivity_status	connected, disconnected, degraded, unknown	status
cato_networks.site_operational_status	active, disabled, locked, unknown	status
cato_networks.site_hosts	hosts	hosts
cato_networks.site_traffic	upstream, downstream	bytes
cato_networks.site_packet_loss	upstream, downstream	percentage
cato_networks.site_discarded_packets	upstream, downstream	packets
cato_networks.site_jitter	upstream, downstream	milliseconds
cato_networks.site_latency	rtt, last_mile	milliseconds
cato_networks.site_last_mile_packet_loss	loss	percentage

Per device

These metrics refer to a Cato Socket or vSocket attached to a site.

Labels:

Label	Description
site_id	Cato site ID.
site_name	Cato site name.
device_id	Cato device ID.
device_name	Cato device name.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
cato_networks.device_connection_status	connected, disconnected	status

Per interface

These metrics refer to a Cato site interface.

Labels:

Label	Description
site_id	Cato site ID.
site_name	Cato site name.
device_id	Cato device ID when the interface owner is known.
device_name	Cato device name when the interface owner is known.
interface_id	Cato interface ID.
interface_name	Interface name.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
cato_networks.interface_connection_status	connected, disconnected	status
cato_networks.interface_tunnel_uptime	uptime	seconds
cato_networks.interface_traffic	upstream, downstream	bytes
cato_networks.interface_packet_loss	upstream, downstream	percentage
cato_networks.interface_discarded_packets	upstream, downstream	packets
cato_networks.interface_jitter	upstream, downstream	milliseconds
cato_networks.interface_latency	rtt	milliseconds

Per bgp peer

These metrics refer to a Cato site BGP peer.

Labels:

Label	Description
site_id	Cato site ID.
site_name	Cato site name.
peer_ip	BGP peer IP.
peer_asn	BGP peer ASN.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
cato_networks.bgp_session_status	up, down, unknown	status
cato_networks.bgp_routes	accepted, limit, rib_out	routes
cato_networks.bgp_routes_limit_status	ok, exceeded	status

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 cato_networks 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 cato_networks

  To debug a specific job:

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

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the cato_networks 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 cato_networks

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 cato_networks /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 cato_networks

API rate limits

Increase update_every or narrow site_selector if the Cato API reports rate limiting.

Connection, TLS, or proxy failures

Check DNS, firewall egress, TLS inspection, proxy settings, endpoint region, and the collector logs.