Softnet Statistics

Plugin: proc.plugin Module: /proc/net/softnet_stat

Overview

/proc/net/softnet_stat provides statistics that relate to the handling of network packets by softirq.

It provides information about:

• Total number of processed packets (processed).
• Times ksoftirq ran out of quota (dropped).
• Times net_rx_action was rescheduled.
• Number of times processed all lists before quota.
• Number of times did not process all lists due to quota.
• Number of times net_rx_action was rescheduled for GRO (Generic Receive Offload) cells.
• Number of times GRO cells were processed.

Monitoring the /proc/net/softnet_stat file can be useful for:

• Network performance monitoring: By tracking the total number of processed packets and how many packets were dropped, you can gain insights into your system's network performance.

• Troubleshooting: If you're experiencing network-related issues, this collector can provide valuable clues. For instance, a high number of dropped packets may indicate a network problem.

• Capacity planning: If your system is consistently processing near its maximum capacity of network packets, it might be time to consider upgrading your network infrastructure.

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 integration doesn't support auto-detection.

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 Softnet Statistics instance

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
system.softnet_stat	processed, dropped, squeezed, received_rps, flow_limit_count	events/s

Per cpu core

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
cpu.softnet_stat	processed, dropped, squeezed, received_rps, flow_limit_count	events/s

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name	On metric	Description
1min_netdev_backlog_exceeded	system.softnet_stat	average number of dropped packets in the last minute due to exceeded net.core.netdev_max_backlog
1min_netdev_budget_ran_outs	system.softnet_stat	average number of times ksoftirq ran out of sysctl net.core.netdev_budget or net.core.netdev_budget_usecs with work remaining over the last minute (this can be a cause for dropped packets)

Setup

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

There is no configuration file.

Options

There are no configuration options.

Examples

There are no configuration examples.