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Blackbox

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: prometheus

Overview

Track external service availability and response times with Blackbox monitoring.

Metrics are gathered by periodically sending HTTP requests to Blackbox exporter.

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

By default, it detects instances running on the local host by trying to connect to known ports that are allocated to exporters.

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

This collector has built-in grouping logic based on the type of metrics.

MetricChartDimension(s)Algorithm
Gaugefor each label setone, the metric nameabsolute
Counterfor each label setone, the metric nameincremental
Summary (quantiles)for each label set (excluding 'quantile')for each quantileabsolute
Summary (sum and count)for each label setthe metric nameincremental
Histogram (buckets)for each label set (excluding 'le')for each bucketincremental
Histogram (sum and count)for each label setthe metric nameincremental

Untyped metrics (have no '# TYPE') processing:

  • As Counter or Gauge depending on pattern match when 'fallback_type' is used.
  • As Counter if it has suffix '_total'.
  • As Summary if it has 'quantile' label.
  • As Histogram if it has 'le' label.

The rest are ignored.

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

Install Exporter

Install Blackbox exporter by following the instructions mentioned in the exporter README.

Configuration

File

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

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/prometheus.conf

Options

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

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.10no
autodetection_retryRecheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.0no
urlServer URL.yes
selectorTime series selector (filter).no
fallback_typeTime series selector (filter).no
max_time_seriesGlobal time series limit. If an endpoint returns number of time series > limit the data is not processed.2000no
max_time_series_per_metricTime series per metric (metric name) limit. Metrics with number of time series > limit are skipped.200no
label_prefixAn optional prefix that will be added to all labels of all charts. If set, the label names will be automatically formatted as prefix_name (the prefix followed by an underscore and the original name).no
timeoutHTTP request timeout.10no
usernameUsername for basic HTTP authentication.no
passwordPassword for basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_urlProxy URL.no
proxy_usernameUsername for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_passwordPassword for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
methodHTTP request method.GETno
bodyHTTP request body.no
headersHTTP request headers.no
not_follow_redirectsRedirect handling policy. Controls whether the client follows redirects.nono
tls_skip_verifyServer certificate chain and hostname validation policy. Controls whether the client performs this check.nono
tls_caCertification authority that the client uses when verifying the server's certificates.no
tls_certClient TLS certificate.no
tls_keyClient TLS key.no
selector

This option allows you to filter out unwanted time series. Only metrics matching the selector will be collected.

  • Logic: (pattern1 OR pattern2) AND !(pattern3 or pattern4)
  • Pattern syntax: selector.
  • Option syntax:
selector:
allow:
- pattern1
- pattern2
deny:
- pattern3
- pattern4
fallback_type

This option allows you to process Untyped metrics as Counter or Gauge instead of ignoring them.

fallback_type:
counter:
- metric_name_pattern1
- metric_name_pattern2
gauge:
- metric_name_pattern3
- metric_name_pattern4

Examples

Basic

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

Read metrics from a file

An example configuration to read metrics from a file.

Config
# use "file://" scheme
jobs:
- name: myapp
url: file:///opt/metrics/myapp/metrics.txt

HTTP authentication

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
username: username
password: password

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: https://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
tls_skip_verify: yes

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique. Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

- name: remote
url: http://192.0.2.1:9090/metrics

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 prometheus 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 prometheus

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the prometheus 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 prometheus

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 prometheus /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 prometheus

Do you have any feedback for this page? If so, you can open a new issue on our netdata/learn repository.