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HTTP Endpoints

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: httpcheck

Overview

This collector monitors HTTP servers availability status and response time.

Possible statuses:

StatusDescription
successHTTP request completed successfully with a status code matching the configured status_accepted range (default: 200), and the response body and headers (if configured) match expectations.
timeoutHTTP request timed out before receiving a response (default: 1 second).
no_connectionFailed to establish a connection to the target.
redirectReceived a redirect response (3xx status code) while not_follow_redirects is configured.
bad_statusHTTP request completed with a status code outside the configured status_accepted range (default: non-200).
bad_contentHTTP request completed successfully but the response body does not match the expected content (when using response_match).
bad_headerHTTP request completed successfully but response headers do not match the expected values (when using headers_match).

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 target

The metrics refer to the monitored target.

Labels:

LabelDescription
urlurl value that is set in the configuration file.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
httpcheck.response_timetimems
httpcheck.response_lengthlengthcharacters
httpcheck.statussuccess, timeout, redirect, no_connection, bad_content, bad_header, bad_statusboolean
httpcheck.in_statetimeboolean

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/httpcheck.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/httpcheck.conf

Options

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

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.5no
autodetection_retryRecheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.0no
urlServer URL.yes
status_acceptedHTTP accepted response statuses. Anything else will result in 'bad status' in the status chart.[200]no
response_matchIf the status code is accepted, the content of the response will be matched against this regular expression.no
headers_matchThis option defines a set of rules that check for specific key-value pairs in the HTTP headers of the response.[]no
headers_match.excludeThis option determines whether the rule should check for the presence of the specified key-value pair or the absence of it.nono
headers_match.keyThe exact name of the HTTP header to check for.yes
headers_match.valueThe pattern to match against the value of the specified header.no
cookie_filePath to cookie file. See cookie file format.no
timeoutHTTP request timeout.1no
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

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080

With HTTP request headers

Configuration with HTTP request headers that will be sent by the client.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
headers:
Host: localhost:8080
User-Agent: netdata/go.d.plugin
Accept: */*

With status_accepted

A basic example configuration with non-default status_accepted.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
status_accepted:
- 200
- 204

With header_match

Example configurations with header_match. See the value pattern syntax.

Config
jobs:
# The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header,
# but the value of the header does not matter.
# This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value.
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
header_match:
- key: X-Robots-Tag

# The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header
# only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow".
# This config checks both the presence of the header and its value.
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
header_match:
- key: X-Robots-Tag
value: '= noindex,nofollow'

# The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header
# but the value of the header does not matter.
# This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value.
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
header_match:
- key: X-Robots-Tag
exclude: yes

# The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header
# only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow".
# This config checks both the presence of the header and its value.
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
header_match:
- key: X-Robots-Tag
exclude: yes
value: '= noindex,nofollow'

HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080
username: username
password: password

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: https://127.0.0.1:8080
tls_skip_verify: yes

Multi-instance

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

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8080

- name: remote
url: http://192.0.2.1:8080

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 httpcheck 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 httpcheck

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the httpcheck 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 httpcheck

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 httpcheck /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 httpcheck

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