NTPd

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: ntpd

Overview

This collector monitors the system variables of the local ntpd daemon (optional incl. variables of the polled peers) using the NTP Control Message Protocol via UDP socket, similar to ntpq, the standard NTP query program.

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 NTPd instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
ntpd.sys_offset	offset	milliseconds
ntpd.sys_jitter	system, clock	milliseconds
ntpd.sys_frequency	frequency	ppm
ntpd.sys_wander	clock	ppm
ntpd.sys_rootdelay	delay	milliseconds
ntpd.sys_rootdisp	dispersion	milliseconds
ntpd.sys_stratum	stratum	stratum
ntpd.sys_tc	current, minimum	log2
ntpd.sys_precision	precision	log2

Per peer

These metrics refer to the NTPd peer.

Labels:

Label	Description
peer_address	peer's source IP address

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
ntpd.peer_offset	offset	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_delay	delay	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_dispersion	dispersion	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_jitter	jitter	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_xleave	xleave	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_rootdelay	rootdelay	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_rootdisp	dispersion	milliseconds
ntpd.peer_stratum	stratum	stratum
ntpd.peer_hmode	hmode	hmode
ntpd.peer_pmode	pmode	pmode
ntpd.peer_hpoll	hpoll	log2
ntpd.peer_ppoll	ppoll	log2
ntpd.peer_precision	precision	log2

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/ntpd.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/ntpd.conf

Options

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

Config options

Name	Description	Default	Required
update_every	Data collection frequency.	1	no
autodetection_retry	Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.	0	no
address	Server address in IP:PORT format.	127.0.0.1:123	yes
timeout	Connection/read/write timeout.	1	no
collect_peers	Determines whether peer metrics will be collected.	no	no

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:123

With peers metrics

Collect peers metrics.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:123
    collect_peers: 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
    address: 127.0.0.1:123

  - name: remote
    address: 203.0.113.0:123

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 ntpd 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 ntpd

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the ntpd 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 ntpd

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 ntpd /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 ntpd