Index
Overview
Statseeker Observability Appliances (OAs) running the Ping service communicate with monitored hardware via Internet Control Method Protocol (ICMP) to determine device availability. The Statseeker server includes a resident OA which handles ping polling from the server and is initially assigned as the default poller for all devices discovered by the Statseeker server.
Each device on the network receives a ping request from each OA polling the device every 15 seconds. These requests are staggered over time, and target devices spread across the network to ensure that this activity doesn't overly impact any single subnet at any time.
Ping polling is enabled for all monitored devices by default, but operates independently from other polling methods within Statseeker and can be enabled/disabled for each monitored device. Devices can also be added to Statseeker as 'ping-only' devices, where they are monitored for availability but not monitored via SNMP. For more information see Adding Ping-Only Devices.
A ping-only entity is created for every device discovered by deployed Observability Appliances (OAs). If multiple OAs are monitoring a single device, a ping-only entity is created for, and ping data is collected by, each OA allowing for the presentation of ping data from multiple locations throughout a network. For more information, see Observability Appliances.
Statseeker collects a range of ping related data:
| Field Title | Description |
| Duplicate Pings | The number of duplicate ping packets Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Ping Jitter | The ping jitter Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Ping Lost | The number of lost ping packets Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Ping Lost Percent | The percentage of lost ping packets Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Outage Time | The duration in seconds before device is declared down |
| Ping Received | The number of received ping packets Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Average Ping RTT | The Average ping RTT to the Device Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Maximum Ping RTT | The maximum ping RTT to the Device Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Minimum Ping RTT | The minimum ping RTT to the Device Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Ping Sent | The number of sent ping packets Timeseries Data: Stats, Formats & Options |
| Ping State | The current ping state of the device from the default poller, one of:
Can be combined with an event format for event-based analytics, see Event Formats |
Ping Outage and State
The Ping State for a monitored device is updated as a result of the ping response, or lack there of. Each device has an associated Outage Time value (defaults to 45s) which specifies the number of seconds to wait after a Ping Lost event before a device is declared 'down'.
- Ping sent and no response received Ping Lost recorded
- 15s later, ping sent and no response
- 15s later, ping sent and no response
- 15s later, ping sent and no response, device declared down
- 15s later, ping sent and no response
- 15s later, ping sent and response received and device declared up
A device's Ping Outage value can be adjusted enabling you to tailor the time Statseeker waits, prior to declaring the device 'down', to suit that specific device and its location within your network. Please contact Statseeker Support to discuss this requirement.
Reporting on Ping Data
Statseeker provides a number of pre-configured ping-specific reports and dashboard panels. These reports and panels typically present ping data from a devices default poller, some will also present data from additional OAs polling the device.
Ping Reports
- Top Delay Graphs - historical Ping RTT data for those devices reporting the highest average Ping RTT from their default poller
- Availability - availability SLA data (requires SLAs configured within Statseeker, see SLA Reporting
- Current Status - current ping status, time in down-state and time since last ping state change (with respect to the default poller)
- Current Unreachable - the Current Status report filtered to devices currently unreachable from the default poller
- Current Unreachable Upstream Devices - the Current Unreachable report filtered to remove devices which are unreachable because an upstream device (will respect to the default poller) is offline
- Statistics - Ping RTT average/min/max, Jitter, Packets sent/lost and percentage lost, with rows for all OAs polling a device
- Outages - ping up/down event record details
Dashboard Content
- Device Viewer - Ping State and Availability, historical Ping RTT average/min/max, Jitter, Packets sent/lost and percentage lost
- Network Summary - Polling and Ping State, time-in-state, and time of last state change, counts of up and down devices
- Ping RTT Comparison - compare ping metrics between 2 devices, or a single device polled from multiple OAs
- Ping RTT Weekly Comparison (graph template) - comparison of the average Ping RTT between last week and this week from the default ping poller for the device with the highest average Ping RTT over the week so far that also matches the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Daily Device Ping Reachability (graph template) - the average ping reachability for the last 7 days across all devices that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Devices by Down Time (pie-chart template) - compares the number of devices that have had various lengths of down time during the dashboard time filter for devices that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Devices Currently Unreachable (table template) - the most recent devices that are currently unreachable via ICMP and that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Ping Down Events Over Time (graph template) - historical counts of the number of ping down events every 5m over the duration of the dashboard time filter that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Device Status World Map (worldmap template) - the number of devices that are currently in an up or down ping state grouped by geolocation that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Unreachable Devices (single stat template) - total number of devices that are classed as unreachable and not responding to ICMP requests, matching the dashboard Group and Device filters
- Ping Events Group Summary (table template) - a summary of the device ping events that occurred over the duration of the dashboard time filter organized by group for devices that match the dashboard Group and Device filters
Custom Report and Dashboard Content
When creating custom reports containing ping data:
- Report Data Type = Device - returns data from the default poller only
- Report Data Type = Ping - returns data from selected ping entities, can be used to return data from any/all poller/s
When creating custom dashboard content the panel's data source (which ping data to use) is defined in the query specified in the Metrics tab.
- Object = Device - returns data from the default poller only
- Object = Ping - returns data from selected ping entities, can be used to return data from any/all poller/s
Groups can be populated with ping entities allowing the group to be used as a filter in report/dashboard configuration. In addition filters can be employed to restrict data to specific ping entities:
- When Report Data Type = Ping, both Attribute and Ping filters can be employed to restrict data to specific ping entities
- When Object Data Type = Ping, filters can be applied to combinations Ping, Device and Poller entities to restrict data to specific ping entities
Maintenance Windows
An offline device does not produce any ping data. To prevent empty rows/records in reports for devices being intentionally taken offline, you can simply disable ping polling for that device.
For a given ping entity to present timeseries data in reports and dashboard panels it requires that both:
- The ping entity has poll = on
- The parent device has ping_poll = on
This means that disabling ping polling on a parent device (ping_poll = off) will prevent ping data from all associated ping entities being presented in reports, without needing to adjust the configuration the ping entity itself.
To disable/enable ping polling:
- For an individual device, see Applying Hardware Configuration Changes from within Reports
- For multiple of devices, see Use Auto-Grouping to Apply Bulk Configuration Changes