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Ping Test Monitoring
The Ping device type is a way of testing the connectivity of a network device. Ping works at the network layer by sending ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo request packets. As such Ping does not require that any particular service be running on the device, just that it be publicly accessible and configured to respond to ICMP packets. Ping sends one or more ICMP echo request packets to the device being tested. It waits for a reply to each packet before sending the next. The time it takes the server to reply to each packet is stored and an average response time is calculated.
Settings
- Packet Count (1-100) How many ICMP packets are to be sent during the test.
- Data Size (56-5000) How many bytes should be sent in the data portion of the packet.
- Max Packet Loss Pct The percentage of packets that can be lost before flagging the device as down.
- Max Avg Response Time The maximum average RTT (round trip time) in milliseconds allowed before flagging the device as down.
Uses
You could use Ping to verify that a server is up when monitoring specific services on that server is not possible. Individual servers may block ICMP traffic for a variety of reasons. In that case you may be able to use Ping to monitor the router the server is connected to. A Ping device tied to a router also makes an excellent Master Device when you are monitoring several servers and services served by the router. By setting the Max Avg Response Time you can also use Ping to notify you when the server's network connection has become unacceptably slow. If your server's normal average RTT is 25ms, you could set this value to 50 or 75. If the response time of the server is that much higher than normal, the connection may be saturated and impacting the experience of your customers. Adjusting the Max Packet Loss Pct value to something less than 100 will alert you when packets are being dropped. If everything is working fine the Ping test should get a reply from the server for each packet it sends. If packets are dropped, e.g. not replied to, then it may be a sign of a routing problem or faulty network equipment. Packets are also sometimes dropped by routers when the connection has become too saturated. This may be one of the first signs of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against your network.
Reporting
After sending Packet Count number of ICMP packets, we record the average RTT (round trip time). The graphic bar you see displayed in the Response Time section of the Device page, and on the Checks page, represents this average response time. The average RTT will also be displayed numerically in milliseconds (ms) on the right-most end of the bar.
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