# Ping Input Plugin

Sends a ping message by executing the system ping command and reports the results.

Most ping command implementations are supported, one notable exception being
that there is currently no support for GNU Inetutils ping.  You may instead
use the iputils-ping implementation:
```
apt-get install iputils-ping
```

### Configuration:

```toml
[[inputs.ping]]
  ## List of urls to ping
  urls = ["example.org"]

  ## Number of pings to send per collection (ping -c <COUNT>)
  # count = 1

  ## Interval, in s, at which to ping. 0 == default (ping -i <PING_INTERVAL>)
  ## Not available in Windows.
  # ping_interval = 1.0

  ## Per-ping timeout, in s. 0 == no timeout (ping -W <TIMEOUT>)
  # timeout = 1.0

  ## Total-ping deadline, in s. 0 == no deadline (ping -w <DEADLINE>)
  # deadline = 10

  ## Interface or source address to send ping from (ping -I <INTERFACE/SRC_ADDR>)
  ## on Darwin and Freebsd only source address possible: (ping -S <SRC_ADDR>)
  # interface = ""

  ## Specify the ping executable binary, default is "ping"
  # binary = "ping"

  ## Arguments for ping command
  ## when arguments is not empty, other options (ping_interval, timeout, etc) will be ignored
  # arguments = ["-c", "3"]
```

#### File Limit

Since this plugin runs the ping command, it may need to open several files per
host.  With a large host list you may receive a `too many open files` error.

To increase this limit on platforms using systemd it must be done in the
service file.


Find the service unit file:
```
$ systemctl show telegraf.service -p FragmentPath
FragmentPath=/lib/systemd/system/telegraf.service
```

Set the file number limit:
```
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=4096
```

### Metrics:

- ping
  - tags:
    - url
  - fields:
    - packets_transmitted (integer)
    - packets_received (integer)
    - percent_packets_loss (float)
    - ttl (integer, Not available on Windows)
    - average_response_ms (integer)
    - minimum_response_ms (integer)
    - maximum_response_ms (integer)
    - standard_deviation_ms (integer, Not available on Windows)
    - errors (float, Windows only)
    - reply_received (integer, Windows only)
    - percent_reply_loss (float, Windows only)
    - result_code (int, success = 0, no such host = 1, ping error = 2)

##### reply_received vs packets_received

On Windows systems, "Destination net unreachable" reply will increment `packets_received` but not `reply_received`.

### Example Output:

**Windows:**
```
ping,url=example.org result_code=0i,average_response_ms=7i,maximum_response_ms=9i,minimum_response_ms=7i,packets_received=4i,packets_transmitted=4i,percent_packet_loss=0,percent_reply_loss=0,reply_received=4i 1469879119000000000
```

**Linux:**
```
ping,url=example.org average_response_ms=23.066,ttl=63,maximum_response_ms=24.64,minimum_response_ms=22.451,packets_received=5i,packets_transmitted=5i,percent_packet_loss=0,result_code=0i,standard_deviation_ms=0.809 1535747258000000000
```