HTTP Endpoints

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: httpcheck

Overview

This collector monitors HTTP servers availability status and response time.

Possible statuses:

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.

Setup

You can configure the httpcheck collector in two ways:

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

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

via UI

Configure the httpcheck collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the httpcheck data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type httpcheck (or scroll the list) to locate the httpcheck collector.
5. Click the + next to the httpcheck collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/httpcheck.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

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

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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:

Metrics:

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

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
  

  To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m httpcheck -j jobName
  

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