Chrony icon

Chrony

Chrony

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: chrony

Overview

This collector monitors the system’s clock performance and peers activity status

It collects metrics by sending UDP packets to chronyd using the Chrony communication protocol v6.

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 collector discovers Chrony instance running on the local host and listening on port 323. On startup, it tries to collect metrics from:

  • 127.0.0.1:323

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

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

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

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/chrony.conf

Options

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

Name Description Default Required
update_every Data collection frequency. 5 no
autodetection_retry Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled. 0 no
address Server address. The format is IP:PORT. 127.0.0.1:323 yes
timeout Connection timeout. Zero means no timeout. 1 no

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:323

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

jobs:
  - name: local
    address: 127.0.0.1:323

  - name: remote
    address: 192.0.2.1:323

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 Chrony instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
chrony.stratum stratum level
chrony.current_correction current_correction seconds
chrony.root_delay root_delay seconds
chrony.root_dispersion root_delay seconds
chrony.last_offset offset seconds
chrony.rms_offset offset seconds
chrony.frequency frequency ppm
chrony.residual_frequency residual_frequency ppm
chrony.skew skew ppm
chrony.update_interval update_interval seconds
chrony.ref_measurement_time ref_measurement_time seconds
chrony.leap_status normal, insert_second, delete_second, unsynchronised status
chrony.activity online, offline, burst_online, burst_offline, unresolved sources

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

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 chrony 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 chrony
    

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the chrony 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 chrony

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 chrony /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 chrony

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