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Smokeping allows you to probe a list of servers, store that data using RRDtool, and generate statistical charts based on RRDtool's output. Smokeping consists of two parts. A daemon runs in the background pinging and collecting data at set intervals. A web interface displays that data in the form of graphs.

This wiki page covers a basic setup of the smokeping daemon and the CGI webinterface.

## Installation

This section covers the installation of Smokeping using the smokeping package. FastCGI on Apache will be setup as described in Apache and FastCGI.

The smokeping package consists of two parts:

- The smokeping daemon and configs in `/etc/smokeping/`. This daemon performs the monitoring.
- The smokeping "htdocs" in `/srv/http/smokeping`. These will be used by the web interface.

In addition to the smokeping package, you will need:

- A tool that smokeping can use for monitoring. fping is the simplest and default method for simple ping probes.
- apache and mod_fcgidAUR for the web interface if you are using Apache.
- fcgiwrap and start and enable fcgiwrap.socket if you are using Nginx
- An image cache directory that the FastCGI script can write to, e.g. `/srv/smokeping/imgcache`
- A data directory that the smokeping daemon can write to, and the FastCGI script can read, e.g. `/srv/smokeping/data`
- To ensure that the main configuration file is readable by the smokeping daemon.

### Optional Prerequisites

If you want to use other probes such as the DNS or http probe you will need other packages as shown below. The configuration of these will is not covered by this wiki page.

Probe | Package Needed
--- | ---
Curl | curl
DNS | bind (for the dig utility)
EchoPing | echoping
SSH | openssh
TelnetIOSPing | perl-net-telnet
AnotherDNS | perl-net-dns
LDAP | perl-ldap
LDAP (tls) | perl-io-socket-ssl
Authen | perl-authen-radius

## Configuration

Smokeping requires you to edit a few files. The unedited files end with the `.dist` extension. Rename the `.dist` files in `/etc/smokeping` to remove the suffix. The find command does this and prints out each file that is being renamed and needs editing:

    # cd /etc/smokeping
    # find . -name '*.dist' -print -execdir sh -c 'mv {} $(basename {} .dist)' \;
    # mv /srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi.dist /srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi

### Editing the configuration file

Next, edit the `/etc/smokeping/config` file; this is smokeping's main configuration file. A brief description of the sections is followed by a complete example.

The General section of the `/etc/smokeping/config` file is the easiest to edit. Personalize the top of the configuration file to match your information. The comments describe each field. Note that if you do not have the `sendmail` program installed (ie from postfix or sendmail) then use something else instead like `/bin/false`. The file you specify must exist or smokeping will error out.

The Alerts section is not needed in this minimal example, so it can be either commented out or removed.

The Database section does not require any changes.

In the Presentation section the path to the template filename needs to be updated.

The Probes section specifies which probes are active. By default only the FPing probe is enabled. This section does not require any changes.

The Slaves section is not needed in this minimal example, so it can be either commented out or removed. Note that if you use the `smokeping_secrets` setting in the Slaves section, you will have to make that file unreadable to the rest of the world, or else smokeping will error: `chmod 600 /etc/smokeping/smokeping_secrets`.

The Targets section specifies which hosts will be probed (pinged in our example). Customize it so that it probes the host(s) you would like to collect statistics on, as shown in the example below.

You can learn more about the Smokeping configuration file with the examples at https://oss.oetiker.ch/smokeping/doc/smokeping_examples.en.html

    /etc/smokeping/config

    *** General ***

    owner     = Your Name Here                            # your name
    contact   = your.email@host.bla                       # your email
    mailhost  = your.smtp.server.bla                      # your mail server
    sendmail  = /bin/false                                # where the sendmail program is
    imgcache  = /srv/smokeping/imgcache                   # filesystem directory where we store files
    imgurl    = imgcache                                  # URL directory to find them
    datadir   = /srv/smokeping/data                       # where we share data between the daemon and webapp
    piddir    = /var/run                                  # filesystem directory to store PID file
    cgiurl    = http://localhost/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi  # exterior URL
    smokemail = /etc/smokeping/smokemail
    tmail     = /etc/smokeping/tmail
    syslogfacility = local0
    # each probe is now run in its own process
    # disable this to revert to the old behaviour
    # concurrentprobes = no

    *** Database ***

    step     = 300
    pings    = 20

    # consfn mrhb steps total

    AVERAGE  0.5   1  1008
    AVERAGE  0.5  12  4320
        MIN  0.5  12  4320
        MAX  0.5  12  4320
    AVERAGE  0.5 144   720
        MAX  0.5 144   720
        MIN  0.5 144   720

    *** Presentation ***

    template = /etc/smokeping/basepage.html

    + charts

    menu = Charts
    title = The most interesting destinations
    ++ stddev
    sorter = StdDev(entries=>4)
    title = Top Standard Deviation
    menu = Std Deviation
    format = Standard Deviation %f

    ++ max
    sorter = Max(entries=>5)
    title = Top Max Roundtrip Time
    menu = by Max
    format = Max Roundtrip Time %f seconds

    ++ loss
    sorter = Loss(entries=>5)
    title = Top Packet Loss
    menu = Loss
    format = Packets Lost %f

    ++ median
    sorter = Median(entries=>5)
    title = Top Median Roundtrip Time
    menu = by Median
    format = Median RTT %f seconds

    + overview

    width = 600
    height = 50
    range = 10h

    + detail

    width = 600
    height = 200
    unison_tolerance = 2

    "Last 3 Hours"    3h
    "Last 30 Hours"   30h
    "Last 10 Days"    10d
    "Last 400 Days"   400d

    *** Probes ***

    + FPing

    binary = /usr/bin/fping

    *** Targets ***

    probe = FPing

    menu = Top
    title = Network Latency Grapher
    remark = Welcome to the SmokePing website of Arch User. \
             Here you will learn all about the latency of our network.

    + targets
    menu = Targets
    title = Targets

    ++ CloudflareDNS

    menu = Cloudflare DNS
    title = Cloudflare DNS server
    host = 1.1.1.1

    ++ GoogleDNS

    menu = Google DNS
    title = Google DNS server
    host = 8.8.8.8

    ++ MultiHost

    menu = Multihost example
    title = CloudflareDNS and Google DNS
    host = /targets/CloudflareDNS /targets/GoogleDNS

#### Notes on the smokeping configuration file syntax

Each + character defines a section in the hierarchy. Spaces are not allowed in the section names. Period and forward slashes should probably also be avoided in section names. This is probably because the RRD files are stored under the data directory with the same exact names as the sections.

In the Targets section, you can define `host` as either a real host name or the path to another section to generate a multiple host chart, as shown in the `MultiHost` example above.

### Setup the rest of the system

Setup the extra directories referenced by the configuration file:

    # mkdir -p /srv/smokeping/data
    # mkdir -p /srv/smokeping/imgcache
    # chown -R smokeping:smokeping /srv/smokeping
    # chown -R http:http /srv/smokeping/imgcache
    # chmod a+rx /srv/smokeping
    # chmod -R a+rx /srv/smokeping/data

Since the smokeping configuration is read by both the smokeping daemon and the FastCGI scripts, so it needs to be readable:

    # chmod a+rx /etc/smokeping
    # chmod a+r /etc/smokeping/config

### Start and enable daemon

Start and enable `smokeping.service`. Then check that it is running.

## Setup web frontend

### Apache

Edit `/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf` so that it includes:

    LoadModule fcgid_module modules/mod_fcgid.so
    <IfModule fcgid_module>
      AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
    </IfModule>

    Alias /smokeping/imgcache /srv/smokeping/imgcache
    Alias /smokeping /srv/http/smokeping

    <Directory "/srv/smokeping/imgcache">
      AllowOverride all
      Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Directory "/srv/http/smokeping">
     Options FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
     AllowOverride all
     Require all granted
    </Directory>

Start Apache via the `httpd.service`.

Check that http://localhost/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi loads. The first data should appear after a couple of minutes.

If the fonts in the graphs are unreadable, you may need to install the ttf-dejavu package.

### Caddy

Thanks to the Caddy community and with this configuration file /etc/smokeping/config and with enable `fcgiwrap.socket`

    /etc/caddy/caddy.conf.d/smokeping.conf

    smokeping.example.com {

            log stdout
            errors

            tls john@example.com
            root /srv/http/smokeping

            fastcgi / unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.sock {
                    env SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi.dist
            }
    }

    smokeping.example.com/js {
            root /srv/http/smokeping/js
    }

    smokeping.example.com/css {
            root /srv/http/smokeping/css
    }

    smokeping.example.com/cache {
            root /var/cache/smokeping
    }

An updated version of this Caddy configuration for smokeping - https://gist.github.com/Strykar/4df1eb8aebc4d5f7039f6045301352c7

### Caddy 2

Thanks to the francislavoie and Caddy community and to the Caddy docs. Start and enable fcgiwrap.socket!

    /etc/caddy/caddy.conf.d/smokeping.conf

    smokeping.example.com {

        handle /js/* {
            root * /srv/http/smokeping/
            file_server
        }
        handle /css/* {
            root * /srv/http/smokeping/
            file_server
        }
        handle /imgcache/* {
            root * /srv/http/smokeping/
            file_server
        }
        handle /images/* {
            root * /srv/http/smokeping/
            file_server
        }

        handle {
            root * /srv/http/smokeping/
            reverse_proxy unix//var/run/fcgiwrap.sock {
                transport fastcgi {
                    env SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi
                    split ""
                }
            }
        }
    }

### Lighttpd

First install lighttpd and fcgi.

Edit the Lighttpd configuration file and ensure you have at least all of the following configuration directives:

    /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

    server.document-root    = "/srv/http"
    server.follow-symlink   = "enable"

    server.modules += ("mod_fastcgi")
    fastcgi.server = (
            ".fcgi" =>
            ((
                    "bin-path" => "/srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi",
                    "host" => "localhost",
                    "port" => 8001,
            )),
    )

Start/enable the `lighttpd.service`

Systemd should show `smokeping_cgi` being managed by `lighttpd.service`.

    $ systemctl status lighttpd

    ● lighttpd.service - Lighttpd Web Server
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/lighttpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-12-26 14:34:42 PST; 1 day 7h ago
      Process: 17117 ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Main PID: 28321 (lighttpd-angel)
        Tasks: 6 (limit: 4915)
       Memory: 128.9M
       CGroup: /system.slice/lighttpd.service
               ├─17119 /usr/bin/lighttpd -D -f /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
               ├─17126 /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/smokeping_cgi /etc/smokeping/config
               ├─17127 /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/smokeping_cgi /etc/smokeping/config
               ├─17128 /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/smokeping_cgi /etc/smokeping/config
               ├─17129 /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/smokeping_cgi /etc/smokeping/config
               └─28321 /usr/bin/lighttpd-angel -D -f /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Finally, add a symbolic link to allow images to load:

    # ln -s -t /srv/http/smokeping /srv/smokeping/imgcache

### Nginx

Ensure that `fcgiwrap.socket` and `nginx.service` are both running via systemctl.

Add a server block for smokeping to `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`, following is an example for a TLS enabled block.

       server {
           server_name smokeping.example.com;
           listen 443 ssl http2;
           listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
           root /srv/http/smokeping/;
           index smokeping.fcgi;
           gzip off;
           location ~ \.fcgi$ {
               fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
               include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
               fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/http/smokeping/smokeping.fcgi;
               fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.sock;
           }
           location /imgcache {
               alias /srv/smokeping/imgcache;
               gzip off;
           }
       }

Verify that your configuration is fine via `nginx -t` as the root user and reload the configuration via `nginx -s reload` as the root user.

## Advanced Configuration

Smokeping is a powerful tool that can be configured in many ways. You can setup many different types of probes. You can setup slave smokeping servers that can send their statistics and show you probes from other servers. You can also create your custom probes in perl. These options are currently not covered by this guide, please consult the documentation on the Smokeping website instead. Also see - https://github.com/oetiker/SmokePing/wiki/FAQ

## Notes

### Smoketrace (Tr.cgi)

The SmokeTraceroute utility is gone since v2.5.0 according to the release notes.

Category:

- Network monitoring