Blackbox exporter

Prometheus exporter that probes endpoints over HTTP/HTTPS/DNS/TCP/ICMP.

Documentation

github	https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter
config syntax	https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md
example config	https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter/blob/master/example.yml

Locations

9115	default port
http://localhost:9115	simple web-ui, with sample probe to prometheus.io
${PREFIX}/etc/blackbox_exporter.yml	config

Notes

blackbox_exporter install

blackbox_exporter configuration

blackbox_exporter usage

blackbox_exporter debugging

Testing

/usr/bin/env /usr/local/bin/blackbox_exporter \
  --web.listen-address=127.0.0.1:9115 \
  --config.file=/usr/local/etc/blackbox_exporter.yml

Usage

Metrics

• probe_success: the probe passed (no search results if no passes!)
• up: the metric was reachable
• promhttp_metric_handler_requests_total

up{instance="https://willpittman.net"}
absent_over_time(promhttp_metric_handler_requests_total{instance="https://willpittman.net", code="200"}[1s])

Debugging

The best method of testing seems to be from a web-browser (not w3m). You can simulate a configured probe using HTTP params against blackbox's url.

- open:  http://${IP}:9115/probe?target=https://willpittman.net&module=http_2xx&debug=true
- click: 'Logs' in a failed recent probe
- see:   request logs are at the top
- see:   at the very bottom, you're looking for 'probe_success 1'