---
title: Telegraf Documentation
description: Telegraf plugin for collecting metrics from Fail2ban
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1/input-plugins/fail2ban/
estimated_tokens: 1331
product: Telegraf
version: v1
---

-   Telegraf v1.4.0+

# Fail2ban Input Plugin

This plugin gathers the count of failed and banned IP addresses using [fail2ban](https://www.fail2ban.org) by running the `fail2ban-client` command.

The `fail2ban-client` requires root access, so please make sure to either allow Telegraf to run that command using `sudo` without a password or by running telegraf as root (not recommended).

**Introduced in:** Telegraf v1.4.0 **Tags:** network, system **OS support:** all

## Global configuration options

Plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings for tasks such as modifying metrics, tags, and fields, creating aliases, and configuring plugin ordering. See [CONFIGURATION.md](/telegraf/v1/configuration/#plugins) for more details.

## Configuration

```toml
# Read metrics from fail2ban.
[[inputs.fail2ban]]
  ## Use sudo to run fail2ban-client
  # use_sudo = false

  ## Use the given socket instead of the default one
  # socket = "/var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock"
```

## Using sudo

Make sure to set `use_sudo = true` in your configuration file.

You will also need to update your sudoers file. It is recommended to modify a file in the `/etc/sudoers.d` directory using `visudo`:

```bash
sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/telegraf
```

Add the following lines to the file, these commands allow the `telegraf` user to call `fail2ban-client` without needing to provide a password and disables logging of the call in the auth.log. Consult `man 8 visudo` and `man 5 sudoers` for details.

```text
Cmnd_Alias FAIL2BAN = /usr/bin/fail2ban-client status, /usr/bin/fail2ban-client status *
telegraf  ALL=(root) NOEXEC: NOPASSWD: FAIL2BAN
Defaults!FAIL2BAN !logfile, !syslog, !pam_session
```

## Metrics

-   fail2ban
    -   tags:
        -   jail
    -   fields:
        -   failed (integer, count)
        -   banned (integer, count)

## Example Output

```text
fail2ban,jail=sshd failed=5i,banned=2i 1495868667000000000
```

### Execute the binary directly

```shell
# fail2ban-client status sshd
Status for the jail: sshd
|- Filter
|  |- Currently failed: 5
|  |- Total failed:     20
|  `- File list:        /var/log/secure
`- Actions
   |- Currently banned: 2
   |- Total banned:     10
   `- Banned IP list:   192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2
```

#### Related

-   [Configure plugins](/telegraf/v1/configure_plugins/)
-   [Fail2ban Plugin Source](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/v1.38.4/plugins/inputs/fail2ban/README.md)