Documentation

Network Time Protocol Query Input Plugin

This plugin gathers metrics about Network Time Protocol queries.

This plugin requires the ntpq executable to be installed on the system.

Introduced in: Telegraf v0.11.0 Tags: network OS support: all

Global configuration options

In addition to the plugin-specific configuration settings, plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings. These settings are used to modify metrics, tags, and field or create aliases and configure ordering, etc. See the CONFIGURATION.md for more details.

Configuration

# Get standard NTP query metrics, requires ntpq executable.
[[inputs.ntpq]]
  ## Servers to query with ntpq.
  ## If no server is given, the local machine is queried.
  # servers = []

  ## Options to pass to the ntpq command.
  # options = "-p"

  ## Output format for the 'reach' field.
  ## Available values are
  ##   octal   --  output as is in octal representation e.g. 377 (default)
  ##   decimal --  convert value to decimal representation e.g. 371 -> 249
  ##   count   --  count the number of bits in the value. This represents
  ##               the number of successful reaches, e.g. 37 -> 5
  ##   ratio   --  output the ratio of successful attempts e.g. 37 -> 5/8 = 0.625
  # reach_format = "octal"

You can pass arbitrary options accepted by the ntpq command using the options setting. In case you want to skip DNS lookups use

  options = "-p -n"

for example.

Below is the documentation of the various headers returned from the NTP query command when running ntpq -p.

  • remote – The remote peer or server being synced to. “LOCAL” is this local host (included in case there are no remote peers or servers available);
  • refid – Where or what the remote peer or server is itself synchronised to;
  • st (stratum) – The remote peer or server Stratum
  • t (type) – Type (u: unicast or manycast client, b: broadcast or multicast client, l: local reference clock, s: symmetric peer, A: manycast server, B: broadcast server, M: multicast server, see “Automatic Server Discovery“);
  • when – When last polled (seconds ago, “h” hours ago, or “d” days ago);
  • poll – Polling frequency: rfc5905 suggests this ranges in NTPv4 from 4 (16s) to 17 (36h) (log2 seconds), however observation suggests the actual displayed value is seconds for a much smaller range of 64 (26) to 1024 (210) seconds;
  • reach – An 8-bit left-shift shift register value recording polls (bit set = successful, bit reset = fail) displayed in octal;
  • delay – Round trip communication delay to the remote peer or server (milliseconds);
  • offset – Mean offset (phase) in the times reported between this local host and the remote peer or server (RMS, milliseconds);
  • jitter – Mean deviation (jitter) in the time reported for that remote peer or server (RMS of difference of multiple time samples, milliseconds);

Metrics

  • ntpq
    • delay (float, milliseconds)
    • jitter (float, milliseconds)
    • offset (float, milliseconds)
    • poll (int, seconds)
    • reach (int)
    • when (int, seconds)

Tags

All measurements have the following tags:

  • refid
  • remote
  • type
  • stratum

In case you are specifying servers, the measurement has an additional source tag.

Example Output

ntpq,refid=.GPSs.,remote=*time.apple.com,stratum=1,type=u delay=91.797,jitter=3.735,offset=12.841,poll=64i,reach=377i,when=35i 1457960478909556134

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