Monitoring with ICMP Ping

One of the most used Monitoring checks by our customers is ICMP Ping. Usually, everything works smooth, but sometimes the clients are seeing the monitored IP address as down. The problem comes from specific network problems caused by the size of the packets. As network problems may vary from the packet size, we are doing 3 different ping checks with total 12 packets to be 100% sure your network is fully operational.
Ping Monitoring involves frequently pinging a particular device to check if it responds to requests. The ping time, measured in milliseconds (ms), should be lower as possible for better ping quality. Besides, it indicates the health of your network and how fast it is. Ping Monitoring also sends an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request. So, when the monitored device receives the requests, it answers the message instantly and sends the echo reply packets.

Discover ICMP Ping Monitoring service by ClouDNS and get started now!

Ping command

For the Monitoring checks we are using Linux ping command with the following parameters:

-c - to define the number of packets we will use
-s - to define the packet payload size
and the IP we are checking

Ping command is a very useful command-line utility that is available on every operating system (OS) with network connectivity. It is a method for testing if a particular IP address or device is reachable. A good ping should successfully get the response from the target device and also pinged back to the device that initiated the request. It is also important to monitor how much time is needed to complete it.

Ping monitoring checks

ClouDNS clients can take advantage and utilize Ping monitoring by implementing different Ping monitoring checks based on the size of the packets. Here are the different check types that can be used depending on your preference:

64 bytes check

The first check we are executing is with 64 bytes packet size, 8 bytes are the header in the packet, we are passing 56 bytes for the payload. Here is an example:

# ping -c 4 -s 56 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=48 time=1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=48 time=1 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.010/1.021/1.031/0.004 ms

From the result we can see there is no packet loss with the small packets and everything is okay. However, if we see packet loss here then usually the network issues you are experiencing are significant.

512 bytes check

The second check we are executing is with 512 bytes packet size. Usually, when our clients experience some problems with larger packets, here the packet loss starts with 1 or 2 packets missed. Here is an example with 25% packet loss (the payload is 504 bytes, because 8 bytes are for the header):

# ping -c 4 -s 504 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 504(532) bytes of data.
512 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=1 ms
512 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=1 ms
512 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=48 time=1 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 3 received, 25% packet loss, time 3000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.010/1.021/1.031/0.004 ms

1024 bytes check

The last check we are executing is with 1024 bytes packet size. Usually when you are experiencing problems with larger packets, here the packet loss is 50% or more. Here is an example with 50% packet loss (payload is 1016, because 8 bytes are for the header):

# ping -c 4 -s 1016 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 1016(1044) bytes of data.
1024 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=1 ms
1024 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=1 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 2 received, 50% packet loss, time 3000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.010/1.021/1.031/0.004 ms

Debugging

If a down event occurs for your IP, first you have to check it with the regular ping command, if you see any packet loss, then contact your network provider and provide him the details
If you don't see any issues with the regular ping command, then check the IP address with the different packet sizes from the examples above, if you see any packet loss, contact your network provider and provide him the details
If you are unable to reproduce the network issue by yourself, please contact our technical support and we will provide you traceroutes and details from the problematic nodes, it is possible the problem to be in specific routes.

Why do you need to use Ping monitoring?

Ping monitoring is extremely useful for varieties of users, such as sysadmins, IT professionals, network engineers, VoIP services, and others. Here are the main reasons to implement Ping monitoring:

Uptime - With Ping monitoring, you can automatically check the connection and response time on a specified schedule from different origins. That allows you to keep an eye on your uptime. If there are any issues, you can fix them quickly.
Availability - Thanks to Ping monitoring, you can guarantee that all your devices on a particular network are always available.
Security - With Ping monitoring, for sure, you can boost the security of your server. Thanks to the constant monitoring of the server's performance and availability, you can determine if it operates properly and spot any issues. Slow performance is a strong indication that something is not working correctly, and you should briefly fix the problem.

Suggested Monitoring check types

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Last modified: 2024-10-29

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