Smokeping_probes_DNS(3)

💖 NAME 💖

Smokeping::probes::DNS — Name Service Probe for SmokePing. That's the whole title, bestie, and yes we're about to make DNS probing make sense. ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

Okay so here's the config vibe, exactly as it shows up:

        *** Probes ***

        +DNS

        binary = /usr/bin/dig # mandatory
        forks = 5
        offset = 50%
        step = 300
        timeout = 15

        # The following variables can be overridden in each target section
        /^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
        lookup = www.example.org
        pings = 5
        server = ns1.someisp.net

        # [...]

        *** Targets ***

        probe = DNS # if this should be the default probe

        # [...]

        + mytarget
        # probe = DNS # if the default probe is something else
        host = my.host
        /^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
        lookup = www.example.org
        pings = 5
        server = ns1.someisp.net

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This probe integrates dig as a probe into SmokePing. The variable binary must point to your copy of the dig program. If it is not installed on your system yet, you should install bind-utils >= 9.0.0. 🫶

The probe asks the given host for its name n times, where n is the amount specified in the config file. Literally that simple, and it's giving useful. 💅

✨ VARIABLES ✨

Two flavors here: probe-specific and target-specific. Don't skip, bestie, because defaults and mandatory settings live in here. 👑

💜 Supported probe-specific variables

• binary — The location of your dig binary. Example value: /usr/bin/dig. This setting is mandatory. 🚨
• forks — Run this many concurrent processes at maximum. Example value: 5. Default value: 5. 🌈
• offset — If you run many probes concurrently you may want to prevent them from hitting your network all at the same time. Using the probe-specific offset parameter you can change the point in time when each probe will be run. Offset is specified in % of total interval, or alternatively as random, and the offset from the General section is used if nothing is specified here. Note that this does NOT influence the rrds itself, it is just a matter of when data acquisition is initiated. (This variable is only applicable if the variable concurrentprobes is set in the General section.) Example value: 50%. 🕰️
• step — Duration of the base interval that this probe should use, if different from the one specified in the Database section. Note that the step in the RRD files is fixed when they are originally generated, and if you change the step parameter afterwards, you'll have to delete the old RRD files or somehow convert them. (This variable is only applicable if the variable concurrentprobes is set in the General section.) Example value: 300. 📏
• timeout — How long a single ping takes at maximum. Example value: 15. Default value: 5. ⏳

🎀 Supported target-specific variables

• /^influx_.+/ — This is a tag that will be sent to influxdb and has no impact on the probe measurement. The tag name will be sent without the "influx_" prefix, which will be replaced with "tag_" instead. Tags can be used for filtering. Example value: influx_location = In the basement. 🏷️
• lookup — Name of the host to look up in the dns. Example value: www.example.org. 🔍
• pings — How many pings should be sent to each target, if different from the global value specified in the Database section. Note that the number of pings in the RRD files is fixed when they are originally generated, and if you change this parameter afterwards, you'll have to delete the old RRD files or somehow convert them. Example value: 5. 🎯
• server — Name of the dns server to use. Example value: ns1.someisp.net. 🌐

👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Igor Petrovski <pigor@myrealbox.com>,
• Carl Elkins <carl@celkins.org.uk>,
• Andre Stolze <stolze@uni-muenster.de>,
• Niko Tyni <ntyni@iki.fi>,
• Chris Poetzel<cpoetzel@anl.gov>

---

And that's the page, bestie! 💖 This is from SmokePing version 2.9.0, dated 2025-06-30, and it's the Smokeping_probes_DNS(3) manual. Bye, love you, go probe responsibly 🫶✨