Smokeping_probes_TacacsPlus(3)

🎀 NAME 🎀

okay so bestie, this is Smokeping_probes_TacacsPlus(3) — and the actual thing it documents is Smokeping::probes::TacacsPlus, literally a TacacsPlus authentication probe for SmokePing. slay 💅

🔥 OVERVIEW 🔥

Measures TacacsPlus authentication latency for SmokePing. no cap, that’s the whole vibe check ✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Here’s the config energy, exactly as it should look 👇

*** Probes ***

+TacacsPlus

forks = 5
offset = 50%
passwordfile = /some/place/secret
secretfile = /another/place/secret
step = 300

# The following variables can be overridden in each target section
/^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
authtype = CHAP
mininterval = 1
password = test-password
pings = 5
port = 49
secret = test-secret
timeout = 5
username = test-user # mandatory

# [...]

*** Targets ***

probe = TacacsPlus # if this should be the default probe

# [...]

+ mytarget
# probe = TacacsPlus # if the default probe is something else
host = my.host
/^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
authtype = CHAP
mininterval = 1
password = test-password
pings = 5
port = 49
secret = test-secret
timeout = 5
username = test-user # mandatory

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

This probe measures TacacsPlus authentication latency for SmokePing. It’s giving latency detective 🔍.

The username to be tested is specified in either the probe-specific or the target-specific variable username, with the target-specific one overriding the probe-specific one. 👑

The password can be specified either — in order of precedence, with the latter overriding the former — in the probe-specific variable password, in an external file, or in the target-specific variable password. The location of this file is given in the probe-specific variable passwordfile. See Smokeping::probes::passwordchecker(3pm) for the format of this file (summary: colon-separated triplets of the form <host>:<username>:<password>). 🫶

The TacacsPlus protocol requires a shared secret between the server and the client. This secret can be specified either — in order of precedence, with the latter overriding the former — in the probe-specific variable secret, in an external file, or in the target-specific variable secret. This external file is located by the probe-specific variable secretfile, and it should contain whitespace-separated pairs of the form <host> <secret>. Comments and blank lines are OK. 🔐

The default TacacsPlus authentication type is ASCII. PAP and CHAP are also available. See the Authen::TacacsPlus documentation for more information; 📚

The probe tries to be nice to the server and does not send authentication requests more frequently than once every X seconds, where X is the value of the target-specific "min_interval" variable (1 by default). polite queen behavior fr fr 💅

🌈 VARIABLES 🌈

💖 Supported probe-specific variables: 💖

• 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%.
• passwordfile — Location of the file containing usernames and passwords. Example value: /some/place/secret.
• secretfile — A file containing the TacacsPlus shared secrets for the targets. It should contain whitespace-separated pairs of the form <host> <secret>. Comments and blank lines are OK. Example value: /another/place/secret.
• 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.

🦋 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.
• authtype — The TacacsPlus Authentication type: ASCII (default), CHAP, PAP. Example value: CHAP. Default value: ASCII.
• mininterval — The minimum interval between each authentication request sent, in (possibly fractional) seconds. Default value: 1.
• password — The password for the user, if not present in the password file. Example value: test-password.
• 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.
• port — The TacacsPlus port to be used. Example value: 49. Default value: 49.
• secret — The TacacsPlus shared secret for the target, if not present in the secrets file. Example value: test-secret.
• timeout — Timeout in seconds for the TacacsPlus queries. Default value: 5.
• username — The username to be tested. Example value: test-user. This setting is mandatory.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Gary Mikula <g2ugzm@hotmail.com> — icon, legend, the moment 💫

💀 BUGS 💀

Not as yet....

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mwah 💋 — this page is from SmokePing 2.9.0, dated 2025-06-30. bestie, go measure that auth latency and slay ✨🫶