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Unexpected times on "Connection Times" graph

7 messages in this thread

list Shawn Heisey · Mon, 24 Aug 2015 16:02:42 -0600 ·
Here is a "connection times" graph from Xymon:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voyqnzfnsqaact9/xymonresponsegraph.png?dl=0

This shows "conn" times in the 40 millisecond rang, and "ssh" times in
the 200 microsecond range.

What is the source of the "conn" graph?  I would have guessed ICMP, but
it doesn't make any sense for a ping to take longer than an ssh
connection, especially not that much longer.  This is what I get if I
ping that machine from the xymon server ... it doesn't take anywhere
even CLOSE to 40 milliseconds:

[root at mcp xymon]# ping palazzo
PING palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=1 ttl=62
time=0.572 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=2 ttl=62
time=0.582 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=3 ttl=62
time=0.573 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=4 ttl=62
time=0.611 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=5 ttl=62
time=0.890 ms
^C
--- palazzo.REDACTED.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/0.645/0.890/0.126 ms

Can anyone shed light on this?  My server config includes the following
line:

FPING="xymonping"

My xymon server is version 4.3.14.

Thanks,
Shawn
list Jeremy Laidman · Tue, 25 Aug 2015 13:04:36 +1000 ·
I've noticed the same thing on many of my servers.  Without really thinking
about it, I just assumed that the xymonnet TCP connection measurements were
taking into account (removing) network latency time, and only giving the
latency within the server being tested.  Thinking about it now, I'm not
sure how xymonnet would do this.

Yes, I believe xymonping uses ICMP.  You can run xymonping directly like:

sudo -u xymon /usr/lib/xymon/server/bin/xymonping 10.100.2.17

and see how it compares with the graph, or "ping" or "time telnet
10.100.2.17 22 </dev/null".

J
quoted from Shawn Heisey


On 25 August 2015 at 08:02, Shawn Heisey <user-5d0d01dba542@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Here is a "connection times" graph from Xymon:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voyqnzfnsqaact9/xymonresponsegraph.png?dl=0

This shows "conn" times in the 40 millisecond rang, and "ssh" times in
the 200 microsecond range.

What is the source of the "conn" graph?  I would have guessed ICMP, but
it doesn't make any sense for a ping to take longer than an ssh
connection, especially not that much longer.  This is what I get if I
ping that machine from the xymon server ... it doesn't take anywhere
even CLOSE to 40 milliseconds:

[root at mcp xymon]# ping palazzo
PING palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=1 ttl=62
time=0.572 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=2 ttl=62
time=0.582 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=3 ttl=62
time=0.573 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=4 ttl=62
time=0.611 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=5 ttl=62
time=0.890 ms
^C
--- palazzo.REDACTED.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/0.645/0.890/0.126 ms

Can anyone shed light on this?  My server config includes the following
line:

FPING="xymonping"

My xymon server is version 4.3.14.

Thanks,
Shawn

list Ralph Mitchell · Mon, 24 Aug 2015 23:54:13 -0400 ·
An ICMP ping is a low-level, very small packet exchange:

   xymon:  Hey, server1
   server1: what??
   xymon: <wanders off>

On the other hand, ssh should be setting up and tearing down an encrypted
connection, even though it doesn't actually login.  I assume there would be
multiple packets bouncing back and forth, agreeing on an encryption
protocol and swapping keys, or whatever.  I'm not very surprised that it
takes longer than a ping to complete the connection.

Ralph Mitchell


On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:04 PM, Jeremy Laidman <user-71895fb2e44c@xymon.invalid>
quoted from Jeremy Laidman
wrote:
I've noticed the same thing on many of my servers.  Without really
thinking about it, I just assumed that the xymonnet TCP connection
measurements were taking into account (removing) network latency time, and
only giving the latency within the server being tested.  Thinking about it
now, I'm not sure how xymonnet would do this.

Yes, I believe xymonping uses ICMP.  You can run xymonping directly like:

sudo -u xymon /usr/lib/xymon/server/bin/xymonping 10.100.2.17

and see how it compares with the graph, or "ping" or "time telnet
10.100.2.17 22 </dev/null".

J


On 25 August 2015 at 08:02, Shawn Heisey <user-5d0d01dba542@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Here is a "connection times" graph from Xymon:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voyqnzfnsqaact9/xymonresponsegraph.png?dl=0

This shows "conn" times in the 40 millisecond rang, and "ssh" times in
the 200 microsecond range.

What is the source of the "conn" graph?  I would have guessed ICMP, but
it doesn't make any sense for a ping to take longer than an ssh
connection, especially not that much longer.  This is what I get if I
ping that machine from the xymon server ... it doesn't take anywhere
even CLOSE to 40 milliseconds:

[root at mcp xymon]# ping palazzo
PING palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=1 ttl=62
time=0.572 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=2 ttl=62
time=0.582 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=3 ttl=62
time=0.573 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=4 ttl=62
time=0.611 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=5 ttl=62
time=0.890 ms
^C
--- palazzo.REDACTED.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/0.645/0.890/0.126 ms

Can anyone shed light on this?  My server config includes the following
line:

FPING="xymonping"

My xymon server is version 4.3.14.

Thanks,
Shawn

list Jeremy Laidman · Tue, 25 Aug 2015 13:58:18 +1000 ·
quoted from Ralph Mitchell
On 25 August 2015 at 13:54, Ralph Mitchell <user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I'm not very surprised that it takes longer than a ping to complete the
connection.

Like me, you probably mis-read the original email.  The ssh time is LONGER
than the ping time.  In the graph provided, the ssh time is on the order of
MICROseconds, the ping time is MILLIseconds.
list Ralph Mitchell · Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:04:54 -0400 ·
Yeah...  OK, never mind  :-)

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:58 PM, Jeremy Laidman <user-71895fb2e44c@xymon.invalid>
quoted from Jeremy Laidman
wrote:
On 25 August 2015 at 13:54, Ralph Mitchell <user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid>
wrote:
I'm not very surprised that it takes longer than a ping to complete the
connection.

Like me, you probably mis-read the original email.  The ssh time is LONGER
than the ping time.  In the graph provided, the ssh time is on the order of
MICROseconds, the ping time is MILLIseconds.

list Galen Johnson · Tue, 25 Aug 2015 08:12:12 -0400 ·
Actually, you may notice that the ping time is the "total" time of the
pings.  The avg time is probably what Xymon should be keying on.  I'm not
where I can check but I think Xymon does a count of 8 or 10 pings so the
value you see is likely the sum of all those...in your posting:

--- palazzo.REDACTED.com <http://palazzo.redacted.com/>; ping statistics ---
quoted from Ralph Mitchell
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time *4003ms*
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/*0.645*/0.890/0.126 ms

the highlighted value is more in line with what you are seeing when you run
it by hand.
quoted from Shawn Heisey

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 6:02 PM, Shawn Heisey <user-5d0d01dba542@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Here is a "connection times" graph from Xymon:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voyqnzfnsqaact9/xymonresponsegraph.png?dl=0

This shows "conn" times in the 40 millisecond rang, and "ssh" times in
the 200 microsecond range.

What is the source of the "conn" graph?  I would have guessed ICMP, but
it doesn't make any sense for a ping to take longer than an ssh
connection, especially not that much longer.  This is what I get if I
ping that machine from the xymon server ... it doesn't take anywhere
even CLOSE to 40 milliseconds:

[root at mcp xymon]# ping palazzo
PING palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=1 ttl=62
time=0.572 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=2 ttl=62
time=0.582 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=3 ttl=62
time=0.573 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=4 ttl=62
time=0.611 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=5 ttl=62
time=0.890 ms
^C
--- palazzo.REDACTED.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/0.645/0.890/0.126 ms

Can anyone shed light on this?  My server config includes the following
line:

FPING="xymonping"

My xymon server is version 4.3.14.

Thanks,
Shawn

list Japheth Cleaver · Tue, 25 Aug 2015 12:18:42 -0700 ·
I have to admit it's been quite a while since using xymonping directly.
Can you validate the "FPING=" line in xymonserver.cfg with any options
being given to it?

Normally, xymon runs an fping-like process with the '-Ae' options, which
request elapsed (round-trip) packet time. I don't believe we'd be summing
that. Even when extra pings are found for a given IP address (circa line
1400 of xymonnet.c) they're stored in a separate location and don't appear
to be summed.


Regards,

-jc
quoted from Galen Johnson


On Tue, August 25, 2015 5:12 am, Galen Johnson wrote:
Actually, you may notice that the ping time is the "total" time of the
pings.  The avg time is probably what Xymon should be keying on.  I'm not
where I can check but I think Xymon does a count of 8 or 10 pings so the
value you see is likely the sum of all those...in your posting:

--- palazzo.REDACTED.com <http://palazzo.redacted.com/>; ping statistics
---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time *4003ms*
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/*0.645*/0.890/0.126 ms

the highlighted value is more in line with what you are seeing when you
run
it by hand.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 6:02 PM, Shawn Heisey <user-5d0d01dba542@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Here is a "connection times" graph from Xymon:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voyqnzfnsqaact9/xymonresponsegraph.png?dl=0

This shows "conn" times in the 40 millisecond rang, and "ssh" times in
the 200 microsecond range.

What is the source of the "conn" graph?  I would have guessed ICMP, but
it doesn't make any sense for a ping to take longer than an ssh
connection, especially not that much longer.  This is what I get if I
ping that machine from the xymon server ... it doesn't take anywhere
even CLOSE to 40 milliseconds:

[root at mcp xymon]# ping palazzo
PING palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=1 ttl=62
time=0.572 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=2 ttl=62
time=0.582 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=3 ttl=62
time=0.573 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=4 ttl=62
time=0.611 ms
64 bytes from palazzo.REDACTED.com (10.100.2.17): icmp_seq=5 ttl=62
time=0.890 ms
^C
--- palazzo.REDACTED.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.572/0.645/0.890/0.126 ms

Can anyone shed light on this?  My server config includes the following
line:

FPING="xymonping"

My xymon server is version 4.3.14.

Thanks,
Shawn