#HTTP Endpoints

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: httpcheck

#Overview

This collector monitors HTTP servers availability status and response time.

Possible statuses:

Status	Description
success	HTTP request completed successfully with a status code matching the configured status_accepted range (default: 200), and the response body and headers (if configured) match expectations.
timeout	HTTP request timed out before receiving a response (default: 1 second).
no_connection	Failed to establish a connection to the target.
redirect	Received a redirect response (3xx status code) while not_follow_redirects is configured.
bad_status	HTTP request completed with a status code outside the configured status_accepted range (default: non-200).
bad_content	HTTP request completed successfully but the response body does not match the expected content (when using response_match).
bad_header	HTTP request completed successfully but response headers do not match the expected values (when using header_match).

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

#Default Behavior

#Auto-Detection

This integration doesn't support auto-detection.

#Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

#Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

#Setup

You can configure the httpcheck collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for httpcheck, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/httpcheck.conf and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

#Prerequisites

No action required.

#Configuration

#Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options

| Group | Option | Description | Default | Required | |:------|:-----|:------------|:--------|:---------:| | **Collection** | update_every | Data collection interval (seconds). | 5 | no | | | autodetection_retry | Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable. | 0 | no | | **Target** | url | Target endpoint URL. | | yes | | | timeout | HTTP request timeout (seconds). | 1 | no | | **Validation** | status_accepted | HTTP accepted response statuses. Anything else results in 'bad status' in the status chart. | [200] | no | | | response_match | If the status code is accepted, match the response body against this regular expression. | | no | | | header_match | A set of rules to check for specific key-value pairs in response headers. | [] | no | | | header_match.exclude | When yes, the rule asserts the key-value pair must be absent. | no | no | | | header_match.key | Exact HTTP header name to check. | | yes | | | header_match.value | The [pattern](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/tree/master/src/go/pkg/matcher#supported-format) to match against the header's value. | | no | | **HTTP Auth** | username | Username for Basic HTTP authentication. | | no | | | password | Password for Basic HTTP authentication. | | no | | | bearer_token_file | Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for `Authorization: Bearer`). | | no | | **TLS** | tls_skip_verify | Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure). | no | no | | | tls_ca | Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate. | | no | | | tls_cert | Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS). | | no | | | tls_key | Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS). | | no | | **Proxy** | proxy_url | HTTP proxy URL. | | no | | | proxy_username | Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. | | no | | | proxy_password | Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. | | no | | **Request** | method | HTTP method to use. | GET | no | | | body | Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT). | | no | | | headers | Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value). | | no | | | cookie_file | Path to cookie file. See [cookie file format](https://everything.curl.dev/http/cookies/fileformat). | | no | | | not_follow_redirects | Do not follow HTTP redirects. | no | no | | | force_http2 | Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP). | no | no | | **Virtual Node** | vnode | Associates this data collection job with a [Virtual Node](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/organize-systems-metrics-and-alerts#virtual-nodes). | | no |

#via UI

Configure the httpcheck collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the httpcheck data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type httpcheck (or scroll the list) to locate the httpcheck collector.
5. Click the + next to the httpcheck collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

#via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/httpcheck.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/httpcheck.conf

#Examples

#Basic

A basic example configuration.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 ```

#With HTTP request headers

Configuration with HTTP request headers that will be sent by the client.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 headers: Host: localhost:8080 User-Agent: netdata/go.d.plugin Accept: */* ```

#With status_accepted

A basic example configuration with non-default status_accepted.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 status_accepted: - 200 - 204 ```

#With header_match

Example configurations with header_match. See the value pattern syntax.

Config

```yaml jobs: # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header, # but the value of the header does not matter. # This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value. - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 header_match: - key: X-Robots-Tag # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must be present in the HTTP response header # only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow". # This config checks both the presence of the header and its value. - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 header_match: - key: X-Robots-Tag value: '= noindex,nofollow' # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header # but the value of the header does not matter. # This config checks for the presence of the header regardless of its value. - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 header_match: - key: X-Robots-Tag exclude: yes # The "X-Robots-Tag" header must not be present in the HTTP response header # only if its value is equal to "noindex, nofollow". # This config checks both the presence of the header and its value. - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 header_match: - key: X-Robots-Tag exclude: yes value: '= noindex,nofollow' ```

#HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 username: username password: password ```

#HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: https://127.0.0.1:8080 tls_skip_verify: yes ```

#Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config

```yaml jobs: - name: local url: http://127.0.0.1:8080 - name: remote url: http://192.0.2.1:8080 ```

#Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name	On metric	Description
httpcheck_web_service_up	httpcheck.status	HTTP check endpoint ${label:url} liveness status
httpcheck_web_service_bad_content	httpcheck.status	Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected content in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_bad_status	httpcheck.status	Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected status in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_bad_header	httpcheck.status	Percentage of HTTP responses from ${label:url} with unexpected header in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_timeouts	httpcheck.status	Percentage of timed-out HTTP requests to ${label:url} in the last 5 minutes
httpcheck_web_service_no_connection	httpcheck.status	Percentage of failed HTTP requests to ${label:url} in the last 5 minutes

#Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

#Per target

The metrics refer to the monitored target.

Labels:

Label	Description
url	url value that is set in the configuration file.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
httpcheck.response_time	time	ms
httpcheck.response_length	length	characters
httpcheck.status	success, timeout, redirect, no_connection, bad_content, bad_header, bad_status	boolean
httpcheck.in_state	time	boolean

#Troubleshooting

#Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the httpcheck collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

• Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m httpcheck

To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m httpcheck -j jobName

#Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the httpcheck collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

• Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
• Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

#System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep httpcheck

#System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep httpcheck /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

#Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep httpcheck