Monitoring ntp

[Markus]

The following UserParameters allow you to monitor various aspect of an ntpd server.

UserParameter=ntp.offset,/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { offset=1000 } $1 ~ /\*/ { offset=$9 } END { print offset }'
UserParameter=ntp.stratum,/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { stratum=99 } $1 ~ /\*/ { stratum=$3 } END { print stratum }'
UserParameter=ntp.npeers,ntpq -pn | grep -E -c '^\*|^\+'

The returned values will give (compare with raw output of ntpq below)

1. the offset to the currently selected peer (ntp.offset): 3.055
2. the stratum of the currently selected peer (ntp.stratum): 2
3. the number of possible peers, i.e. those prefixed with '*' or '+' (ntp.npeers): 2

# ntpq -pn
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 10.1.1.1        .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000 4000.00
 130.102.128.23  .INIT.          16 u    - 1024    0    0.000    0.000 4000.00
[B]+[/B]202.181.31.242  203.26.24.6      3 u  880 1024  377   32.171  -12.953   0.608
[B]*[/B]130.102.128.23  130.102.152.7    [B]2[/B] u    1 1024  377   51.986    [B]3.055[/B]   0.253
 127.127.1.0     73.78.73.84      5 l   12   64  377    0.000    0.000   0.001

If I could only find out how to pass arguments to UserParameters then one could easi;y expand this to monitor remote ntpd servers, e.g. ntp.offset[130.102.128.23].

Markus

[marc]

UserParameter=ntp.offset,/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { offset=1000 } $1 ~ /\*/ { offset=$9 } END { print offset }'
UserParameter=ntp.stratum,/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { stratum=99 } $1 ~ /\*/ { stratum=$3 } END { print stratum }'
UserParameter=ntp.npeers,ntpq -pn | grep -E -c '^\*|^\+'

If I could only find out how to pass arguments to UserParameters then one could easi;y expand this to monitor remote ntpd servers, e.g. ntp.offset[130.102.128.23].
Markus

just do the following...
1.) change UserParameter to something similar UserParameter=ntp.stratum[*],/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { stratum=99 } $1 ~ /\*/ { stratum=$3 } END { print stratum }'

the[*] is placeholder for variable passed to UserParameter.
you are also able to pass multiple vars using a syntax like UserParameter=ntp.stratum[*,*,*]....

2.) change item in gui to ntp.stratum[xxx.xxx.xxx.xx] were xxx=an ip address octed.

3.) open beer + cheers

[Markus]

Thanks Marc for answering how to pass arguments to UserParameter. Unfortunately this does not work for the very example above. The '$x' variables in the awk script will get substituted, too, which will lead to a syntax errror. I have to find a work-around for this...

Markus

[Markus]

I found a work-around but it's quite sneaky! Anyway, the trick is to pass the '$x' parameters in the awk script literally as arguments to the UserParameter call. Example:

UserParameter=ntp.offset[*],/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn [B]$1[/B] | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { offset=0 } [B]$2[/B] ~ /\*/ { offset=[B]$3[/B] } END { print offset }'

...when this is called as...

ntp.offset[[B]130.102.128.23,$1,$9[/B]]

... then '$1 be will replaced by '130.102.128.23', '$2' is replaced by '$1' and '$3' is replaced by '$9'. That way we sneak the correct variable names into the awk script and what actually gets executed is.

UserParameter=ntp.offset[*],/usr/sbin/ntpq -pn [B]130.102.128.23[/B] | /usr/bin/awk 'BEGIN { offset=0 } [B]$1[/B] ~ /\*/ { offset=[B]$9[/B] } END { print offset }'

There you go...

Markus