Socket Statistics Test

This test reports UDP and TCP I/O statistics for every socket type on BIND DNS. The socket types monitored include IPv4, IPv6, FDWatch, and Unix (Domain).

Target of the test : A BIND DNS server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each socket type supported by the target BIND DNS.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is 53.

Path of RNDC

To monitor BIND DNS, this test uses a name server control utility in bind called Remote Name Daemon Control (RNDC). RNDC is a command line utility that allows command line control of the administration and operations of a name server, both locally and remotely. Periodically, this test runs the rndc stats command of this utility to pull metrics of interest. To enable the test to run this command, configure the full path to the folder where RNDC is located, against Path of RNDC. The default location of RNDC is /usr/sbin. If it is installed in a different location in your environment, then specify the same here.

Path of RNDC Output File

This test runs the rndc stats command of to pull metrics of interest from the target BIND DNS server. This command instructs BIND to dump the statistics to a statistics-file configured in the configuration file for the named server - /etc/named.conf. To enable this test to read from this statistics-file, specify the full path to the statistics-file against Path of RNDC Output File. By default, metrics are written to the named_stats.txt file in the /var/named/data/ folder. If chroot is enabled, then this file will typically be available in the /var/named/chroot/var/named/data folder.

Use SUDO

To run this test and report metrics, the eG agent install user should have permissions to run the rndc stats command and read from the statistics-file. If the eG agent install user possesses these privileges, then set the Use SUDO flag to No. If the eG agent install user does not have the required permissions, then do the following:

  • Edit the sudoers file on the target host and append an entry of the following format to it:

    <eG_agent_install_user>; ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:<Command>;

    For instance, if the eG agent install user is eguser, then the entry in the sudoers file should be:

    eguser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: rndc stats

  • Then, save the file.
  • Finally, set the Use SUDO parameter to Yes.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

UDP sockets opened

Indicates the number of UDP sockets of this type that are open.

Number

This measure will not be reported for the FDWatch socket type.

UDP sockets closed

Indicates the number of UDP sockets of this type that are closed.

Number

 

UDP socket bind failures

Indicates the number of failures of binding UDP sockets of this type.

Number

 

UDP connections established

Indicates the number of UDP connections successfully established with sockets of this type.

Number

 

TCP sockets opened

Indicates the number of TCP sockets of this type that are open.

Number

This measure will not be reported for the FDWatch socket type.

TCP sockets closed

Indicates the number of TCP sockets of this type that are closed.

Number

 

TCP socket connect failures

Indicates the number of failed connection attempts to TCP sockets of this type.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.

TCP connections established

Indicates the number of TCP connections successfully established with sockets of this type.

Number

 

TCP send errors

Indicates the number of errors in TCP send operations of this socket type.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.

TCP recv errors

Indicates the number of errors in TCP receive operations of this socket type.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.