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Pingdom

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Pingdom is a website monitoring software solution that gives users real-time, quality insights into the uptime and performance of their websites. After adding Pingdom as a data source in Nobl9, users can configure SLOs to check the overall performance status of their sites. Leveraging Pingdom, users can build SLOs on top of their existing metrics data.

Scope of Support​

The Nobl9 integration with Pingdom supports uptime checks (Uptime Monitoring Tools | Pingdom Documentation) and transaction checks (Transaction Monitoring Tools | Pingdom Documentation).

Authentication​

Pingdom’s API uses basic authentication and a bearer token. Users can retrieve the token from the Pingdom UI (My Pingdom) and pass it to Nobl9.

To create a Pingdom API token if you don’t already have one, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to My Pingdom.

  2. Log in to your customer account.

  3. Go to Settings > Synthetic & RUM Settings > Pingdom API:

    Image 1: Settings in the My Pingdom UI

  4. Click Add API token, then Generate token (read access is enough for this integration):

    Image 2: Adding API Token in the My Pingdom UI

Adding Pingdom as a Data Source in the UI​

To add Pingdom as a data source in Nobl9 using the Agent or Direct connection method, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Integrations > Sources.
  2. Click the button.
  3. Click the relevant Source icon.
  4. Choose a relevant connection method (Agent or Direct), then configure the source as described below.

Pingdom Direct​

Direct Configuration in the UI​

A Direct connection to Pingdom requires users to enter their credentials, which Nobl9 stores safely. Follow these steps to set up this type of connection:

  1. Enter your API Token (mandatory).
    You can find this in My Pingdom, under Synthetic & RUM Settings > Pingdom API. Details on creating a Pingdom API token were provided in the Authentication section above.
  1. Select a Project.
    Specifying a Project is helpful when multiple users are spread across multiple teams or projects. When the Project field is left blank then object is assigned to project default.
  2. Enter a Display Name.
    You can enter a friendly name with spaces in this field.
  3. Enter a Name.
    The name is mandatory and can only contain lowercase, alphanumeric characters and dashes (for example, my-project-name). This field is populated automatically when you enter a display name, but you can edit the result.
  4. Enter a Description.
    Here you can add details such as who is responsible for the integration (team/owner) and the purpose of creating it.
  5. Customize the Query delay to set a customized delay for queries when pulling the data from the data source.
    • The default value for query delay is 1 minute
    info
    Changing the Query delay may affect your SLI data. For more details, check the Query delay documentation.
    caution
    Query Delay is only available in Beta Agent/Direct release channels.

    Note that if you’re already using Agent in the Beta version, you’ll see the option to configure Query Delay in the UI - however, in order for Query Delay to work, your Agent needs to run at least this version: 0.65.0-beta09.

    Contact Nobl9 Support to activate this feature.
  6. Click the Add Data Source button.

Direct Using CLI - YAML​

The YAML for setting up a Direct connection to Pingdom looks like this:

apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: Direct
metadata:
  displayName: Pingdom Direct
  name: pingdom-direct
  project: pingdom-direct
spec:
  description: Direct integration with Pingdom
  pingdom:
    apiToken: "" # secret
  sourceOf:
    - Metrics
  queryDelay:
      unit: Minute # string, one of: Second || Minute
      value: 720 # numeric, must be a number lesser than 1440 minutes (24 hours)
  logCollectionEnabled: false # boolean, defaults to 'false'. Set to true if you'd like your source to collect logs. It's a beta functionality available only through direct release channel. Reach out to support@nobl9.com to activate it.

Important Notes:

  • apiToken - Pingdom’s API uses basic authentication and a bearer token. You can retrieve the token from the Pingdom UI (My Pingdom) and pass it to Nobl9. For more information, refer to the Authentication section.

Pingdom Agent​

Agent Configuration in the UI​

Follow the instructions below to set up an Agent configuration. Refer to the section above for the description of the fields.

  1. Enter a Project.
  2. Enter a Display Name.
  3. Enter a Name.
  4. Create a Description.
  5. Customize the Query Delay.
  6. Click the Add Data Source button.

Agent Using CLI - YAML​

The YAML for setting up an Agent connection to Pingdom looks like this:

apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: Agent
metadata:
  name: my-pingdom-agent
  displayName: My Pingdom Agent # optional
  project: my-project
spec:
  sourceOf:
    - Metrics
    - Services
  queryDelay:
      unit: Minute # string, one of: Second || Minute
      value: 720 # numeric, must be a number lesser than 1440 minutes (24 hours)
  pingdom: {}
warning

You can deploy only one Agent in one YAML file by using the sloctl apply command.

Deploying the Pingdom Agent​

When you add the data source, Nobl9 automatically generates a Kubernetes configuration and a Docker command line for you to use to deploy the Agent. Both of these are available in the Web UI, under the Agent Configuration section. Be sure to swap in your credentials (e.g., replace <PINGDOM_API_TOKEN> with your organization API Token).

If you use Kubernetes, you can apply the supplied YAML config file to a Kubernetes cluster to deploy the Agent. It will look something like this:

# DISCLAIMER: This deployment description contains only the fields necessary for the purpose of this demo.
# It is not a ready-to-apply k8s deployment description, and the client_id and client_secret are only exemplary values.

kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: nobl9-agent-nobl9-dev-prometheus-week-promtom
  namespace: default
type: Opaque
stringData:
  pingdom_api_token: "<PINGDOM_API_TOKEN>"
  client_id: "unique_client_id"
  client_secret: "unnique_client_secret"
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nobl9-agent-nobl9-dev-pingdom-pingdom-test
  namespace: default
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      nobl9-agent-name: "pingdom-test"
      nobl9-agent-project: "pingdom"
      nobl9-agent-organization: "nobl9-dev"
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        nobl9-agent-name: "pingdom-test"
        nobl9-agent-project: "pingdom"
        nobl9-agent-organization: "nobl9-dev"
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: agent-container
          image: nobl9/agent:latest
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "350Mi"
              cpu: "0.1"
          env:
            - name: N9_CLIENT_ID
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  key: client_id
                  name: nobl9-agent-nobl9-dev-pingdom-pingdom-test
            - name: N9_CLIENT_SECRET
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  key: client_secret
                  name: nobl9-agent-nobl9-dev-pingdom-pingdom-test
            - name: PINGDOM_API_TOKEN
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  key: pingdom_api_token
                  name: nobl9-agent-nobl9-dev-pingdom-pingdom-test
            # The N9_METRICS_PORT is a variable specifying the port to which the /metrics and /health endpoints are exposed.
            # The 9090 is the default value and can be changed.
            # If you don’t want the metrics to be exposed, comment out or delete the N9_METRICS_PORT variable.
            - name: N9_METRICS_PORT
              value: "9090"

Creating SLOs with Pingdom​

Creating an SLO in the UI​

Follow the instructions below to create an SLO based on a Threshold metric:

  1. Navigate to Service Level Objectives in the Nobl9 UI.

  2. Click the button.

  3. In step 1 of the SLO wizard, select the Service the SLO will be associated with.

  4. In step 2, select Pingdom as the Data Source for your SLO, then specify the Metric.

  5. Select Threshold Metric. This evaluates a single time series against a threshold.

  6. Enter the Uptime Check ID.

    7. For Threshold Metric, Nobl9 supports only Uptime check.

  7. Select a Status.

    • This field is optional; you can narrow it down by choosing one or more of the following values: up, down, unconfirmed, unknown.

    There is no default value in the Status field. If the Status check is not passed, it is omitted.

  8. In step 3, define a Time Window for the SLO.

  9. In step 4, specify the Error Budget Calculation Method and your Objective(s) .

  10. In step 5, add a Name, Description, and other details about your SLO. You can also select Alert Policies and Labels on this screen.

  11. When you’ve finished, click Create SLO.

SLOs using Pingdom - YAML Examples​

Here’s an example of a Pingdom SLO using rawMetric (Threshold metric) with checkType=uptime:

apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
  kind: SLO
  metadata:
    name: pingdom-uptime
    project: pingdom-direct
  spec:
    alertPolicies: []
    budgetingMethod: Occurrences
    description: ""
    indicator:
      metricSource:
        kind: Direct
        name: pingdom-direct-source
        project: pingdom-direct
    objectives:
    - displayName: good
      op: lt
      rawMetric:
        query:
          pingdom:
            checkId: "1234567"
            checkType: "uptime"
            status: "up"
      target: 0.99
      value: 1200
    - displayName: bad
      op: lt
      rawMetric:
        query:
          pingdom:
            checkId: "1234567"
            checkType: "uptime"
            status: "up"
      target: 0.99
      value: 1000
    service: pingdom-direct-service
    timeWindows:
    - count: 1

Important Notes:

  • rawMetric gathers only the average response time from a Pingdom uptime check.

  • checkID is the Pingdom uptime or transaction check's ID.

  • status is optional for the Uptime checks. Use it to filter the Pingdom check results by status (CSV format). If a status value is not provided, the status field will gather all available results regardless of their statuses. Since only successful responses have a response time value, using other values than up with rawMetrics is not recommended.

Querying the Pingdom Server​

Nobl9 calls the Results REST API Endpoint | Pingdom Documentation to get the the Uptime results, meaning the response time and the status of a website. The API calls to Pingdom are made every 60 seconds and retrieve data from the previous 60 seconds.

For Transaction checks, Nobl9 calls the getCheckReportStatus API Endpoint | Pingdom Documentation to get a list of status changes for a specified check. The API calls to Pingdom are made every 60 seconds and retrieve data from the previous 60 seconds.

Fetching the results of a transaction check is delayed up to the time value the user has defined in the interval in the Pingdom UI (My Pingdom). Nobl9 can only get the results for checks that have already been performed. For example, if the interval is set to 5 minutes, the query delay is 5 minutes. The longer the interval is, the greater is the query delay. It is recommended to set the interval to 5 minutes.

Pingdom API Rate Limits​

The Pingdom API has usage limits to avoid individual rampant applications degrading the overall user experience. There are two layers of limitations, short and long period:

  • Req-Limit-Short
  • Req-Limit-Long

There are two HTTP headers in every response describing your limits status. Here are examples of these values:

  • Req-Limit-Short: Remaining: 394 Time until reset: 3589
  • Req-Limit-Long: Remaining: 71994 Time until reset: 2591989

In this example, the user has 394 requests left until the short limit is reached; it will be reset in 3589 seconds. Similarly, the long limit has 71994 requests left and will be reset in 2591989 seconds. If limits are exceeded, an HTTP 429 error code with the following message is displayed: "Request limit exceeded, try again later."

Pingdom API Documentation | Pingdom Documentation

What is a Check? | Pingdom Documentation

How to Set Up an Uptime (HTTP) Check? | Pingdom Documentation

Agent Metrics | Nobl9 Documentation

Creating SLOs via Terraform | Nobl9 Terraform Documentation

Creating Agents via Terraform | Nobl9 Terraform Documentation

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