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Pingdom

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Pingdom is a website monitoring 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.

Pingdom parameters and supported features in Nobl9
General support:
Release channel: Stable, Beta
Connection method: Agent, Direct
Replay and SLI Analyzer: Not supported
Event logs: Supported
Query checker: Not supported
Query parameters retrieval: Supported
Timestamp cache persistence: Supported
Query parameters:
Query interval: 1 min
Query delay: 1 min
Jitter: 15 sec
Timeout: 30 sec
Agent details and minimum required versions for supported features:
Environment variable: PINGDOM_QUERY_DELAY
Plugin name: n9pingdom
Query parameters retrieval: 0.73.2
Timestamp cache persistence: 0.65.0
Additional notes:
Support for the uptime and transaction checks
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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​

You can add the Pingdom data source using the direct or agent connection methods.

Direct connection method​

A direct connection to Pingdom requires users to enter their credentials, which Nobl9 stores safely.

Nobl9 Web​

Follow these steps to set up this type of connection:

  1. Navigate to Integrations > Sources.
  2. Click .
  3. Click the required Source button.
  4. Choose Direct.
  1. Select one of the following Release Channels:
    • The stable channel is fully tested by the Nobl9 team. It represents the final product; however, this channel does not contain all the new features of a beta release. Use it to avoid crashes and other limitations.
    • The beta channel is under active development. Here, you can check out new features and improvements without the risk of affecting any viable SLOs. Remember that features in this channel can change.

  2. 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, Nobl9 uses the default project.
  2. Enter a Display Name.
    You can enter a user-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-1). Nobl9 duplicates the display name here, transforming it into the supported format, 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. Specify the Query delay to set a customized delay for queries when pulling the data from the data source.
    • The default value in Pingdom integration for Query delay is 1 minute.
    info
    Changing the Query delay may affect your SLI data. For more details, check the Query delay documentation.
  6. Click Add Data Source.

sloctl​

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
  sourceOf:
    - Metrics
  releaseChannel: stable
  queryDelay:
      unit: Minute
      value: 720
  logCollectionEnabled: false # boolean, defaults to 'false'. Set to true if you'd like your source to collect logs. Available for data sources connected using the direct method only. Reach out to support@nobl9.com to activate it.
  pingdom:
      apiToken: ""
FieldTypeDescription
queryDelay.unit
mandatory
enumSpecifies the unit for the query delay. Possible values: Second | Minute.
• Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
queryDelay.value
mandatory
numericSpecifies the value for the query delay.
• Must be a number less than 1440 minutes (24 hours).
• Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
logCollectionEnabled
optional
booleanOptional. Defaults to false. Set to true if you'd like your direct to collect event logs. Contact us to activate it.
releaseChannel
mandatory
enumSpecifies the release channel. Accepted values: beta | stable.
Source-specific fields
pingdom.apiToken
mandatory
string, secretPingdom’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. See authentication section above for more details.

Agent connection method​

Nobl9 Web​

Follow the instructions below to set up an agent configuration.

  1. Navigate to Integrations > Sources.
  2. Click .
  3. Click the required Source button.
  4. Choose Agent.
  1. Select one of the following Release Channels:
    • The stable channel is fully tested by the Nobl9 team. It represents the final product; however, this channel does not contain all the new features of a beta release. Use it to avoid crashes and other limitations.
    • The beta channel is under active development. Here, you can check out new features and improvements without the risk of affecting any viable SLOs. Remember that features in this channel can change.
  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, Nobl9 uses the default project.
  2. Enter a Display Name.
    You can enter a user-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-1). Nobl9 duplicates the display name here, transforming it into the supported format, 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. Specify the Query delay to set a customized delay for queries when pulling the data from the data source.
    • The default value in Pingdom integration for Query delay is 1 minute.
    info
    Changing the Query delay may affect your SLI data. For more details, check the Query delay documentation.
  6. Click Add Data Source.

sloctl​

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
  project: my-project
spec:
  sourceOf:
    - Metrics
    - Services
  releaseChannel: stable
  queryDelay:
      unit: Minute
      value: 720
  pingdom: {}
FieldTypeDescription
queryDelay.unit
mandatory
enumSpecifies the unit for the query delay. Possible values: Second | Minute.
• Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
queryDelay.value
mandatory
numericSpecifies the value for the query delay.
• Must be a number less than 1440 minutes (24 hours).
• Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
releaseChannel
mandatory
enumSpecifies the release channel. Accepted values: beta | stable.
warning

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

Agent deployment​

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:0.82.2
          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​

Nobl9 Web​

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 .

  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.

SLI values for good and total
When choosing the query for the ratio SLI (countMetrics), keep in mind that the values ​​resulting from that query for both good and total:
  • Must be positive.
  • While we recommend using integers, fractions are also acceptable.
    • If using fractions, we recommend them to be larger than 1e-4 = 0.0001.
  • Shouldn't be larger than 1e+20.

sloctl​

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 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."

For a more in-depth look, consult additional resources:
Pingdom API documentationPingdom docsUptime MonitoringPingdom docsTransaction MonitoringPingdom docsWhat is a check?Pingdom docsHow to set up an Uptime (HTTP) Check?Pingdom docsAgent metricsAgentCreating SLOs via TerraformTerraformCreating agents via TerraformTerraform
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