Monitoring Options
Last update: March 23, 2023 21:05 UTC (6ad51a76f)
from Pogo, Walt Kelly
Pig was hired to watch the logs.
Table of Contents
Naming Conventions
The ntpd includes a comprehensive monitoring facility which collects statistical data of various types and writes the data to files associated with each type at defined events or intervals. The files associated with a particular type are collectively called the generation file set for that type. The files in the file set are the members of that set.
File sets have names specific to the type and generation epoch. The names are constructed from three concatenated elements prefix, filename and suffix:
prefix- The directory path specified in the
statsdir command.
name- The name specified by the
file option of the filegen command.
suffix- A string of elements beginning with . (dot) followed by a number of elements depending on the file set type.
Statistics files can be managed using scripts, examples of which are in the ./scripts directory. Using these or similar scripts and Unix cron jobs, the files can be automatically summarized and archived for retrospective analysis.
Monitoring Commands and Options
Unless noted otherwise, further information about these commands is on the Event Messages and Status Codes page.
filegen name [file filename] [type type] [link | nolink] [enable | disable] name
-
name
- Specifies the file set type from the list in the next section.
-
file filename
- Specifies the filename prefix. The default is the file set type, such as
loopstats.
-
type typename
- Specifies the file set interval. The following intervals are supported with default
day:
-
none
- The file set is actually a single plain file.
-
pid
- One file set member is created for every incarnation of
ntpd. The file name suffix is the string .n, where n is the process ID of the ntpd server process.
-
day
- One file set member is created per day. A day is defined as the period between 00:00 and 23:59 UTC. The file name suffix is the string .
yyyymmdd, where yyyy is the year, mm the month of the year and dd the day of the month. Thus, member created on 10 December 1992 would have suffix .19921210.
-
week
- One file set member is created per week. The week is defined as the day of year modulo 7. The file name suffix is the string .
yyyyWww, where yyyy is the year, W stands for itself and ww the week number starting from 0. For example, The member created on 10 January 1992 would have suffix .1992W1.
month
One file set member is created per month. The file name suffix is the string .yyyymm, where yyyy is the year and mm the month of the year starting from 1. For example, The member created on 10 January 1992 would have suffix .199201.
-
year
- One file set member is generated per year. The file name suffix is the string .
yyyy, where yyyy is the year. For example, The member created on 1 January 1992 would have suffix .1992.
-
age
- One file set member is generated every 24 hours of
ntpd operation. The filename suffix is the string .adddddddd, where a stands for itself and dddddddd is the ntpd running time in seconds at the start of the corresponding 24-hour period.
-
link | nolink
- It is convenient to be able to access the current file set members by file name, but without the suffix. This feature is enabled by
link and disabled by nolink. If enabled, which is the default, a hard link from the current file set member to a file without suffix is created. When there is already a file with this name and the number of links to this file is one, it is renamed by appending a dot, the letter C, and the pid of the ntpd server process. When the number of links is greater than one, the file is unlinked. This allows the current file to be accessed by a constant name.
-
enable | disable
- Enable or disable the recording function, with default
enable. These options are intended for remote configuration commands.
statistics name…- Enables writing of statistics records. Currently, eight kinds of statistics are supported: names specify the file set type(s) from the list in the next section.
statsdir directory_path- Specify the directory path prefix for statistics file names.
File Set Types
clockstats- Record reference clock statistics. Each update received from a reference clock driver appends one line to the
clockstats file set:
-
49213 525.624 127.127.4.1 93 226 00:08:29.606 D
| Item |
Units |
Description |
49213 |
MJD |
date |
525.624 |
s |
time past midnight |
127.127.4.1 |
IP |
reference clock address |
| message |
text |
log message |
-
The message field includes the last timecode received in decoded ASCII format, where meaningful. In some cases a good deal of additional information is displayed. See information specific to each reference clock for further details.
cryptostats- Record significant events in the Autokey protocol. This option requires the OpenSSL cryptographic software library. Each event appends one line to the
cryptostats file set:
-
49213 525.624 128.4.1.1 message
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
49213 |
MJD |
date |
525.624 |
s |
time past midnight |
128.4.1.1 |
IP |
source address (0.0.0.0 for system) |
| message |
text |
log message |
-
The message field includes the message type and certain ancillary information. See the Authentication Options page for further information.
loopstats- Record clock discipline loop statistics. Each system clock update appends one line to the
loopstats file set:
-
50935 75440.031 0.000006019 13.778 0.000351733 0.013380 6
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
50935 |
MJD |
date |
75440.031 |
s |
time past midnight |
0.000006019 |
s |
clock offset |
13.778 |
PPM |
frequency offset |
0.000351733 |
s |
RMS jitter |
0.013380 |
PPM |
RMS frequency jitter (aka wander) |
6 |
log2 s |
clock discipline loop time constant |
peerstats- Record peer statistics. Each NTP packet or reference clock update received appends one line to the
peerstats file set:
-
48773 10847.650 127.127.4.1 9714 -0.001605376 0.000000000 0.001424877 0.000958674
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
48773 |
MJD |
date |
10847.650 |
s |
time past midnight |
127.127.4.1 |
IP |
source address |
9714 |
hex |
status word |
-0.001605376 |
s |
clock offset |
0.000000000 |
s |
roundtrip delay |
0.001424877 |
s |
dispersion |
0.000958674 |
s |
RMS jitter |
-
The status field is encoded in hex format as described in Appendix B of the NTP specification RFC 1305.
protostats- Record significant peer, system and protocol events. Each significant event appends one line to the
protostats file set:
-
49213 525.624 128.4.1.1 963a 8a message
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
49213 |
MJD |
date |
525.624 |
s |
time past midnight |
128.4.1.1 |
IP |
source address (0.0.0.0 for system) |
963a |
code |
status word |
8a |
code |
event message code |
| message |
text |
event message |
-
The event message code and message field are described on the Event Messages and Status Words page.
rawstats- Record timestamp statistics. Each NTP packet received appends one line to the
rawstats file set. As of ntp-4.2.8p11, each NTP packet written appends one line to the rawstats file set, as well. The format of this line is:
-
56285 54575.160 128.4.1.1 192.168.1.5 3565350574.400229473 3565350574.442385200 3565350574.442436000 3565350575.154505763 0 4 4 1 8 -21 0.000000 0.000320 .PPS.
-
56285 54575.160 128.4.1.1 192.168.1.5 3565350574.400229473 3565350574.442385200 3565350574.442436000 3565350575.154505763 0 4 4 1 8 -21 0.000000 0.000320 .PPS. 4: 0000
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
56285 |
MJD |
date |
54575.160 |
s |
time past midnight |
128.4.1.1 |
IP |
source address |
192.168.1.5 |
IP |
destination address |
3565350574.400229473 |
NTP s |
origin timestamp |
3565350574.442385200 |
NTP s |
receive timestamp |
3565350574.442436000 |
NTP s |
transmit timestamp |
3565350575.154505763 |
NTP s |
destination timestamp |
0 |
0: OK
1: insert pending
2: delete pending
3: not synced |
leap warning indicator |
4 |
4 was current in 2020 |
NTP version |
4 |
3: client
4: server
5: broadcast |
mode |
1 |
1-15
16: not synced |
stratum |
8 |
log2 seconds |
poll |
-21 |
log2 seconds |
precision |
0.000000 |
seconds |
total roundtrip delay to the primary reference clock |
0.000320 |
seconds |
total dispersion to the primary reference clock |
.PPS. |
REFID |
system peer, association ID |
|
If there is data beyond the base packet: |
|
4: |
Integer |
Length, in bytes |
0000 |
Hex data |
|
sysstats- Record system statistics. Each hour one line is appended to the
sysstats file set in the following format:
-
50928 2132.543 3600 81965 0 9546 56 512 540 10 4 147 1
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
50928 |
MJD |
date |
2132.543 |
s |
time past midnight |
3600 |
s |
time since reset |
81965 |
# |
packets received |
0 |
# |
packets for this host |
9546 |
# |
current versions |
56 |
# |
old version |
512 |
# |
access denied |
540 |
# |
bad length or format |
10 |
# |
bad authentication |
4 |
# |
declined |
147 |
# |
rate exceeded |
1 |
# |
kiss-o'-death packets sent |
timingstats- (Only available when the daemon is compiled with process time debugging support (
--enable-debug-timing - costs performance). Record processing time statistics for various selected code paths.
-
53876 36.920 10.0.3.5 1 0.000014592 input processing delay
-
| Item |
Units |
Description |
53876 |
MJD |
date |
36.920 |
s |
time past midnight |
10.0.3.5 |
IP |
server address |
1 |
# |
event count |
0.000014592 |
s |
total time |
| message |
text |
code path description (see source) |