6.2 Reachability Test with Ping

The classic reachability test in UNIX systems has always been a ping, which sends an ICMP echo request packet and waits for an ICMP echo response packet. The Nagios plugin package includes two programs that carry out this ping check: check_icmp and check_ping. Even though check_ping is used in the standard configuration, you should replace it with the more efficient check_icmp, which has been included since plugin version 1.4.

Whereas check_ping calls the UNIX program /bin/ping, which is why there are always compatibility problems with the existing ping version, check_icmp sends ICMP without any external help programs. check_icmp basically works more efficiently, since it does not wait for one second between individual ...

Get Nagios, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.