TCP Probe Configuration in Proberix

This article provides a comprehensive guide to setting up and configuring TCP probes in Proberix, allowing you to monitor services that rely on raw TCP connections rather than HTTP/S protocols.

Required Configuration

When creating a TCP probe, the following fields are required:

Host/IP:
The host or IP address of the service you wish to monitor. Note that the host cannot be a localhost or an address from a local network (e.g., 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x), as Proberix monitors publicly accessible endpoints.

Port:
The port number to which the probe will connect. This should correspond to the specific service you want to monitor (e.g., 22 for SSH, 443 for HTTPS, or any custom port your service uses).

These two fields are the minimum required to configure a TCP probe in Proberix.

General Settings

HTTP/S and TCP probes share similar general settings for monitoring intervals, locations, and how notifications are handled. These settings allow you to define how frequently probes are performed, from which geographic locations, and the configuration of alert notifications. For detailed instructions, refer to the General Settings Documentation.

Monitoring Process

When a TCP probe is configured, Proberix performs the following steps to monitor the specified host and port:

1. The probe attempts to establish a TCP connection to the specified host and port.
2. If the connection is successfully established, the probe records the response time, marks the status as "ok," and closes the connection.
3. If the connection fails, the probe records the failure type (e.g., connection refused, host unreachable, or timed out) and maps it to an explicit status (e.g., "unreachable" or "timeout").
4. In case of a timeout, the probe explicitly marks the status as "timeout" and logs the error for reporting.

This process ensures that the monitoring is lightweight and efficient, making it suitable for real-time checks of TCP-based services.

Best Practices

• Ensure that the host or IP address is publicly accessible and not restricted by a firewall unless you explicitly allowlist the Proberix IPs.
• Choose a monitoring interval that balances timely alerts with the resource demands of frequent probes.
• If the service requires high availability, consider selecting multiple monitoring locations to ensure redundancy in monitoring.

Advanced Considerations

While Proberix does not require detailed knowledge of the underlying TCP implementation, it’s important to understand that TCP probes focus solely on connection-level monitoring. They do not evaluate application-layer protocols like HTTP, but they are effective for monitoring services such as SSH, custom TCP-based APIs, or any system where availability can be assessed by the ability to establish a connection.