Menu
DocumentationGrafana CloudTest applications and servicesSynthetic MonitoringCreate checksCheck typesDNS check
Grafana Cloud

DNS check

DNS or domain name servers resolve a domain such as grafana.com to an IP address. This check ensures a domain resolves and measures the average time for the resolution to happen. DNS checks can be set up to validate against a specific DNS server and check for a specific kind of response.

Options

The list of common options to all check types:

OptionDescription
EnabledWhether the check is enabled or not.
Job nameRefer to the check name. Check metrics include a job label with the value of this option.
TargetTarget of the check request. Check metrics include an instance label with the value of this option.
Probe locationsThe locations where the check should run from. Check metrics include a probe label with the value of the probe location running the check.
FrequencyThe frequency the check should run in seconds. The value can range from 60 to 3600 seconds. Only the sm_check_info metric includes the frequency label.
TimeoutMaximum execution time for the check. The value can range from 1 to 60 seconds.
Custom labels(Optional) Custom labels applied to check metrics. Refer to Custom labels for querying instructions.

Additionally, DNS checks have the following options:

OptionDescription
Record typeThe resource record to query.
ServerThe nameserver to query.
PortThe port used to connect to the server.
ProtocolThe protocol (TCP, UDP) used to connect to the server.
Valid response codesThe set of response codes to accept.
Valid response matchesA series of validations to apply to the response.
IP versionThe internet protocol version to use (V4, V6 or any).
Publish full set of metricsWhether to publish additional metrics to create histograms (used for Apdex scores or heatmaps). Default is false to reduce the number of active series.

These last options don’t produce any additional labels in the resulting check metrics.

Metrics

Checks store their results as Prometheus metrics, including the list of common metrics:

MetricDescription
probe_all_duration_secondsReturns how long the probe took to complete in seconds (histogram).
probe_duration_secondsReturns how long the probe took to complete in seconds.
probe_all_successDisplays whether or not the probe was a success (summary).
probe_successDisplays whether or not the probe was a success.
sm_check_infoProvides information about a single check configuration.

Additionally, DNS checks produce the following metrics:

MetricDescription
probe_dns_additional_rrsReturns the number of entries in the additional resource record list.
probe_dns_answer_rrsReturns the number of entries in the answer resource record list.
probe_dns_authority_rrsReturns the number of entries in the authority resource record list.
probe_dns_duration_secondsDuration of DNS request by phase.
probe_dns_lookup_time_secondsReturns the time taken for probe DNS lookup in seconds.
probe_dns_query_succeededDisplays whether or not the query was executed successfully.
probe_ip_addr_hashSpecifies the hash of the IP address. It’s useful to detect if the IP address changes.
probe_ip_protocolSpecifies whether probe IP protocol is IP4 or IP6.