This collector is based on adjtimex(2) system call. The collector returns
three values, status if time is synchronised, offset to remote reference,
and local clock frequency adjustment.
Values are taken from kernel time keeping data structures to avoid getting
involved how the synchronisation is implemented. By that I mean one should
not care if time is update using ntpd, systemd.timesyncd, ptpd, and so on.
Since all time sync implementation will always end up telling to kernel what
is the status with time one can simply omit the software in between, and
look results of the syncing. As a positive side effect this makes collector
very quick and conceptually specific, this does not monitor availability of
NTP server, or network in between, or dns resolution, and other unrelated
but necessary things.
Minimum set of values to keep eye on are the following three:
The node_timex_sync_status tells if local clock is in sync with a remote
clock. Value is set to zero when synchronisation to a reliable server
is lost, or a time sync software is misconfigured.
The node_timex_offset_seconds tells how much local clock is off when
compared to reference. In case of multiple time references this value
is outcome of RFC 5905 adjustment algorithm. Ideally offset should be
close to zero, and it depends about use case how large value is
acceptable. For example a typical web server is probably fine if offset
is about 0.1 or less, but that would not be good enough for mobile phone
base station operator.
The node_timex_freq tells amount of adjustment to local clock tick
frequency. For example if offset is one second and growing the local
clock will need instruction to tick quicker. Number value itself is not
very important, and occasional small adjustments are fine. When
frequency is unusually in stable one can assume quality of time stamps
will not be accurate to very far in sub second range. Obviously
explaining why local clock frequency behaves like a passenger in roller
coaster is different matter. Explanations can vary from system load, to
environmental issues such as a machine being physically too hot.
Rest of the measurements can help when debugging. If you run a clock server
do probably want to collect and keep track of everything.
Pull-request: https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/pull/664
Sami Kerola