Manually editing dyncfg files, and best way to configure ping collector

Help
1

I created a ping collector in Netdata Cloud, and I observed the dyncfg config file created in /var/lib/netdata/config on the node. The file had a setting “sync=false”. I guessed that this mean node->cloud sync, and I changed it to true, edited the list of hosts, and restarted netdata. The updated hosts appear in the cloud UI.

I couldn’t find documentation on this. Is this supported? I want to ping a couple hundred hosts and entering them in the UI is impractical. Should I edit the dyncfg file, or manually create a ping.conf file?

2

No, manually editing dyncfg files is not supported.

Should I edit the dyncfg file, or manually create a ping.conf file?

You can configure this using either:

  • The web interface (requires a paid subscription to use dynamic configuration)
  • Configuration files
3

I have Business plan.

I deleted the ping config from the Netdata Cloud (NC). I verified on the node that the config file in /var/lib/netdata was deleted. I created config using instructions (edit-config go.d/ping.conf) and restarted Netdata on the node. The new config shows up in NC. Then I added a host in NC. I see on the node that it’s created a dyncfg file, thus apparently overriding the go.d/ping.conf file.

Is this the intended behavior? That is, if one creates a config on the node, one must not edit it NC? If so, it should be read-only in NC or other flagged so that one can keep track of which configs are node-based and which are NC-based.

4
  • dyncfg only overwrites configuration file jobs when there is an exact match between the dyncfg job name and the job name defined in the file.
  • Modifying a job through the UI (dyncfg) creates a new dyncfg job instead of updating the configuration file.
5

OK, I see now. They are different jobs, but if named the same, the dyncfg takes precedence. The NC configuration clearly distinguishes different job types with different icons and hover-over details. Very nice!! Thanks