SmokePing Network Latency

Key Features

• Multi-target ping monitoring with configurable intervals and probe counts per measurement cycle
• Interactive web-based RRDtool graphs displaying latency trends, packet loss patterns, and statistical distributions
• Smoke-style latency distribution visualization showing response time spread and consistency over time
• Support for multiple probe types including ICMP ping, TCP connect tests, DNS queries, and HTTP response monitoring
• Configurable alert thresholds with email notifications for packet loss and latency threshold violations
• Hierarchical target organization allowing logical grouping of monitored hosts by location, service type, or importance
• Historical data retention with automatic data aggregation for long-term trend analysis and capacity planning
• Master-slave architecture support for distributed monitoring across multiple network segments

Common Use Cases

• 1ISP service level agreement monitoring to verify contracted uptime and latency guarantees with historical evidence
• 2Multi-site corporate network monitoring to identify WAN link quality issues between office locations
• 3Cloud service provider performance tracking to compare response times across different regions and providers
• 4Home lab network troubleshooting to identify intermittent connectivity issues with specific internet services
• 5Managed service provider client reporting to demonstrate network performance metrics and identify customer-side issues
• 6Critical application dependency monitoring to track connectivity quality to essential third-party services and APIs
• 7Network equipment lifecycle management using latency trend analysis to predict hardware failures before complete outages

Prerequisites

• Docker host with at least 512MB available RAM for RRDtool graph generation and data processing
• Network configuration allowing ICMP ping packets outbound to target hosts for basic monitoring functionality
• Port 8080 available on the Docker host for accessing the SmokePing web interface and graph displays
• Basic understanding of network addressing and ping concepts for configuring meaningful monitoring targets
• Sufficient disk space for long-term RRD database storage, typically 10-50MB per monitored target annually
• Time zone environment variable configured correctly for accurate graph timestamps and alert scheduling

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  smokeping: 
3    image: linuxserver/smokeping:latest
4    container_name: smokeping
5    environment: 
6      - PUID=1000
7      - PGID=1000
8      - TZ=${TZ}
9    volumes: 
10      - smokeping_config:/config
11      - smokeping_data:/data
12    ports: 
13      - "8080:80"
14    restart: unless-stopped
15    networks: 
16      - smokeping-network
17
18volumes: 
19  smokeping_config: 
20  smokeping_data: 
21
22networks: 
23  smokeping-network: 
24    driver: bridge

.env Template

1# SmokePing
2TZ=UTC

Usage Notes

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  smokeping:
5    image: linuxserver/smokeping:latest
6    container_name: smokeping
7    environment:
8      - PUID=1000
9      - PGID=1000
10      - TZ=${TZ}
11    volumes:
12      - smokeping_config:/config
13      - smokeping_data:/data
14    ports:
15      - "8080:80"
16    restart: unless-stopped
17    networks:
18      - smokeping-network
19
20volumes:
21  smokeping_config:
22  smokeping_data:
23
24networks:
25  smokeping-network:
26    driver: bridge
27EOF
28
29# 2. Create the .env file
30cat > .env << 'EOF'
31# SmokePing
32TZ=UTC
33EOF
34
35# 3. Start the services
36docker compose up -d
37
38# 4. View logs
39docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/smokeping-latency/run | bash

Troubleshooting