Network Monitoring

Real-time latency, jitter, packet loss, traceroute, speed tests, and service availability across your fleet

Overview

The Astra agent is a network-focused monitor. It does not collect system metrics (CPU, memory, disk). Instead it continuously measures your network's health from the inside — latency to targets, jitter, packet loss, traceroute paths, speed, service reachability, DNS integrity, and public IP/ISP information.

Ping Metrics (All Plans)

For each target in your config.toml, the agent continuously measures:

Latency (ms)

Round-trip time to each target. Color-coded: green (<50ms), yellow (50–150ms), red (>150ms).

Jitter (ms)

Variation in latency between packets. High jitter degrades VoIP and video calls.

Packet Loss (%)

Percentage of packets that did not receive a response. Any loss above 1% is flagged.

Configuring Targets

Targets are IP addresses or hostnames the agent pings. Configure them in config.toml:

toml
[agent_config]
targets = ["8.8.8.8", "1.1.1.1", "your-gateway-ip"]
poll_interval_secs = 300
ℹ️

Starter plan: up to 5 targets, minimum poll interval 30 minutes (1800s).
Professional plan: up to 10 targets, minimum 15 minutes (900s).
Enterprise plan: unlimited targets, minimum 1 second.

Traceroute (Professional+)

The agent periodically runs traceroutes to each target, recording the full hop-by-hop path including RTT per hop. This lets you identify where in the network path latency is introduced.

Configuration

toml
[agent_config]
traceroute_interval_secs = 300  # Run traceroute every 5 minutes

Viewing Results

Navigate to an agent's detail page and click the Traceroute tab to see:

  • Full hop list with IP addresses and RTT
  • Historical traceroute comparison
  • Path changes over time

Speed Tests (Professional+)

The agent periodically runs internet speed tests, measuring download speed, upload speed, and ping to the test server.

Configuration

toml
[agent_config]
speedtest_interval_secs = 3600  # Run speed test every hour

Metrics Reported

  • Download speed (Mbps)
  • Upload speed (Mbps)
  • Ping to speed test server (ms)
  • Test server name and location

Service Tests (All Plans)

The agent can test the reachability and response time of specific services — useful for monitoring whether critical network services are accessible from a site.

Supported Service Types

DNS
HTTP
HTTPS
SSH
RDP
SMTP
VOIP
TCP

Configuration

toml
[[agent_config.services_to_test]]
name = "Primary DNS"
service_type = "dns"
host = "8.8.8.8"
port = 53

[[agent_config.services_to_test]]
name = "Internal Web App"
service_type = "https"
host = "app.internal.company.com"
port = 443

[[agent_config.services_to_test]]
name = "Remote Desktop"
service_type = "rdp"
host = "10.0.0.100"
port = 3389
ℹ️

Starter plan: up to 2 service tests. Professional: up to 5. Enterprise: unlimited.

DNS Monitors

Beyond service reachability tests, the agent supports dedicated DNS monitoring with hijack detection:

  • Resolves a domain and checks the returned IP against an expected value
  • Flags DNS hijacking if the resolved IP doesn't match
  • Tracks DNS resolution time (response_ms)
toml
[[agent_config.dns_monitors]]
domain = "company.com"
expected_ip = "203.0.113.10"
resolver = "8.8.8.8"

HTTP Monitors

The agent can monitor HTTP/HTTPS endpoints for status code, response time, and optional keyword matching in the response body:

  • HTTP status code validation
  • Response time tracking (ms)
  • Keyword presence check in body
  • Redirect tracking
toml
[[agent_config.http_monitors]]
name = "Company Homepage"
url = "https://company.com"
expected_status = 200
keyword = "Welcome"

Public IP & ISP (Enterprise)

The agent periodically checks and reports:

  • Current public IP address
  • ISP and carrier name
  • Country, region, city, and geo-coordinates
  • Timezone
toml
[agent_config]
public_ip_check_interval_secs = 1800  # Check every 30 minutes
ℹ️

IP information and geolocation features require the Enterprise plan.

Viewing Metrics in the Dashboard

Fleet Overview

The main dashboard shows aggregate fleet health:

  • Online / offline agent counts
  • Fleet-wide average latency, jitter, and packet loss
  • Agents with degraded connectivity highlighted
  • Nova AI assistant for natural-language fleet analysis

Agent Detail View

Click any agent to see per-agent metrics:

  • Real-time latency, jitter, and packet loss graphs (auto-updating)
  • Per-target breakdown when multiple targets are configured
  • Historical trends with configurable time ranges
  • Traceroute history, speed test results, and service test status

Data Retention by Plan

PlanRetentionMin Poll Interval
Starter7 days30 minutes
Professional90 days15 minutes
Enterprise365 days1 second

Understanding Agent Status

Online

Agent has sent a heartbeat within the last 5 minutes

Offline

No heartbeat received for more than 5 minutes

Common causes:

  • Agent service stopped or host shut down
  • Network connectivity to the platform lost
  • Configuration error preventing agent from starting

Via API

Access network metrics programmatically:

bash
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://your-org.astraid.io/api/v1/metrics?agent_id=AGENT_ID&limit=100"

See the API Documentation for full details.

Next Steps