Global Metrics Collector

This tool uses the Bitping Developer API to collect metrics about different protocols and how services respond from an external perspective.

Similar to Uptime testing tools such as BetterUptime or UptimeRobot but you own the data and can hook the data into your own Prometheus & Grafana for reporting.

You can also specify the network type of the reporting device such as if its a Residential IP, a Hosted VPS IP, a Mobile Broadband IP or even behind a Proxy/VPN service.

Get Started

1. Sign up for the Bitping Developer API at https://developer.bitping.com
2. Generate an API Key
3. Create a Metrics.yaml file (see configuration below)
4. Set your BITPING_API_KEY environment variable:

   export BITPING_API_KEY=your_api_key

5. Follow the install instructions below
6. Run:

   distributed-metrics

Metrics will be available at http://localhost:3000/metrics in Prometheus format.

Installation

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/BitpingApp/distributed-metrics/releases/latest/download/distributed-metrics-installer.sh | sh

Install prebuilt binaries via Homebrew

brew install BitpingApp/tap/distributed-metrics

Run Docker Container

docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e BITPING_API_KEY=your_api_key \
  -v $(pwd)/Metrics.yaml:/app/Metrics.yaml \
  bitping/distributed-metrics

Run Docker Compose

Save the following yaml to docker-compose.yaml

version: '3'
services:
  metrics:
    image: bitping/distributed-metrics
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - BITPING_API_KEY=your_api_key
    volumes:
      - ./Metrics.yaml:/app/Metrics.yaml
    restart: unless-stopped

Run:

docker compose up -d

Supported Protocols

DNS

Measures DNS resolution performance and reliability.

metrics:
  - type: dns
    prefix: "custom_prefix_" # Optional prefix for metrics
    name: "custom_name" # Optional name override
    endpoint: example.com
    frequency: 1s
    network:
      proxy: denied
      mobile: allowed
      residential: required
      country_code: NLD # Optional: ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code
      continent_code: EU # Optional: AF, AN, AS, EU, NA, OC, SA
      isp_regex: "^Comcast" # Optional: Filter by ISP name
      node_id: "node123" # Optional: Specific node ID
    lookup_type: IP # Optional: IP, MX, SOA, NS, TXT, SRV, TLSA (default: IP)

Metrics collected:

• dns_lookup_success_total: Count of successful DNS lookups
• dns_lookup_error_total: Count of DNS lookup errors by type
• dns_lookup_total: Total number of DNS lookups attempted
• dns_server_lookup_duration_ms: Time taken for DNS resolution
• dns_record_hash: Hash of the DNS response for change detection
• dns_records_count: Number of records returned
• dns_soa_records_count: Number of SOA records (when applicable)

Labels:

• country_code
• continent
• city
• isp
• os
• endpoint
• dns_server
• record_type
• error_type (for errors)

ICMP

Measures network latency and packet loss.

metrics:
  - type: icmp
    prefix: "custom_prefix_" # Optional prefix for metrics
    name: "custom_name" # Optional name override
    endpoint: example.com
    frequency: 1s
    network:
      proxy: denied
      mobile: allowed
      residential: required

Metrics collected:

• icmp_ping_failures_total: Count of ping failures
• icmp_ping_success_total: Count of successful pings
• icmp_ping_duration_ms: Overall ping duration
• icmp_ping_latency_min_ms: Minimum latency
• icmp_ping_latency_max_ms: Maximum latency
• icmp_ping_latency_avg_ms: Average latency
• icmp_ping_latency_stddev_ms: Standard deviation of latency
• icmp_ping_packet_loss_ratio: Ratio of lost packets
• icmp_ping_packets_sent: Number of packets sent
• icmp_ping_packets_received: Number of packets received
• icmp_ping_success_ratio: Success rate of pings

Labels:

• country_code
• continent
• city
• isp
• os
• endpoint
• ip_address
• error_type (for failures)

HLS

Measures HLS video stream performance and quality metrics.

metrics:
  - type: hls
    prefix: "custom_prefix_" # Optional prefix for metrics
    name: "custom_name" # Optional name override
    endpoint: https://example.com/stream.m3u8
    frequency: 15s
    network:
      proxy: denied
      mobile: allowed
      residential: required
    headers: # Optional custom headers
      User-Agent: "CustomPlayer/1.0"
      Authorization: "Bearer token123"

Metrics collected:

• hls_total_ms: Total time taken for HLS test
• hls_master_download_ms: Master playlist download time
• hls_master_size_bytes: Master playlist size
• hls_master_bitrate: Master playlist download speed
• hls_renditions_count: Number of available renditions
• hls_master_tcp_connect_ms: TCP connection time
• hls_master_ttfb_ms: Time to first byte
• hls_master_dns_resolve_ms: DNS resolution time
• hls_master_tls_handshake_ms: TLS handshake time
• hls_fragment_download_ms: Fragment download times
• hls_fragment_size_bytes: Fragment sizes
• hls_fragment_bandwidth_bytes_per: Fragment bandwidth
• hls_fragment_duration_seconds: Fragment durations
• hls_buffer_fill_rate: Buffer fill rate vs playback speed
• hls_estimated_buffer_ms: Estimated buffer length
• hls_initial_buffer_ms: Initial buffering time
• hls_playlist_chain_load_time: Total playlist load time
• hls_failures_total: Count of failures
• hls_errors_by_type: Errors by category

Labels:

• country_code
• continent
• city
• isp
• os
• endpoint
• resolution
• bandwidth
• target_duration_secs
• discontinuity_sequence
• playlist_type
• error_type (for failures)

Configuration

Global Configuration

metric_clear_timeout: 10s # How long to keep metrics after a scrape has occured - prevents timeouts on scraping as cardinality can be high

metrics:
  # Protocol configurations as shown above

Network Selection Parameters

All protocols support these network selection criteria:

• proxy: Policy for proxy nodes (allowed, denied, required)
• mobile: Policy for mobile nodes (allowed, denied, required)
• residential: Policy for residential nodes (allowed, denied, required)
• continent_code: Optional continent restriction (AF, AN, AS, EU, NA, OC, SA)
• country_code: Optional country restriction (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3)
• isp_regex: Optional ISP name filter using regex
• node_id: Optional specific node selection

Common Metric Configuration

All metrics support these base configuration options:

• prefix: Optional prefix for metric names
• name: Optional name override for the endpoint label
• endpoint: Target hostname or URL
• frequency: How often to collect metrics (e.g., "1s", "15s", "1m")
• network: Network selection criteria (see above)

Error Handling

All collectors track failures with specific error types in their respective *_failures_total or *_errors_by_type metrics. Common error categories include:

• DNS: no_records, connection_refused, timeout, resolution_failed, server_misbehaving
• ICMP: dns_lookup_failed, timeout, host_unreachable, permission_denied, network_unreachable
• HLS: dns_error, not_found, invalid_manifest, timeout, connection_error, ssl_error, http_4xx/5xx