Updated 2026-06-18
A ping check sends ICMP echo requests to a host and evaluates the reply — useful for watching basic network reachability of a host that doesn't necessarily run a web server, like a router, an internal host, or a piece of network infrastructure.
Configuration options
- Packet count — how many echo requests to send per check run (3 by default).
- Timeout — how long to wait for replies (5 seconds by default).
- Packet-loss threshold — the percentage of lost packets that counts as a failure (100% by default — meaning all packets must be lost for the check to fail; lower this if you want to catch partial packet loss).
When to use it
Network-layer reachability of a host, independent of any particular service running on it. If the target speaks HTTP or a TCP protocol, an HTTP check or TCP check tells you more about whether the actual service is healthy, not just whether the host answers pings.