The Ping driver is a generic driver used to verify whether an equipment is reachable over IP from the probe.

It returns a boolean metric:

• true → the equipment responds to the ping
• false → the equipment does not respond to the ping

To configure it, fill in the IP/Hostname field with:

• The equipment’s IP address
• Or its hostname

Ping is a particular type of indicator.

A Ping failure (KO) is not an absence of data: it is a valid data point, simply with the value false.

In other words:

• ping = true → equipment is reachable
• ping = false → equipment is unreachable
• no data on ping → the probe is no longer reporting the metric

For the Ping driver, it is recommended to:

• Configure a “Measure” type alarm
• On the metric ping = false

This is the correct approach to detect an unreachable equipment.

“No data” alarms are generally intended for drivers where the absence of reporting is meaningful.

For Ping, a “No data” alarm would indicate something different:

• The probe is no longer reporting the metric
• The probe may be offline
• Or the probe is no longer able to execute ping requests

• ping = false → equipment-side issue (unreachable device)
• no data on ping → probe-side issue

It is important not to confuse these two situations when configuring alerts.