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Probe Configuration Overview

Once you have successfully installed the VMS Agent Collector, you can start configuring Probes to monitor host resources, network ports, containers, logs, or service endpoints. The VMS Dashboard interface allows you to view the list of active agents, monitor their health status, and manage their corresponding probe configurations: VMS Agent & Probe Management Dashboard

Steps to Configure a New Probe

You add or update monitoring probes through the VMS Dashboard; the configuration is synced down to the Agent.
1

Identify the Target

Determine what host, service, or endpoint needs monitoring. For example, to check the HTTP endpoint of a web service at https://api.verolabs.co/health.
2

Select the Probe Type

Choose the appropriate probe type based on your target:
  • Use host_resource for monitoring CPU, RAM, or Disk.
  • Use http_check for monitoring HTTP/HTTPS endpoints.
  • Use check_port for checking TCP port reachability (e.g. SSH port 22, database ports).
3

Define the Configuration (JSON / YAML)

Configure the probe with basic attributes like identifier code, display name, run intervalSeconds, and the specific probe config block.Example configuration for an HTTP Check probe:
4

Apply and Reload Configuration

  • On the VMS Dashboard, click Save / Apply to deploy the configuration to the Agent.
  • The Agent automatically pulls the new configuration on its sync cycle (VMS_CONFIG_REFRESH_SECONDS, usually 30–60s) without a service restart.

How to Verify if a Probe is Successful or Failing

1. Check Status on VMS Dashboard

  • Success State (Green): The probe returns a valid response, and all assertions (if any) pass. The dashboard indicates this with a Green status dot.
  • Failed State (Red): The probe fails to connect or assertion fails (e.g. HTTP status 500 instead of 200). The dashboard status changes to Red or Critical, and alerts are sent out to the configured channels.

2. Check logs on the Host

You can view the VMS Agent service logs to verify that configuration updates are received and probes are executing successfully:
The agent logs in JSON (slog). On startup and config sync you should see lines like:
Probe results are buffered and shipped to the ingress asynchronously; only failures produce WARN/ERROR lines (e.g. ingress send failed; will retry).