---
layout: default
navsection: admin
title: Health checks
...

{% comment %}
Copyright (C) The Arvados Authors. All rights reserved.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-3.0
{% endcomment %}

Health check endpoints are found at @/_health/ping@ on many Arvados services.  The purpose of the health check is to offer a simple method of determining if a service can be reached and allow the service to self-report any problems, suitable for integrating into operational alert systems.

To access health check endpoints, services must be configured with a "management token":management-token.html .

Health check endpoints return a JSON object with the field @health@.  This has a value of either @OK@ or @ERROR@.  On error, it may also include a  field @error@ with additional information.  Examples:

<pre>
{
  "health": "OK"
}
</pre>

<pre>
{
  "health": "ERROR"
  "error": "Inverted polarity in the warp core"
}
</pre>

h2. Health check aggregator

The service @arvados-health@ performs health checks on all configured services and returns a single value of @OK@ or @ERROR@ for the entire cluster.  It exposes the endpoint @/_health/all@ .

The healthcheck aggregator uses the @Services@ section of the cluster-wide @config.yml@ configuration file.

h2. Health check command

The @arvados-server check@ command is another way to perform the same health checks as the health check aggregator service. It does not depend on the aggregator service.

If all checks pass, it writes @health check OK@ to stderr (unless the @-quiet@ flag is used) and exits 0. Otherwise, it writes error messages to stderr and exits with error status.

@arvados-server check -yaml@ outputs a YAML document on stdout with additional details about each service endpoint that was checked.

{% codeblock as yaml %}
Checks:
  "arvados-api-server+http://localhost:8004/_health/ping":
    ClockTime: "2024-12-13T14:38:25Z"
    ConfigSourceSHA256: 5a2b21ce0aeeeebcaf623329871b4628772446d4684ab0f89da4a2cbc7b3f17c
    ConfigSourceTimestamp: "2024-12-12T11:14:06.487848-05:00"
    HTTPStatusCode: 200
    Health: OK
    Response:
      health: OK
    ResponseTime: 0.051136
    Server: nginx/1.26.1 + Phusion Passenger(R) 6.0.23
    Version: 3.0.0
  "arvados-controller+http://localhost:8003/_health/ping":
    ClockTime: "2024-12-13T14:38:25Z"
    ConfigSourceSHA256: 5a2b21ce0aeeeebcaf623329871b4628772446d4684ab0f89da4a2cbc7b3f17c
    ConfigSourceTimestamp: "2024-12-12T11:14:06.487848-05:00"
    HTTPStatusCode: 200
    Health: OK
    Response:
      health: OK
    ResponseTime: 0.014869
    Server: ""
    Version: 3.0.0 (go1.21.10)
# ...
{% endcodeblock %}