---
title: Health Check
description: Health Check provides ping() and diagnostics() tests for the health
of the network and the cluster.
pubDate: 2026-08-17T09:53:44.266Z
antora:
editUrl: https://github.com/couchbase/docs-sdk-go/edit/temp/2.9/modules/concept-docs/pages/health-check.adoc
xref: xref:2.9@go-sdk:concept-docs:health-check.adoc[]
---
[Consult the llms.txt file for a full list of contents](/llms.txt)
[View original HTML](/go-sdk/2.9/concept-docs/health-check.html)
# Health Check
> Health Check provides ping() and diagnostics() tests for the health of the network and the cluster.
`Ping` and `diagnostics` methods, on the bucket and cluster objects respectively, can give us information about the current state of nodes, and their connections.
## [](#uses)Uses
'Ping\` provides a raw JSON payload suitable for feeding into reactive log and aggregation components, including monitoring systems like _Splunk_, _ElasticSearch_, and _Nagios_. It can also help keep connections alive if you are operating across an environment which aggressively closes down unused connections.
`Diagnostics` provides a strongly typed API for proactive, pull-based monitoring systems, such as:
* [Kubernetes Liveness and Readiness Probes via HTTP or CLI commands](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-liveness-readiness-probes/).
* [Docker Health Check with CLI commands](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#healthcheck).
* [AWS ELB through HTTP](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/classic/elb-healthchecks.html).
This API does not provide binary yes/no answers about the health of the cluster; rather it summarizes as much information as possible, for the application developer to assemble a complete, contextual view and come to a conclusion.
Note: `Ping` may reopen a connection, so is not without side-effects. `Diagnostics` shows what the SDK _perceives_ as the current state of the network and services — it is without side-effects, but may not be up to date.
## [](#ping)Ping
`Ping` _actively_ queries the status of the specified services,giving status and latency information for every node reachable. In addition to its use as a monitoring tool, a regular `Ping` can be used in an environment which does not respect keep alive values for a connection.
The return value is a `PingResult` containing detail about the report including a `services` field. The `services` field is a map of service type (e.g. `ServiceTypeKeyValue` or `ServiceTypeQuery`) to the value containing latency and status information. The report also supports being exported to JSON for purposes such as logging.
```golang
// We'll ping the KV nodes in our cluster.
pings, err := bucket.Ping(&gocb.PingOptions{
ReportID: "my-report", (1)
ServiceTypes: []gocb.ServiceType{gocb.ServiceTypeKeyValue}, (2)
})
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
for service, pingReports := range pings.Services {
if service != gocb.ServiceTypeKeyValue {
panic("we got a service type that we didn't ask for!")
}
for _, pingReport := range pingReports {
if pingReport.State != gocb.PingStateOk {
fmt.Printf(
"Node %s at remote %s is not OK, error: %s, latency: %s\n",
pingReport.ID, pingReport.Remote, pingReport.Error, pingReport.Latency.String(),
)
} else {
fmt.Printf(
"Node %s at remote %s is OK, latency: %s\n",
pingReport.ID, pingReport.Remote, pingReport.Latency.String(),
)
}
}
}
b, err := json.Marshal(pings) (3)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Ping report JSON: %s", string(b))
```
| **1** | ReportID is optional and assigns a name to this report, if empty then a uuid will be assigned. |
| ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **2** | ServiceTypes are which services to ping against. |
| **3** | The report can be marshalled down into JSON in a human friendly format. |
The output from exporting to JSON could look like:
```json
{
"version":2,
"sdk":"gocb/v2.1.5 gocbcore/v9.0.3",
"id":"my-report",
"services":{
"kv":[
{
"id":"0xc000192280",
"remote":"172.23.111.129:11210",
"state":"ok",
"namespace":"travel-sample",
"latency_us":162551275
},
{
"id":"0xc000192230",
"remote":"172.23.111.128:11210",
"state":"ok",
"namespace":"travel-sample",
"latency_us":162543150
}
]
}
}
```
## [](#diagnostics)Diagnostics
`Diagnostics` returns a list of the nodes that the SDK currently has (or had) a connection to, and the current status of the connection. However this call _does not_ actively poll the nodes, reporting instead the state the last time it tried to access each node. If you want the _current_ status, then use [Ping](#ping).
```golang
diagnostics, err := cluster.Diagnostics(&gocb.DiagnosticsOptions{
ReportID: "my-report", (1)
})
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
if diagnostics.State != gocb.ClusterStateOnline {
log.Printf("Overall cluster state is not online\n")
} else {
log.Printf("Overall cluster state is online\n")
}
for serviceType, diagReports := range diagnostics.Services {
for _, diagReport := range diagReports {
if diagReport.State != gocb.EndpointStateConnected {
fmt.Printf(
"Node %s at remote %s is not connected on service %s, activity last seen at: %s\n",
diagReport.ID, diagReport.Remote, serviceType, diagReport.LastActivity.String(),
)
} else {
fmt.Printf(
"Node %s at remote %s is connected on service %s, activity last seen at: %s\n",
diagReport.ID, diagReport.Remote, serviceType, diagReport.LastActivity.String(),
)
}
}
}
db, err := json.Marshal(diagnostics) (2)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Diagnostics report JSON: %s", string(db))
```
| **1** | ReportID is optional and assigns a name to this report, if empty then a uuid will be assigned. |
| ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **2** | The report can be marshalled down into JSON in a human friendly format. |
The output from exporting to JSON could look like:
```json
{
"version":2,
"sdk":"gocb/v2.1.5",
"id":"my-report",
"services":{
"kv":[
{
"id":"0xc0000beb90",
"last_activity_us":1639000,
"remote":"172.23.111.129:11210",
"local":"192.168.75.17:65310",
"state":"connected",
"namespace":"travel-sample"
},
{
"id":"0xc000192320",
"last_activity_us":1481000,
"remote":"172.23.111.128:11210",
"local":"192.168.75.17:65311",
"state":"connected",
"namespace":"travel-sample"
}
]
},
"state":"online"
}
```