Blackbox Exporter, Probed With A Control
Prometheus Blackbox exporter from the upstream release (sha256-verified) as a hardened system service on loopback with HTTP and TCP modules, checked by --config.check before the file lands. The live test has it probe itself over HTTP and TCP (probe_success 1) and a port with nothing behind it (probe_success 0): it measures, not only answers. Original role, live-tested on Rocky Linux 10.
Verification
Live-testedReally deployed to a container sandbox, proven idempotent (a second run changes nothing), verified against the role’s assertions, then torn down.
Conformance
- Static validation (yamllint · ansible-lint)
Provenance
- SHA-256 checksum
- Signature (pending)
Functional
- Live-tested - applied, verified, destroyed
Last verified 2026-09-20 · podman 4.9.3 · ansible 2.21.4 · how we verify
Documentation
blackbox-exporter
Prometheus Blackbox exporter from the upstream release tarball
(sha256-verified), as a system service on loopback with HTTP and TCP probe
modules and its configuration checked by the exporter's own --config.check
before it lands. Original role for EL 10, live-tested with podman on Rocky
Linux 10.
No package, so the checksum is the whole story. EL 10 carries no
blackbox-exporter; Prometheus ships a release with a checksum file beside it. The
role downloads both and has Ansible's get_url refuse the asset unless its
SHA-256 is the one in the vendor's file, then installs the binaries as
root's in /usr/local/bin, pinned by blackbox_exporter_version.
A service account, a hardened unit, a loopback listener. blackbox-exporter
is a system user with no shell that owns the data directory and nothing
else; the unit runs with NoNewPrivileges, PrivateTmp, ProtectHome and
ProtectSystem=strict. The listener is 127.0.0.1:9115 by default,
for a proxy that authenticates or a client on the same host; the live test
reads the listening sockets and expects loopback only.
Probed for real, with a control. The live test asks the exporter to
probe itself over HTTP and over TCP and expects probe_success 1 from
both, then asks it to probe a port with nothing behind it and expects
probe_success 0. Without the third probe the first two would only show
that the exporter answers; with it they show that it measures.
No ICMP by default. The hardened unit grants no capabilities, so an
icmp module would fail with permission denied; the README of the unit
says where to add AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_RAW if you need it.
License
Commercial - IaC Bazaar EULA. (c) IaC Bazaar.
Usage code & full reference need an account
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- Variables
- Test
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