Blackbox Exporter ICMP module and selinux do not like each other. Same goes for systemd units and ICMP Echo sockets. However, with persistence, skill and a bit of luck you can make it all work together. Photo credit.

Introduction

Blackbox Exporter is an exporter for the Prometheus monitoring system. It is able to probe a target, such as a host or an application from the outside. Blackbox Exporter does probing with modules such as http, tcp, dns, icmp and grpc (details here). The icmp module is special because it does privileged operations that require the CAP_NET_RAW capability and as well as custom selinux policies. This article aims to explain how you can make Blackbox Exporter ICMP module and selinux work together. NOTE: you do not need any of these tricks if you use non-icmp Blackbox exporter modules.