Rotating IP list for Ping

[miXza81]

I have a Tasmota as Internet watchdog. iI will Ping a single IP address at certain intervals and power off the connected device (4G Stick) for a moment if the last Ping was unsuccessful.

Current rule:
ON Time#Minute|15 DO backlog Ping4 1.1.1.1 ENDON ON Ping#1.1.1.1#Success==0 DO Backlog Power1 0; Delay 15; Power1 1; ENDON

Is it possible to create a similar Rule, with the exception that it would Ping IP from rotating list, instead of always same IP? I would like to perform the check much more frequently, without loading one server too much. There is no need to save the last selection to flash in case of a power outage.

[s-hadinger]

No, it is not possible to manage rotating lists in rules, but you can set multiple rules. Why would you need a rotating list?

Also, ping generates negligible load on servers, there is no way you can overload a server from a Tasmota device.

[sfromis]

While "most" servers would not worry too much about being pinged, doing it very often just might get into a bin as a bad actor. I'd not be that worried about every 15 minutes, but no guarantees.

In rules you could manage a rotating list with 4 variables initialized to IP addresses, and then every cycle do something like:
var5=var1; var1=var2; var2=var3; var3=var4; var4=var1
Then you could use Ping4 %var1% - and have 4 rules to pick up responses from each of your target IP addresses.

[miXza81]

In rules you could manage a rotating list with 4 variables initialized to IP addresses, and then every cycle do something like: var5=var1; var1=var2; var2=var3; var3=var4; var4=var1 Then you could use Ping4 %var1% - and have 4 rules to pick up responses from each of your target IP addresses.

I'll try it. Thanks!

[miXza81]

In rules you could manage a rotating list with 4 variables initialized to IP addresses, and then every cycle do something like: var5=var1; var1=var2; var2=var3; var3=var4; var4=var1 Then you could use Ping4 %var1% - and have 4 rules to pick up responses from each of your target IP addresses.

Currently my rule is like this (All in single rule):

ON System#Boot DO Backlog var1 1.0.0.1; var2 8.8.4.4; var3 9.9.9.9; var4 1.1.1.1; var5 8.8.8.8; var6 149.112.112.112 ENDON
ON Time#Minute|3 DO Backlog Ping3 %var1%; var7 %var1%; var1 %var2%; var2 %var3%; var3 %var4%; var4 %var5%; var5 %var6%; var6 %var7% ENDON
ON Ping#%var1%#Success==0 DO Backlog Power1 0; Delay 5; Power1 1 ENDON

What causes the IP in the log below to repeat?
This rule has now been tested with the early 12 version and 15.0.1.1 version...

00:00:02.827 RUL: SYSTEM#BOOT performs 'Backlog var1 1.0.0.1; var2 8.8.4.4; var3 9.9.9.9; var4 1.1.1.1; var5 8.8.8.8; var6 149.112.112.112'
00:00:02.864 RSL: RESULT = {"Var1":"1.0.0.1"}
00:00:03.114 RSL: RESULT = {"Var2":"8.8.4.4"}
00:00:04.365 RSL: RESULT = {"Var3":"9.9.9.9"}
21:11:09.107 RSL: RESULT = {"Var4":"1.1.1.1"}
21:11:09.308 RSL: RESULT = {"Var5":"8.8.8.8"}
21:11:09.030 RSL: RESULT = {"Var6":"149.112.112.112"}
21:11:11.235 RSL: STATE = {"Time":"2025-06-14T21:11:11","Uptime":"0T00:00:08","UptimeSec":8,"Heap":26,"SleepMode":"Dynamic","Sleep":50,"LoadAvg":19,"MqttCount":0,"POWER":"ON","Wifi":{"AP":1,"SSId":"Wifi","BSSId":"14:EF:AD:CD:AF:AB","Channel":1,"Mode":"11n","RSSI":100,"Signal":-26,"LinkCount":1,"Downtime":"0T00:00:04"}}
21:12:03.219 RUL: TIME#MINUTE|3 performs 'Backlog Ping3 1.0.0.1; var7 1.0.0.1; var1 8.8.4.4; var2 9.9.9.9; var3 1.1.1.1; var4 8.8.8.8; var5 149.112.112.112; var6 '
21:12:03.252 RSL: RESULT = {"Ping":"Done"}
21:12:03.500 RSL: RESULT = {"Var7":"1.0.0.1"}
21:12:03.701 RSL: RESULT = {"Var1":"8.8.4.4"}
21:12:03.902 RSL: RESULT = {"Var2":"9.9.9.9"}
21:12:04.104 RSL: RESULT = {"Var3":"1.1.1.1"}
21:12:04.306 RSL: RESULT = {"Var4":"8.8.8.8"}
21:12:04.556 RSL: RESULT = {"Var5":"149.112.112.112"}
21:12:04.806 RSL: RESULT = {"Var6":"149.112.112.112"}
21:12:06.411 RSL: RESULT = {"Ping":{"1.0.0.1":{"Reachable":true,"IP":"1.0.0.1","Success":3,"Timeout":0,"MinTime":31,"MaxTime":193,"AvgTime":89}}}
21:15:00.227 RUL: TIME#MINUTE|3 performs 'Backlog Ping3 8.8.4.4; var7 8.8.4.4; var1 9.9.9.9; var2 1.1.1.1; var3 8.8.8.8; var4 149.112.112.112; var5 149.112.112.112; var6 1.0.0.1'
21:15:00.259 RSL: RESULT = {"Ping":"Done"}
21:15:00.508 RSL: RESULT = {"Var7":"8.8.4.4"}
21:15:00.757 RSL: RESULT = {"Var1":"9.9.9.9"}
21:15:01.008 RSL: RESULT = {"Var2":"1.1.1.1"}
21:15:01.257 RSL: RESULT = {"Var3":"8.8.8.8"}
21:15:01.459 RSL: RESULT = {"Var4":"149.112.112.112"}
21:15:01.662 RSL: RESULT = {"Var5":"149.112.112.112"}
21:15:01.866 RSL: RESULT = {"Var6":"1.0.0.1"}
21:15:03.426 RSL: RESULT = {"Ping":{"8.8.4.4":{"Reachable":true,"IP":"8.8.4.4","Success":3,"Timeout":0,"MinTime":42,"MaxTime":146,"AvgTime":78}}}

[sfromis]

That's because you deviated from my suggestion, which very specifically was the expression-style assignment syntax var6=var7 instead of the command syntax var6 %var7%. The difference is that variable references with % are expanded before the whole rule starts, while the expression-style references will fetch the variable content later, at the point of executing the assignment.

This means that the circular rotate could not work, as this depends on an extra variable var7, but when you use %var7%, it will pick up the value before the rule body parsing starts, instead of letting var6=var7 use the value from var7=var1 in the beginning of the rotate sequence.

However, I forgot that the expression-style syntax only works for numbers, not for strings, which may be what you tried to get around. Basically, you do need to use the command-style syntax, where you then will have to use two rules like:

ON Time#Minute|3 DO var7 %var1% ENDON
ON Time#Minute|3 DO Backlog Ping3 %var1%; var1 %var2%; var2 %var3%; var3 %var4%; var4 %var5%; var5 %var6%; var6 %var7% ENDON

Also, I told you to use one rule for each IP address to pick up Ping result, instead of your "invention" to assume that you can use a variable in the left side of the trigger expression.

[miXza81]

That's because you deviated from my suggestion, which very specifically was the expression-style assignment syntax var6=var7 instead of the command syntax var6 %var7%. The difference is that variable references with % are expanded before the whole rule starts, while the expression-style references will fetch the variable content later, at the point of executing the assignment.

This means that the circular rotate could not work, as this depends on an extra variable var7, but when you use %var7%, it will pick up the value before the rule body parsing starts, instead of letting var6=var7 use the value from var7=var1 in the beginning of the rotate sequence.

However, I forgot that the expression-style syntax only works for numbers, not for strings, which may be what you tried to get around. Basically, you do need to use the command-style syntax, where you then will have to use two rules like:

ON Time#Minute|3 DO var7 %var1% ENDON
ON Time#Minute|3 DO Backlog Ping3 %var1%; var1 %var2%; var2 %var3%; var3 %var4%; var4 %var5%; var5 %var6%; var6 %var7% ENDON

Also, I told you to use one rule for each IP address to pick up Ping result, instead of your "invention" to assume that you can use a variable in the left side of the trigger expression.

Sorry. I misunderstood your text content: I didn't understand how 8 different rules would fit only into 3 rules: RULE1-RULE3.

And, yes: That var5=var1; var1=var2; var2=var3; var3=var4; var4=var5 on didn't work in my use for the reason you mentioned, so I looked for another way to implement something same kind, but that had other problem.

I got the variable rotating to work, but I encountered another problem, so I moved on to the idea suggested by pkkrusty, From that code, I quickly parsed some new rules that seems to work. Device is miles away, but I will check its functionality later and post the rules that I used... maybe they will be useful to someone else too.

Thanks for your help.

[pkkrusty]

This is the solution I use. Writes to influxdb so i can create a little status visual in grafana. Probably could be cleaned up (by assigning the IPs and names to vars or mem to save space)

Rule1 
ON Time#Initialized DO backlog ruletimer2 10; var2 1 ENDON 
on rules#timer==2 do backlog add2 1; ruletimer2 8; event t1=%var2% endon 
on var2#state>=12 do var2 1 endon 
on event#t1==1 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.70; var3 MoringaRouter endon 
on event#t1==2 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.9; var3 DortoirRouter endon 
on event#t1==3 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.22; var3 ClinicRouter endon 
on event#t1==4 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.14; var3 CouvoirRouter endon 
on event#t1==5 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.33; var3 MSRouter endon 
on event#t1==6 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.53; var3 GuardRouter endon 
on event#t1==7 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.29; var3 JohannesRouter endon 
on event#t1==8 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.64; var3 SchoolRouter endon 
on event#t1==9 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.71; var3 AtelierRouter endon 
on event#t1==10 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.52; var3 DogoRouter endon 
on event#t1==11 do backlog ping4 192.168.3.11; var3 BouchRouter endon 
on ping#?#Success do WebQuery http://192.168.3.98:8086/write?db=homeautomation&rp=four_weeks POST ping,device=%var3% value=%value% ENDON

[miXza81]

Thanks for the comprehensive template... I was able to quickly create my own rules based on it.

My device is miles away for testing and I'll go there at the end of the week... I'll check the log then and post the rules here for others to use.

[miXza81]

This rule seems to work well:

Rule1
ON Time#Initialized DO Backlog Ruletimer1 150; Var1 1 ENDON
ON Rules#Timer==1 DO Backlog Add1 1; Ruletimer1 150; Event T1=%Var1% ENDON
ON Var1#State>=8 DO Var1 1 ENDON
ON Event#T1==1 DO Ping3 1.0.0.1 ENDON
ON Event#T1==2 DO Ping3 8.8.4.4 ENDON
ON Event#T1==3 DO Ping3 9.9.9.9 ENDON
ON Event#T1==4 DO Ping3 1.1.1.1 ENDON
ON Event#T1==5 DO Ping3 8.8.8.8 ENDON
ON Event#T1==6 DO Ping3 149.112.112.112 ENDON
ON Ping#?#Success==0 DO Backlog Power1 0; Delay 5; Power1 1 ENDON

I hope it's useful also to someone else.