diff --git a/plugins/inputs/ping/ping.go b/plugins/inputs/ping/ping.go
index f242a80b8..7550559dd 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/ping/ping.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/ping/ping.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"math"
+	"os/exec"
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
@@ -11,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/go-ping/ping"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf"
+	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/internal"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/inputs"
 )
 
@@ -311,9 +313,21 @@ func (p *Ping) Init() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+func hostPinger(binary string, timeout float64, args ...string) (string, error) {
+	bin, err := exec.LookPath(binary)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	c := exec.Command(bin, args...)
+	out, err := internal.CombinedOutputTimeout(c,
+		time.Second*time.Duration(timeout+5))
+	return string(out), err
+}
+
 func init() {
 	inputs.Add("ping", func() telegraf.Input {
 		p := &Ping{
+			pingHost:     hostPinger,
 			PingInterval: 1.0,
 			Count:        1,
 			Timeout:      1.0,
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/ping/ping_test.go b/plugins/inputs/ping/ping_test.go
index 0afa53706..9f88cc17d 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/ping/ping_test.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/ping/ping_test.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/go-ping/ping"
+	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/inputs"
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/testutil"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
@@ -261,6 +262,21 @@ func TestPingGather(t *testing.T) {
 	acc.AssertContainsTaggedFields(t, "ping", fields, tags)
 }
 
+func TestPingGatherIntegration(t *testing.T) {
+	if testing.Short() {
+		t.Skip("Skipping integration test in short mode, retrieves systems ping utility")
+	}
+
+	var acc testutil.Accumulator
+	p, ok := inputs.Inputs["ping"]().(*Ping)
+	require.True(t, ok)
+	p.Urls = []string{"localhost", "influxdata.com"}
+	err := acc.GatherError(p.Gather)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.Equal(t, 0, acc.Metrics[0].Fields["result_code"])
+	require.Equal(t, 0, acc.Metrics[1].Fields["result_code"])
+}
+
 var lossyPingOutput = `
 PING www.google.com (216.58.218.164) 56(84) bytes of data.
 64 bytes from host.net (216.58.218.164): icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=35.2 ms