Exometer Collectd reporter

Version: Jan 15 2016 10:34:32

Authors: Ulf Wiger (ulf.wiger@feuerlabs.com), Magnus Feuer (magnus.feuer@feuerlabs.com).

exometer_report_collectd

The collectd reporter communicates with a local collectd process through its unix socket protocol. All subscribed-to metric-datapoint values received by the reporter are immediately forwarded to collectd. Once a value has been forwarded, the reporter continuously refreshes the value toward collectd at a configurable interval in order to keep it from expiring inside collectd.

If the collectd connection is lost, the reporter will attempt to reconnect to it at a configurable interval.

All metrics reported to collectd will be have identifiers formatted as follows:

HostName/PluginName-PluginInstance/Type-Metric_DataPoint

HostName
Host name of the entry.
Configurable through the hostname application environment parameter.
Default is the value returned by netadm:localhost().
PluginName
The collectd plugin name.
Configurable through the plugin_name application environment parameter.
Default is exometer.
PluginInstance
The instance ID to use for the plugin.
Configurable through the plugin_instance application environment parameter.
Default is the erlang node name in the left hand side of the value returned by node().
Type
Type assigned to the reported value.
The type is looked up through the type_map.
The given metric and data points are used as a key in a list format, such as [ db, cache, hits, median ]. The type that is resolved from the metric/data point will be used as the Type component in the collectd identifier. Please see types.db(5) for a list of available collectd types.
Default for Type is 'gauge'.
Metric
The name of the metric. The atoms in the metric list will be converted to a string separated by _. Thus [ db, cache, hits ] will be converted to db_cache_hits.
DataPoint
The data point of the given metric. Will be added to the end of the metrics string.

Please see Configuring collectd reporter for details on the application environment parameters listed above.

Setting up subscriptions

A subscription can either be statically configured, or dynamically setup from within the code using Exometer. For details on statically configured subscriptions, please see Configuring static subscriptions.

A dynamic subscription can be setup with the following call:

exometer_report:subscribe(Recipient, Metric, DataPoint, Inteval)

Recipient is the name of a reporter.

Configuring type - entry maps

The dynamic method of configuring defaults for exometer entries is:

exometer_admin:set_default(NamePattern, Type, Default)

Where NamePattern is a list of terms describing what is essentially a name prefix with optional wildcards ('_'). A pattern that matches any legal name is ['_'].

Type is an atom defining a type of metric. The types already known to exometer, counter, fast_counter, ticker, uniform, histogram, spiral, netlink, and probe may be redefined, but other types can be described as well.

Default is either an #exometer_entry{} record (unlikely), or a list of {Key, Value} options, where the keys correspond to #exometer_entry record attribute names. The following attributes make sense to preset:

{module, atom()}              % the callback module
{status, enabled | disabled}  % operational status of the entry
{cache, non_neg_integer()}    % cache lifetime (ms)
{options, [{atom(), any()}]}  % entry-specific options

Below is an example, from exometer/priv/app.config:

{exometer, [
    {defaults, [
        {['_'], function , [{module, exometer_function}]},
        {['_'], counter  , [{module, exometer}]},
        {['_'], histogram, [{module, exometer_histogram}]},
        {['_'], spiral   , [{module, exometer_spiral}]},
        {['_'], duration , [{module, exometer_folsom}]},
        {['_'], meter    , [{module, exometer_folsom}]},
        {['_'], gauge    , [{module, exometer_folsom}]}
    ]}
]}

In systems that use CuttleFish, the file exometer/priv/exometer.schema contains a schema for default settings. The setup corresponding to the above defaults would be as follows:

exometer.template.function.module  = exometer_function
exometer.template.counter.module   = exometer
exometer.template.histogram.module = exometer_histogram
exometer.template.spiral.module    = exometer_spiral
exometer.template.duration.module  = exometer_folsom
exometer.template.meter.module     = exometer_folsom
exometer.template.gauge.module     = exometer_folsom

Configuring static subscriptions

Static subscriptions, which are automatically setup at exometer startup without having to invoke exometer_report:subscribe(), are configured through the report sub section under exometer.

Below is an example, from exometer/priv/app.config:

{exometer, [
    {report, [
        {subscribers, [
            {exometer_report_collectd, [db, cache, hits], mean, 2000, true},
            {exometer_report_collectd, [db, cache, hits], max, 5000, false}
        ]}
    ]}
]}

The report section configures static subscriptions and reporter plugins. See Configuring reporter plugins for details on how to configure individual plugins.

The subscribers sub-section contains all static subscriptions to be setup att exometer applications start. Each tuple in the prop list should be of one of the following formats:

{Reporter, Metric, DataPoint, Interval}
{Reporter, Metric, DataPoint, Interval, RetryFailedMetrics}
{Reporter, Metric, DataPoint, Interval, RetryFailedMetrics, Extra}
{apply, {M, F, A}}
{select, {MatchPattern, DataPoint, Interval [, Retry [, Extra] ]}}

In the case of {apply, M, F, A}, the result of apply(M, F, A) must be a list of subscribers tuples.

In the case of {select, Expr}, a list of metrics is fetched using exometer:select(MatchPattern), where the result must be on the form {Key, Type, Status} (i.e. what corresponds to '$_'). The rest of the items will be applied to each of the matching entries.

The meaning of the above tuple elements is:

Reporter :: module()
Specifies the reporter plugin module, such asexometer_report_collectd that is to receive updated metric's data points.
Metric :: [atoms()]
Specifies the path to a metric previously created with anexometer:new() call.
DataPoint :: atom() | [atom()]'
Specifies the data point within the given metric to send to the receiver. The data point must match one of the data points returned byexometer:info(Name, datapoints) for the given metrics name.
Interval :: integer()' (milliseconds)
Specifies the interval, in milliseconds, between each update of the given metric's data point. At the given interval, the data point will be samples, and the result will be sent to the receiver.
RetryFailedMetrics :: boolean()
Specifies if the metric should be continued to be reported even if it is not found during a reporting cycle. This would be the case if a metric is not created by the time it is reported for the first time. If the metric will be created at a later time, this value should be set to true. Set this value to false if all attempts to report the metric should stop if when is not found. The default value is true.
Extra :: any()
Provides a means to pass along extra information for a given subscription. An example is the syntax option for the SNMP reporter, in which case Extra needs to be a property list.

Example configuration in sys.config, using the {select, Expr} pattern:

[
 {exometer, [
             {predefined,
              [{[a,1], counter, []},
               {[a,2], counter, []},
               {[b,1], counter, []},
               {[c,1], counter, []}]},
             {report,
              [
               {reporters,
                [{exometer_report_tty, []}]},
               {subscribers,
                [{select, {[{ {[a,'_'],'_','_'}, [], ['$_']}],
                           exometer_report_tty, value, 1000}}]}
              ]}
            ]}
].

This will activate a subscription on [a,1] and [a,2] in the exometer_report_tty reporter, firing once per second.

Configuring collectd reporter

Below is an example of the collectd reporter application environment, with its correct location in the hierarchy:

{exometer, [
    {report, [
        {reporters, [
            {exometer_report_collectd, [
                {reconnect_interval, 10},
                {refresh_interval, 20},
                {read_timeout, 5000},
                {connect_timeout, 8000},
                {hostname, "testhost"},
                {path, "/var/run/collectd-unixsock"},
                {plugin_name, "testname"},
                {plugin_instance, "testnode"},
                {type_map,
                    [{[db, cache, hits, max], "gauge"}]
                }
            ]}
        ]}
    ]}
]}

The following attributes are available for configuration:

reconnect_interval (seconds - default: 30)
Specifies the duration between each reconnect attempt to a collectd server that is not available. Should the server either be unavailable at exometer startup, or become unavailable during exometer's operation, exometer will attempt to reconnect at the given number of seconds.
refresh_interval (seconds - default: 10)
Specifies how often a value, which has not been updated by exometer, is to be resent with its current value to collectd. If collectd does not see an identifier updated at a given number of seconds (see Timeout in collectd.conf(5)), it will be removed from the list of maintained identifiers.
read_timeout (milliseconds - default: 5000)
Specifies how long the collectd reporter plugin shall wait for an acknowledgement from collectd after sending it an updated value. If an acknowledgment is not received within the given interval, the plugin will disconnect from the collectd server and reconnect to it after the given reconnect interval (see item one above).
connect_timeout (milliseconds - default: 5000)
Specifies how long the collectd reporter plugin shall wait for a unix socket connection to complete before timing out. A timed out connection attempt will be retried after the reconnect interval has passed see item 1 above).
path (file path - default: "/var/run/collectd-unixsock")
Specifies the path to the named unix socket that collectd is listening on. When exometer starts and loads the collectd reporter plugin, the plugin will connect to the given socket.
plugin_name (string - default: "exometer")
Specifies the plugin name to use when constructing an collectd identifier. Please see Configuring collectd reporter for details.
plugin_instance (string - default: left hand side of node())
Specifies the plugin instance id to use when constructing an collectd identifier. Please see Configuring collectd reporter for details.
plugin_instance (string - default: left hand side of node())
Specifies the plugin instance id to use when constructing an collectd identifier. Please see Configuring collectd reporter for details.
hostname (string - default: net_adm:localhost())
Specifies the host name to use when constructing an collectd identifier. Please see Configuring collectd reporter for details.
type_map (prop list - default: n/a)
Specifies the mapping between metrics/datapoints and the collectd type to use when sending an updated metric value. See below.

Type maps must be provided since there is no natural connection between the type of a metric/datapoint pair and an identifier in collectd. The type_map consists of a prop list that converts a path to a metric/datapoint to a string that can be used as a type when reporting to collectd.

The key part of each element in the list consists of a list of atoms that matches the name of the metrics, with the name of the data point added as a final element. If the metric is identified as [ webserver, https, get_count ], and the data point is called total, the key in the type_map would be [ webserver, https, get_count, total ], The value part of a property is the type string to use when reporting to collectd. Please see types.db(5) for a list of available collectd types. A complete entry in the type_map list would be: { [ webserver, https, get_count, total ], "counter" }.

tkbrigham/exometer_collectd

Exometer Collectd reporter

exometer_report_collectd

Setting up subscriptions

Configuring type - entry maps

Configuring static subscriptions

Configuring collectd reporter