Adding upstream version 1.29.3.upstream/1.29.3upstream

Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>

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+<!--
+title: "Metrics long term archiving"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/backends/README.md
+-->
+
+# Metrics long term archiving
+
+> ⚠️ The backends system is now deprecated in favor of the [exporting engine](/exporting/README.md).
+
+Netdata supports backends for archiving the metrics, or providing long term dashboards, using Grafana or other tools,
+like this:
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20649711/29f182ba-b4ce-11e6-97c8-ab2c0ab59833.png)
+
+Since Netdata collects thousands of metrics per server per second, which would easily congest any backend server when
+several Netdata servers are sending data to it, Netdata allows sending metrics at a lower frequency, by resampling them.
+
+So, although Netdata collects metrics every second, it can send to the backend servers averages or sums every X seconds
+(though, it can send them per second if you need it to).
+
+## features
+
+1.  Supported backends
+
+    -   **graphite** (`plaintext interface`, used by **Graphite**, **InfluxDB**, **KairosDB**, **Blueflood**,
+        **ElasticSearch** via logstash tcp input and the graphite codec, etc)
+
+        metrics are sent to the backend server as `prefix.hostname.chart.dimension`. `prefix` is configured below,
+        `hostname` is the hostname of the machine (can also be configured).
+
+    -   **opentsdb** (`telnet or HTTP interfaces`, used by **OpenTSDB**, **InfluxDB**, **KairosDB**, etc)
+
+        metrics are sent to opentsdb as `prefix.chart.dimension` with tag `host=hostname`.
+
+    -   **json** document DBs
+
+        metrics are sent to a document db, `JSON` formatted.
+
+    -   **prometheus** is described at [prometheus page](/backends/prometheus/README.md) since it pulls data from
+        Netdata.
+
+    -   **prometheus remote write** (a binary snappy-compressed protocol buffer encoding over HTTP used by
+        **Elasticsearch**, **Gnocchi**, **Graphite**, **InfluxDB**, **Kafka**, **OpenTSDB**, **PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB**,
+        **Splunk**, **VictoriaMetrics**, and a lot of other [storage
+        providers](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage))
+
+        metrics are labeled in the format, which is used by Netdata for the [plaintext prometheus
+        protocol](/backends/prometheus/README.md). Notes on using the remote write backend are [here](/backends/prometheus/remote_write/README.md).
+
+    -   **TimescaleDB** via [community-built connector](/backends/TIMESCALE.md) that takes JSON streams from a Netdata
+        client and writes them to a TimescaleDB table.
+
+    -   **AWS Kinesis Data Streams**
+
+        metrics are sent to the service in `JSON` format.
+
+    -   **MongoDB**
+
+        metrics are sent to the database in `JSON` format.
+
+2.  Only one backend may be active at a time.
+
+3.  Netdata can filter metrics (at the chart level), to send only a subset of the collected metrics.
+
+4.  Netdata supports three modes of operation for all backends:
+
+    -   `as-collected` sends to backends the metrics as they are collected, in the units they are collected. So,
+        counters are sent as counters and gauges are sent as gauges, much like all data collectors do. For example, to
+        calculate CPU utilization in this format, you need to know how to convert kernel ticks to percentage.
+
+    -   `average` sends to backends normalized metrics from the Netdata database. In this mode, all metrics are sent as
+        gauges, in the units Netdata uses. This abstracts data collection and simplifies visualization, but you will not
+        be able to copy and paste queries from other sources to convert units. For example, CPU utilization percentage
+        is calculated by Netdata, so Netdata will convert ticks to percentage and send the average percentage to the
+        backend.
+
+    -   `sum` or `volume`: the sum of the interpolated values shown on the Netdata graphs is sent to the backend. So, if
+        Netdata is configured to send data to the backend every 10 seconds, the sum of the 10 values shown on the
+        Netdata charts will be used.
+
+    Time-series databases suggest to collect the raw values (`as-collected`). If you plan to invest on building your
+    monitoring around a time-series database and you already know (or you will invest in learning) how to convert units
+    and normalize the metrics in Grafana or other visualization tools, we suggest to use `as-collected`.
+
+    If, on the other hand, you just need long term archiving of Netdata metrics and you plan to mainly work with
+    Netdata, we suggest to use `average`. It decouples visualization from data collection, so it will generally be a lot
+    simpler. Furthermore, if you use `average`, the charts shown in the back-end will match exactly what you see in
+    Netdata, which is not necessarily true for the other modes of operation.
+
+5.  This code is smart enough, not to slow down Netdata, independently of the speed of the backend server.
+
+## configuration
+
+In `/etc/netdata/netdata.conf` you should have something like this (if not download the latest version of `netdata.conf`
+from your Netdata):
+
+```conf
+[backend]
+    enabled = yes | no
+    type = graphite | opentsdb:telnet | opentsdb:http | opentsdb:https | prometheus_remote_write | json | kinesis | mongodb
+    host tags = list of TAG=VALUE
+    destination = space separated list of [PROTOCOL:]HOST[:PORT] - the first working will be used, or a region for kinesis
+    data source = average | sum | as collected
+    prefix = Netdata
+    hostname = my-name
+    update every = 10
+    buffer on failures = 10
+    timeout ms = 20000
+    send charts matching = *
+    send hosts matching = localhost *
+    send names instead of ids = yes
+```
+
+-   `enabled = yes | no`, enables or disables sending data to a backend
+
+-   `type = graphite | opentsdb:telnet | opentsdb:http | opentsdb:https | json | kinesis | mongodb`, selects the backend
+    type
+
+-   `destination = host1 host2 host3 ...`, accepts **a space separated list** of hostnames, IPs (IPv4 and IPv6) and
+     ports to connect to. Netdata will use the **first available** to send the metrics.
+
+     The format of each item in this list, is: `[PROTOCOL:]IP[:PORT]`.
+
+     `PROTOCOL` can be `udp` or `tcp`. `tcp` is the default and only supported by the current backends.
+
+     `IP` can be `XX.XX.XX.XX` (IPv4), or `[XX:XX...XX:XX]` (IPv6). For IPv6 you can to enclose the IP in `[]` to
+     separate it from the port.
+
+     `PORT` can be a number of a service name. If omitted, the default port for the backend will be used
+     (graphite = 2003, opentsdb = 4242).
+
+     Example IPv4:
+
+```conf
+   destination = 10.11.14.2:4242 10.11.14.3:4242 10.11.14.4:4242
+```
+
+   Example IPv6 and IPv4 together:
+
+```conf
+   destination = [ffff:...:0001]:2003 10.11.12.1:2003
+```
+
+   When multiple servers are defined, Netdata will try the next one when the first one fails. This allows you to
+   load-balance different servers: give your backend servers in different order on each Netdata.
+
+   Netdata also ships `nc-backend.sh`, a script that can be used as a fallback backend to save the
+   metrics to disk and push them to the time-series database when it becomes available again. It can also be used to
+   monitor / trace / debug the metrics Netdata generates.
+
+   For kinesis backend `destination` should be set to an AWS region (for example, `us-east-1`).
+
+   The MongoDB backend doesn't use the `destination` option for its configuration. It uses the `mongodb.conf`
+   [configuration file](/backends/mongodb/README.md) instead.
+
+-   `data source = as collected`, or `data source = average`, or `data source = sum`, selects the kind of data that will
+     be sent to the backend.
+
+-   `hostname = my-name`, is the hostname to be used for sending data to the backend server. By default this is
+     `[global].hostname`.
+
+-   `prefix = Netdata`, is the prefix to add to all metrics.
+
+-   `update every = 10`, is the number of seconds between sending data to the backend. Netdata will add some randomness
+     to this number, to prevent stressing the backend server when many Netdata servers send data to the same backend.
+     This randomness does not affect the quality of the data, only the time they are sent.
+
+-   `buffer on failures = 10`, is the number of iterations (each iteration is `[backend].update every` seconds) to
+     buffer data, when the backend is not available. If the backend fails to receive the data after that many failures,
+     data loss on the backend is expected (Netdata will also log it).
+
+-   `timeout ms = 20000`, is the timeout in milliseconds to wait for the backend server to process the data. By default
+     this is `2 * update_every * 1000`.
+
+-   `send hosts matching = localhost *` includes one or more space separated patterns, using `*` as wildcard (any number
+     of times within each pattern). The patterns are checked against the hostname (the localhost is always checked as
+     `localhost`), allowing us to filter which hosts will be sent to the backend when this Netdata is a central Netdata
+     aggregating multiple hosts. A pattern starting with `!` gives a negative match. So to match all hosts named `*db*`
+     except hosts containing `*child*`, use `!*child* *db*` (so, the order is important: the first pattern
+     matching the hostname will be used - positive or negative).
+
+-   `send charts matching = *` includes one or more space separated patterns, using `*` as wildcard (any number of times
+     within each pattern). The patterns are checked against both chart id and chart name. A pattern starting with `!`
+     gives a negative match. So to match all charts named `apps.*` except charts ending in `*reads`, use `!*reads
+     apps.*` (so, the order is important: the first pattern matching the chart id or the chart name will be used -
+     positive or negative).
+
+-   `send names instead of ids = yes | no` controls the metric names Netdata should send to backend. Netdata supports
+     names and IDs for charts and dimensions. Usually IDs are unique identifiers as read by the system and names are
+     human friendly labels (also unique). Most charts and metrics have the same ID and name, but in several cases they
+     are different: disks with device-mapper, interrupts, QoS classes, statsd synthetic charts, etc.
+
+-   `host tags = list of TAG=VALUE` defines tags that should be appended on all metrics for the given host. These are
+     currently only sent to graphite, json, opentsdb and prometheus. Please use the appropriate format for each
+     time-series db. For example opentsdb likes them like `TAG1=VALUE1 TAG2=VALUE2`, but prometheus like `tag1="value1",
+     tag2="value2"`. Host tags are mirrored with database replication (streaming of metrics between Netdata servers).
+
+     Starting from Netdata v1.20 the host tags are parsed in accordance with a configured backend type and stored as
+     host labels so that they can be reused in API responses and exporting connectors. The parsing is supported for
+     graphite, json, opentsdb, and prometheus (default) backend types. You can check how the host tags were parsed using
+     the /api/v1/info API call.
+
+## monitoring operation
+
+Netdata provides 5 charts:
+
+1.  **Buffered metrics**, the number of metrics Netdata added to the buffer for dispatching them to the
+    backend server.
+
+2.  **Buffered data size**, the amount of data (in KB) Netdata added the buffer.
+
+3.  ~~**Backend latency**, the time the backend server needed to process the data Netdata sent. If there was a
+    re-connection involved, this includes the connection time.~~ (this chart has been removed, because it only measures
+    the time Netdata needs to give the data to the O/S - since the backend servers do not ack the reception, Netdata
+    does not have any means to measure this properly).
+
+4.  **Backend operations**, the number of operations performed by Netdata.
+
+5.  **Backend thread CPU usage**, the CPU resources consumed by the Netdata thread, that is responsible for sending the
+    metrics to the backend server.
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20463536/eb196084-af3d-11e6-8ee5-ddbd3b4d8449.png)
+
+## alarms
+
+Netdata adds 4 alarms:
+
+1.  `backend_last_buffering`, number of seconds since the last successful buffering of backend data
+2.  `backend_metrics_sent`, percentage of metrics sent to the backend server
+3.  `backend_metrics_lost`, number of metrics lost due to repeating failures to contact the backend server
+4.  ~~`backend_slow`, the percentage of time between iterations needed by the backend time to process the data sent by
+    Netdata~~ (this was misleading and has been removed).
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20463779/a46ed1c2-af43-11e6-91a5-07ca4533cac3.png)
+
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