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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)
+
+[![analytics](https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&aip=1&t=pageview&_s=1&ds=github&dr=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnetdata%2Fnetdata&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fmy-netdata.io%2Fgithub%2Fbackends%2FREADME&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)