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+<!--
+title: "Exporting engine reference"
+description: "With the exporting engine, you can archive your Netdata metrics to multiple external databases for long-term storage or further analysis."
+sidebar_label: Reference guide
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/exporting/README.md
+-->
+
+# Exporting engine reference
+
+Welcome to the exporting engine reference guide. This guide contains comprehensive information about enabling,
+configuring, and monitoring Netdata's exporting engine, which allows you to send metrics to external time-series
+databases.
+
+For a quick introduction to the exporting engine's features, read our doc on [exporting metrics to time-series
+databases](/docs/export/external-databases.md), or jump in to [enabling a connector](/docs/export/enable-connector.md).
+
+The exporting engine has a modular structure and supports metric exporting via multiple exporting connector instances at
+the same time. You can have different update intervals and filters configured for every exporting connector instance.
+
+When you enable the exporting engine and a connector, the Netdata Agent exports metrics _beginning from the time you
+restart its process_, not the entire [database of long-term metrics](/docs/store/change-metrics-storage.md).
+
+The exporting engine has its own configuration file `exporting.conf`. The configuration is almost similar to the
+deprecated [backends](/backends/README.md#configuration) system. The most important difference is that type of a
+connector should be specified in a section name before a colon and an instance name after the colon. Also, you can't use
+`host tags` anymore. Set your labels using the [`[host labels]`](/docs/guides/using-host-labels.md) section in
+`netdata.conf`.
+
+Since Netdata collects thousands of metrics per server per second, which would easily congest any database 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 external database servers averages or sums every
+X seconds (though, it can send them per second if you need it to).
+
+## Features
+
+1. The exporting engine uses a number of connectors to send Netdata metrics to external time-series databases. See our
+ [list of supported databases](/docs/export/external-databases.md#supported-databases) for information on which
+ connector to enable and configure for your database of choice.
+
+ - [**AWS Kinesis Data Streams**](/exporting/aws_kinesis/README.md): Metrics are sent to the service in `JSON`
+ format.
+ - [**Google Cloud Pub/Sub Service**](/exporting/pubsub/README.md): Metrics are sent to the service in `JSON`
+ format.
+ - [**Graphite**](/exporting/graphite/README.md): A plaintext interface. Metrics are sent to the database server as
+ `prefix.hostname.chart.dimension`. `prefix` is configured below, `hostname` is the hostname of the machine (can
+ also be configured). Learn more in our guide to [export and visualize Netdata metrics in
+ Graphite](/docs/guides/export/export-netdata-metrics-graphite.md).
+ - [**JSON** document databases](/exporting/json/README.md)
+ - [**OpenTSDB**](/exporting/opentsdb/README.md): Use a plaintext or HTTP interfaces. Metrics are sent to
+ OpenTSDB as `prefix.chart.dimension` with tag `host=hostname`.
+ - [**MongoDB**](/exporting/mongodb/README.md): Metrics are sent to the database in `JSON` format.
+ - [**Prometheus**](/exporting/prometheus/README.md): Use an existing Prometheus installation to scrape metrics
+ from node using the Netdata API.
+ - [**Prometheus remote write**](/exporting/prometheus/remote_write/README.md). A binary snappy-compressed protocol
+ buffer encoding over HTTP. Supports many [storage
+ providers](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage).
+ - [**TimescaleDB**](/exporting/TIMESCALE.md): Use a community-built connector that takes JSON streams from a
+ Netdata client and writes them to a TimescaleDB table.
+
+2. Netdata can filter metrics (at the chart level), to send only a subset of the collected metrics.
+
+3. Netdata supports three modes of operation for all exporting connectors:
+
+ - `as-collected` sends to external databases 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 external databases 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 external database.
+
+ - `sum` or `volume`: the sum of the interpolated values shown on the Netdata graphs is sent to the external
+ database. So, if Netdata is configured to send data to the database 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 external service will match exactly what you
+ see in Netdata, which is not necessarily true for the other modes of operation.
+
+4. This code is smart enough, not to slow down Netdata, independently of the speed of the external database server. You
+ should keep in mind though that many exporting connector instances can consume a lot of CPU resources if they run
+ their batches at the same time. You can set different update intervals for every exporting connector instance, but
+ even in that case they can occasionally synchronize their batches for a moment.
+
+## Configuration
+
+Here are the configuration blocks for every supported connector. Your current `exporting.conf` file may look a little
+different.
+
+You can configure each connector individually using the available [options](#options). The
+`[graphite:my_graphite_instance]` block contains examples of some of these additional options in action.
+
+```conf
+[exporting:global]
+ enabled = yes
+ send configured labels = no
+ send automatic labels = no
+ update every = 10
+
+[prometheus:exporter]
+ send names instead of ids = yes
+ send configured labels = yes
+ end automatic labels = no
+ send charts matching = *
+ send hosts matching = localhost *
+ prefix = netdata
+
+[graphite:my_graphite_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost:2003
+ data source = average
+ 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
+ send configured labels = yes
+ send automatic labels = yes
+
+[prometheus_remote_write:my_prometheus_remote_write_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost
+ remote write URL path = /receive
+
+[kinesis:my_kinesis_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = us-east-1
+ stream name = netdata
+ aws_access_key_id = my_access_key_id
+ aws_secret_access_key = my_aws_secret_access_key
+
+[pubsub:my_pubsub_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = pubsub.googleapis.com
+ credentials file = /etc/netdata/pubsub_credentials.json
+ project id = my_project
+ topic id = my_topic
+
+[mongodb:my_mongodb_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost
+ database = my_database
+ collection = my_collection
+
+[json:my_json_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost:5448
+
+[opentsdb:my_opentsdb_plaintext_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost:4242
+
+[opentsdb:http:my_opentsdb_http_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost:4242
+
+[opentsdb:https:my_opentsdb_https_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = localhost:8082
+```
+
+### Sections
+
+- `[exporting:global]` is a section where you can set your defaults for all exporting connectors
+- `[prometheus:exporter]` defines settings for Prometheus exporter API queries (e.g.:
+ `http://NODE:19999/api/v1/allmetrics?format=prometheus&help=yes&source=as-collected`).
+- `[<type>:<name>]` keeps settings for a particular exporting connector instance, where:
+ - `type` selects the exporting connector type: graphite | opentsdb:telnet | opentsdb:http |
+ prometheus_remote_write | json | kinesis | pubsub | mongodb. For graphite, opentsdb,
+ json, and prometheus_remote_write connectors you can also use `:http` or `:https` modifiers
+ (e.g.: `opentsdb:https`).
+ - `name` can be arbitrary instance name you chose.
+
+### Options
+
+Configure individual connectors and override any global settings with the following options.
+
+- `enabled = yes | no`, enables or disables an exporting connector instance
+
+- `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 exporting engine.
+
+ `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 exporting connector 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 previous one fails.
+
+ Netdata also ships `nc-exporting.sh`, a script that can be used as a fallback exporting connector 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 the Kinesis exporting connector `destination` should be set to an AWS region (for example, `us-east-1`).
+
+ For the MongoDB exporting connector `destination` should be set to a
+ [MongoDB URI](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/connection-string/).
+
+ For the Pub/Sub exporting connector `destination` can be set to a specific service endpoint.
+
+- `data source = as collected`, or `data source = average`, or `data source = sum`, selects the kind of data that will
+ be sent to the external database.
+
+- `hostname = my-name`, is the hostname to be used for sending data to the external database 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 external database. Netdata will add some
+ randomness to this number, to prevent stressing the external server when many Netdata servers send data to the same
+ database. 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 `update every` seconds) to buffer data,
+ when the external database server is not available. If the server fails to receive the data after that many
+ failures, data loss on the connector instance is expected (Netdata will also log it).
+
+- `timeout ms = 20000`, is the timeout in milliseconds to wait for the external database 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 external database 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 the external database.
+ 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.
+
+- `send configured labels = yes | no` controls if labels defined in the `[host labels]` section in `netdata.conf`
+ should be sent to the external database
+
+- `send automatic labels = yes | no` controls if automatically created labels, like `_os_name` or `_architecture`
+ should be sent to the external database
+
+> Starting from Netdata v1.20 the host tags (defined in the `[backend]` section of `netdata.conf`) 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. But, keep in mind that backends subsystem
+> is deprecated and will be deleted soon. Please move your existing tags to the `[host labels]` section.
+
+## HTTPS
+
+Netdata can send metrics to external databases using the TLS/SSL protocol. Unfortunately, some of
+them does not support encrypted connections, so you will have to configure a reverse proxy to enable
+HTTPS communication between Netdata and an external database. You can set up a reverse proxy with
+[Nginx](/docs/Running-behind-nginx.md).
+
+## Exporting engine monitoring
+
+Netdata creates five charts in the dashboard, under the **Netdata Monitoring** section, to help you monitor the health
+and performance of the exporting engine itself:
+
+1. **Buffered metrics**, the number of metrics Netdata added to the buffer for dispatching them to the
+ external database server.
+
+2. **Exporting data size**, the amount of data (in KB) Netdata added the buffer.
+
+3. **Exporting operations**, the number of operations performed by Netdata.
+
+4. **Exporting thread CPU usage**, the CPU resources consumed by the Netdata thread, that is responsible for sending
+ the metrics to the external database server.
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20463536/eb196084-af3d-11e6-8ee5-ddbd3b4d8449.png)
+
+## Exporting engine alarms
+
+Netdata adds 3 alarms:
+
+1. `exporting_last_buffering`, number of seconds since the last successful buffering of exported data
+2. `exporting_metrics_sent`, percentage of metrics sent to the external database server
+3. `exporting_metrics_lost`, number of metrics lost due to repeating failures to contact the external database server
+
+![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%2Fexporting%2FREADME&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)