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diff --git a/backends/README.md b/backends/README.md deleted file mode 100644 index 8d53fd664..000000000 --- a/backends/README.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,236 +0,0 @@ -<!-- -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: - - - -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. - - - -## 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). - - - -[](<>) |