HAProxy and MariaDB Integration

Input and output integration overview

This plugin gathers and reports statistics from HAProxy, a popular open-source load balancer and proxy server, to help in monitoring and optimizing its performance.

This plugin writes metrics from Telegraf directly into MariaDB using parameterized SQL INSERT statements, offering a flexible way to store metrics in structured, relational tables.

Integration details

HAProxy

The HAProxy plugin for Telegraf enables users to gather statistics directly from a HAProxy server via its stats socket or HTTP statistics page. HAProxy is a widely employed software load balancer and proxy server that provides high availability and performance for TCP and HTTP applications. By integrating with HAProxy, this plugin allows users to monitor and analyze various performance metrics such as active server counts, request rates, response codes, and session statuses in real-time, facilitating better decision-making and proactive management of network resources. Key features include support for both HTTP and socket-based metrics collection, compatibility with basic authentication for secure access, and configurable options for metric field naming, allowing for customization tailored to user preferences.

MariaDB

The SQL output plugin in Telegraf enables direct writing of metrics into SQL-compatible databases like MariaDB by executing parameterized SQL statements. With support for the MySQL driver, the plugin seamlessly integrates with MariaDB for reliable, structured metric storage. This setup is ideal for users who prefer SQL-based analytics or want to store metrics alongside business data for unified querying. MariaDB is a community-developed, enterprise-grade fork of MySQL that emphasizes performance, security, and openness. The plugin supports inserting time series metrics into custom schemas, enabling flexible analytics and integrations with BI tools like Metabase or Grafana using SQL connectors.

Configuration

HAProxy

[[inputs.haproxy]]
  ## List of stats endpoints. Metrics can be collected from both http and socket
  ## endpoints. Examples of valid endpoints:
  ##   - http://myhaproxy.com:1936/haproxy?stats
  ##   - https://myhaproxy.com:8000/stats
  ##   - socket:/run/haproxy/admin.sock
  ##   - /run/haproxy/*.sock
  ##   - tcp://127.0.0.1:1936
  ##
  ## Server addresses not starting with 'http://', 'https://', 'tcp://' will be
  ## treated as possible sockets. When specifying local socket, glob patterns are
  ## supported.
  servers = ["http://myhaproxy.com:1936/haproxy?stats"]

  ## By default, some of the fields are renamed from what haproxy calls them.
  ## Setting this option to true results in the plugin keeping the original
  ## field names.
  # keep_field_names = false

  ## Optional TLS Config
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

MariaDB

[[outputs.sql]]
  ## Database driver
  ## Valid options: mssql (Microsoft SQL Server), mysql (MySQL), pgx (Postgres),
  ##  sqlite (SQLite3), snowflake (snowflake.com) clickhouse (ClickHouse)
  driver = "mysql"

  ## Data source name
  ## The format of the data source name is different for each database driver.
  ## See the plugin readme for details.
  data_source_name = "username:password@tcp(host:port)/dbname"

  ## Timestamp column name
  timestamp_column = "timestamp"

  ## Table creation template
  ## Available template variables:
  ##  {TABLE} - table name as a quoted identifier
  ##  {TABLELITERAL} - table name as a quoted string literal
  ##  {COLUMNS} - column definitions (list of quoted identifiers and types)
  table_template = "CREATE TABLE {TABLE}({COLUMNS})"

  ## SQL INSERT statement with placeholders. Telegraf will substitute values at runtime.
  ## table_template = "INSERT INTO metrics (timestamp, name, value, tags) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)"

  ## Table existence check template
  ## Available template variables:
  ##  {TABLE} - tablename as a quoted identifier
  table_exists_template = "SELECT 1 FROM {TABLE} LIMIT 1"

  ## Initialization SQL
  init_sql = "SET sql_mode='ANSI_QUOTES';"

  ## Maximum amount of time a connection may be idle. "0s" means connections are
  ## never closed due to idle time.
  connection_max_idle_time = "0s"

  ## Maximum amount of time a connection may be reused. "0s" means connections
  ## are never closed due to age.
  connection_max_lifetime = "0s"

  ## Maximum number of connections in the idle connection pool. 0 means unlimited.
  connection_max_idle = 2

  ## Maximum number of open connections to the database. 0 means unlimited.
  connection_max_open = 0

  ## NOTE: Due to the way TOML is parsed, tables must be at the END of the
  ## plugin definition, otherwise additional config options are read as part of the
  ## table

  ## Metric type to SQL type conversion
  ## The values on the left are the data types Telegraf has and the values on
  ## the right are the data types Telegraf will use when sending to a database.
  ##
  ## The database values used must be data types the destination database
  ## understands. It is up to the user to ensure that the selected data type is
  ## available in the database they are using. Refer to your database
  ## documentation for what data types are available and supported.
  #[outputs.sql.convert]
  #  integer              = "INT"
  #  real                 = "DOUBLE"
  #  text                 = "TEXT"
  #  timestamp            = "TIMESTAMP"
  #  defaultvalue         = "TEXT"
  #  unsigned             = "UNSIGNED"
  #  bool                 = "BOOL"
  #  ## This setting controls the behavior of the unsigned value. By default the
  #  ## setting will take the integer value and append the unsigned value to it. The other
  #  ## option is "literal", which will use the actual value the user provides to
  #  ## the unsigned option. This is useful for a database like ClickHouse where
  #  ## the unsigned value should use a value like "uint64".
  #  # conversion_style = "unsigned_suffix"

Input and output integration examples

HAProxy

1. Dynamic Load Adjustment: Utilize the HAProxy plugin to monitor traffic patterns in real time, enabling automated adjustments to load balancing algorithms. By continuously gathering metrics on server loads and request rates, system administrators can dynamically allocate resources, ensuring that no single server becomes a bottleneck, thus enhancing overall application performance and availability.

2. Historical Performance Analytics: Integrate this plugin with a time series database to collect HAProxy metrics over time, allowing you to analyze historical performance and traffic trends. This can facilitate predictive analysis and planning for capacity, giving businesses insights into peak traffic times and helping to identify potential future resource needs.

3. Alerting on Anomalies: Implement alerting workflows that trigger when unusual patterns are detected in HAProxy metrics, such as sudden spikes in error rates or drops in request handling capacity. By leveraging this plugin, operations teams can receive timely notifications, allowing for swift intervention and minimizing the impact of potential downtime on end-users.

MariaDB

1. Business Intelligence Integration: Store application performance metrics directly into MariaDB and connect it to BI tools like Metabase or Apache Superset. This setup allows blending of operational data with business KPIs for unified dashboards, enhancing visibility across departments.

2. Compliance Reporting with Historical Metrics: Use this plugin to log metrics into MariaDB for audit and compliance use cases. The relational model enables precise querying of past performance indicators with timestamped entries, supporting regulatory documentation.

3. Custom Alerting Based on SQL Logic: Insert metrics into MariaDB and use custom SQL queries to define alert thresholds or conditions. Combined with cron jobs or scheduled scripts, this enables advanced alerting workflows not possible with traditional metric platforms.

4. IoT Sensor Metrics Storage: Collect sensor data from IoT devices via Telegraf and store it in MariaDB using a normalized schema. This approach is cost-effective and integrates well with existing SQL-based systems for real-time or historical analysis.

Feedback

Thank you for being part of our community! If you have any general feedback or found any bugs on these pages, we welcome and encourage your input. Please submit your feedback in the InfluxDB community Slack.