MQTT and Microsoft SQL Server Integration

Input and output integration overview

The MQTT Telegraf plugin is designed to read from specified MQTT topics and create metrics, enabling users to leverage MQTT for real-time data collection and monitoring.

Telegraf’s SQL plugin facilitates the storage of metrics in SQL databases. When configured for Microsoft SQL Server, it supports the specific DSN format and schema requirements, allowing for seamless integration with SQL Server.

Integration details

MQTT

The MQTT plugin allows for reading metrics from specified MQTT topics, creating metrics using supported input data formats. This plugin operates as a service input, which listens for incoming metrics or events rather than gathering them at set intervals like normal plugins. The flexibility of the plugin is enhanced with support for various broker URLs, topics, and connection features, including Quality of Service (QoS) levels and persistent sessions. Its configuration options incorporate global settings to modify metrics and handle startup errors effectively. It also supports secret-store configurations for securing username and password options, ensuring secure connections to MQTT servers.

Microsoft SQL Server

Telegraf’s SQL output plugin for Microsoft SQL Server is designed to capture and store metric data by dynamically creating tables and columns that match the structure of incoming data. This integration leverages the go-mssqldb driver, which follows the SQL Server connection protocol through a DSN that includes server, port, and database details. Although the driver is considered experimental due to limited unit tests, it provides robust support for dynamic schema generation and data insertion, enabling detailed time-stamped records of system performance. This flexibility makes it a valuable tool for environments that demand reliable and granular metric logging, despite its experimental status.

Configuration

MQTT

[[inputs.mqtt_consumer]]
  servers = ["tcp://127.0.0.1:1883"]
  topics = [
    "telegraf/host01/cpu",
    "telegraf/+/mem",
    "sensors/#",
  ]
  # topic_tag = "topic"
  # qos = 0
  # connection_timeout = "30s"
  # keepalive = "60s"
  # ping_timeout = "10s"
  # max_undelivered_messages = 1000
  # persistent_session = false
  # client_id = ""
  # username = "telegraf"
  # password = "metricsmetricsmetricsmetrics"
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  # insecure_skip_verify = false
  # client_trace = false
  data_format = "influx"
  # [[inputs.mqtt_consumer.topic_parsing]]
  #   topic = ""
  #   measurement = ""
  #   tags = ""
  #   fields = ""
  #   [inputs.mqtt_consumer.topic_parsing.types]
  #      key = type

Microsoft SQL Server

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

  ## Data source name
  ## For Microsoft SQL Server, the DSN typically includes the server, port, username, password, and database name.
  ## Example DSN: "sqlserver://username:password@localhost:1433?database=telegraf"
  data_source_name = "sqlserver://username:password@localhost:1433?database=telegraf"

  ## 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})"

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

  ## Initialization SQL (optional)
  init_sql = ""

  ## 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

  ## Metric type to SQL type conversion
  ## You can customize the mapping if needed.
  #[outputs.sql.convert]
  #  integer       = "INT"
  #  real          = "DOUBLE"
  #  text          = "TEXT"
  #  timestamp     = "TIMESTAMP"
  #  defaultvalue  = "TEXT"
  #  unsigned      = "UNSIGNED"
  #  bool          = "BOOL"

Input and output integration examples

MQTT

1. Smart Home Monitoring: Use the MQTT Consumer plugin to monitor various sensors in a smart home setup. In this scenario, the plugin can be configured to subscribe to topics for different devices, such as temperature, humidity, and energy consumption. By aggregating this data, homeowners can visualize trends and receive alerts for unusual patterns, enhancing the overall quality and efficiency of home automation systems.

2. IoT Environmental Sensing: Deploy the MQTT Consumer to gather environmental data from sensors distributed across different locations. For instance, this can include readings from air quality sensors, temperature sensors, and noise level meters. The plugin can be configured to extract relevant tags and fields from the MQTT topics which allows for detailed analyses and reporting on environmental conditions at scale, supporting better decision making for urban planning or environmental initiatives.

3. Real-Time Vehicle Tracking and Telemetry: Integrate the MQTT Consumer plugin within a vehicle telemetry system that collects data from various sensors in real-time. With the plugin, metrics related to vehicle performance, location, and fuel consumption can be sent to a centralized monitoring dashboard. This real-time telemetry data enables fleet managers to optimize routes, reduce fuel costs, and improve vehicle maintenance schedules through proactive data analysis.

4. Agricultural Monitoring System: Leverage this plugin to collect data from agricultural sensors that monitor soil moisture, crop health, and weather conditions. The MQTT Consumer can subscribe to multiple topics associated with farming equipment and environmental sensors, allowing farmers to make data-driven decisions to improve crop yields while also conserving resources, enhancing sustainability in agriculture.

Microsoft SQL Server

1. Enterprise Application Monitoring: Leverage the plugin to capture detailed performance metrics from enterprise applications running on SQL Server. This setup allows IT teams to analyze system performance, track transaction times, and identify bottlenecks across complex, multi-tier environments.

2. Dynamic Infrastructure Auditing: Deploy the plugin to create a dynamic audit log of infrastructure changes and performance metrics in SQL Server. This use case is ideal for organizations that require real-time monitoring and historical analysis of system performance for compliance and optimization.

3. Automated Performance Benchmarking: Use the plugin to continuously record and analyze performance metrics of SQL Server databases. This enables automated benchmarking, where historical data is compared against current performance, helping to quickly identify anomalies or degradation in service.

4. Integrated DevOps Dashboards: Integrate the plugin with DevOps monitoring tools to feed real-time metrics from SQL Server into centralized dashboards. This provides a holistic view of application health, allowing teams to correlate SQL Server performance with application-level events for faster troubleshooting and proactive maintenance.

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