Google Cloud Stackdriver and OpenTSDB Integration

Input and output integration overview

This plugin enables the collection of monitoring data from Google Cloud services through the Stackdriver Monitoring API. It is designed to help users monitor their cloud infrastructure’s performance and health by gathering relevant metrics.

The OpenTSDB plugin facilitates the integration of Telegraf with OpenTSDB, allowing users to push time-series metrics to an OpenTSDB backend seamlessly.

Integration details

Google Cloud Stackdriver

The Stackdriver Telegraf plugin allows users to query timeseries data from Google Cloud Monitoring using the Cloud Monitoring API v3. With this plugin, users can easily integrate Google Cloud monitoring metrics into their monitoring stacks. This API provides a wealth of insights about resources and applications running in Google Cloud, including performance, uptime, and operational metrics. The plugin supports various configuration options to filter and refine the data retrieved, enabling users to customize their monitoring setup according to their specific needs. This integration facilitates a smoother experience in maintaining the health and performance of cloud resources and assists teams in making data-driven decisions based on historical and current performance statistics.

OpenTSDB

The OpenTSDB plugin is designed to send metrics to an OpenTSDB instance using either the telnet or HTTP mode. With the introduction of OpenTSDB 2.0, the recommended method for sending metrics is via the HTTP API, which allows for batch processing of metrics by configuring the ‘http_batch_size’. The plugin supports several configuration options including metrics prefixing, server host and port specification, URI path customization for reverse proxies, and debug options for diagnosing communication issues with OpenTSDB. This plugin is particularly useful in scenarios where time series data is generated and needs to be efficiently stored in a scalable time series database like OpenTSDB, making it suitable for a wide range of monitoring and analytics applications.

Configuration

Google Cloud Stackdriver

[[inputs.stackdriver]]
  ## GCP Project
  project = "erudite-bloom-151019"

  ## Include timeseries that start with the given metric type.
  metric_type_prefix_include = [
    "compute.googleapis.com/",
  ]

  ## Exclude timeseries that start with the given metric type.
  # metric_type_prefix_exclude = []

  ## Most metrics are updated no more than once per minute; it is recommended
  ## to override the agent level interval with a value of 1m or greater.
  interval = "1m"

  ## Maximum number of API calls to make per second.  The quota for accounts
  ## varies, it can be viewed on the API dashboard:
  ##   https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/quotas#quotas_and_limits
  # rate_limit = 14

  ## The delay and window options control the number of points selected on
  ## each gather.  When set, metrics are gathered between:
  ##   start: now() - delay - window
  ##   end:   now() - delay
  #
  ## Collection delay; if set too low metrics may not yet be available.
  # delay = "5m"
  #
  ## If unset, the window will start at 1m and be updated dynamically to span
  ## the time between calls (approximately the length of the plugin interval).
  # window = "1m"

  ## TTL for cached list of metric types.  This is the maximum amount of time
  ## it may take to discover new metrics.
  # cache_ttl = "1h"

  ## If true, raw bucket counts are collected for distribution value types.
  ## For a more lightweight collection, you may wish to disable and use
  ## distribution_aggregation_aligners instead.
  # gather_raw_distribution_buckets = true

  ## Aggregate functions to be used for metrics whose value type is
  ## distribution.  These aggregate values are recorded in in addition to raw
  ## bucket counts; if they are enabled.
  ##
  ## For a list of aligner strings see:
  ##   https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/api/ref_v3/rpc/google.monitoring.v3#aligner
  # distribution_aggregation_aligners = [
  #  "ALIGN_PERCENTILE_99",
  #  "ALIGN_PERCENTILE_95",
  #  "ALIGN_PERCENTILE_50",
  # ]

  ## Filters can be added to reduce the number of time series matched.  All
  ## functions are supported: starts_with, ends_with, has_substring, and
  ## one_of.  Only the '=' operator is supported.
  ##
  ## The logical operators when combining filters are defined statically using
  ## the following values:
  ##   filter ::=  {AND  AND  AND }
  ##   resource_labels ::=  {OR }
  ##   metric_labels ::=  {OR }
  ##   user_labels ::=  {OR }
  ##   system_labels ::=  {OR }
  ##
  ## For more details, see https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/api/v3/filters
  #
  ## Resource labels refine the time series selection with the following expression:
  ##   resource.labels. = 
  # [[inputs.stackdriver.filter.resource_labels]]
  #   key = "instance_name"
  #   value = 'starts_with("localhost")'
  #
  ## Metric labels refine the time series selection with the following expression:
  ##   metric.labels. = 
  #  [[inputs.stackdriver.filter.metric_labels]]
  #    key = "device_name"
  #    value = 'one_of("sda", "sdb")'
  #
  ## User labels refine the time series selection with the following expression:
  ##   metadata.user_labels."" = 
  #  [[inputs.stackdriver.filter.user_labels]]
  #    key = "environment"
  #    value = 'one_of("prod", "staging")'
  #
  ## System labels refine the time series selection with the following expression:
  ##   metadata.system_labels."" = 
  #  [[inputs.stackdriver.filter.system_labels]]
  #    key = "machine_type"
  #    value = 'starts_with("e2-")'
</code></pre>

OpenTSDB

[[outputs.opentsdb]]
  ## prefix for metrics keys
  prefix = "my.specific.prefix."

  ## DNS name of the OpenTSDB server
  ## Using "opentsdb.example.com" or "tcp://opentsdb.example.com" will use the
  ## telnet API. "http://opentsdb.example.com" will use the Http API.
  host = "opentsdb.example.com"

  ## Port of the OpenTSDB server
  port = 4242

  ## Number of data points to send to OpenTSDB in Http requests.
  ## Not used with telnet API.
  http_batch_size = 50

  ## URI Path for Http requests to OpenTSDB.
  ## Used in cases where OpenTSDB is located behind a reverse proxy.
  http_path = "/api/put"

  ## Debug true - Prints OpenTSDB communication
  debug = false

  ## Separator separates measurement name from field
  separator = "_"

Input and output integration examples

Google Cloud Stackdriver

1. Integrating Cloud Metrics into Custom Dashboards: With this plugin, teams can funnel metrics from Google Cloud into personalized dashboards, allowing for real-time monitoring of application performance and resource utilization. By customizing the visual representation of cloud metrics, operations teams can easily identify trends and anomalies, enabling proactive management before issues escalate.

2. Automated Alerts and Analysis: Users can set up automated alerting mechanisms leveraging the plugin’s metrics to track resource thresholds. This capability allows teams to act swiftly in response to performance degradation or outages by providing immediate notifications, thus reducing the mean time to recovery and ensuring continued operational efficiency.

3. Cross-Platform Resource Comparison: The plugin can be used to draw metrics from various Google Cloud services and compare them with on-premise resources. This cross-platform visibility helps organizations make informed decisions about resource allocation and scaling strategies, as well as optimize cloud spending versus on-premise infrastructure.

4. Historical Data Analysis for Capacity Planning: By collecting historical metrics over time, the plugin empowers teams to conduct thorough capacity planning. Understanding past performance trends facilitates accurate forecasting for resource needs, leading to better budgeting and investment strategies.

OpenTSDB

1. Real-time Infrastructure Monitoring: Utilize the OpenTSDB plugin to collect and store metrics from various infrastructure components. By configuring the plugin to push metrics to OpenTSDB, organizations can have a centralized view of their infrastructure health and performance over time.

2. Custom Application Metrics Tracking: Integrate the OpenTSDB plugin into custom applications to track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as response times, error rates, and user interactions. This setup allows developers and product teams to visualize application performance trends and make data-driven decisions.

3. Automated Anomaly Detection: Leverage the plugin in conjunction with machine learning algorithms to automatically detect anomalies in time-series data sent to OpenTSDB. By continuously monitoring the incoming metrics, the system can train models that alert users to potential issues before they affect application performance.

4. Historical Data Analysis: Use the OpenTSDB plugin to store and analyze historical performance data for capacity planning and trend analysis. This provides valuable insights into system behavior over time, helping teams to understand usage patterns and prepare for future growth.

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