VMware vSphere and InfluxDB Integration
Powerful performance with an easy integration, powered by Telegraf, the open source data connector built by InfluxData.
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Powerful Performance, Limitless Scale
Collect, organize, and act on massive volumes of high-velocity data. Any data is more valuable when you think of it as time series data. with InfluxDB, the #1 time series platform built to scale with Telegraf.
See Ways to Get Started
Input and output integration overview
The VMware vSphere Telegraf plugin provides a means to collect metrics from VMware vCenter servers, allowing for comprehensive monitoring and management of virtual resources in a vSphere environment.
The InfluxDB plugin writes metrics to the InfluxDB HTTP service, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval of time series data.
Integration details
VMware vSphere
This plugin connects to VMware vSphere servers to gather a variety of metrics from virtual environments, enabling efficient monitoring and management of virtual resources. It interfaces with the vSphere API to collect statistics regarding clusters, hosts, resource pools, VMs, datastores, and vSAN entities, presenting them in a format suitable for analysis and visualization. The plugin is particularly valuable for administrators who manage VMware-based infrastructures, as it helps to track system performance, resource usage, and operational issues in real-time. By aggregating data from multiple sources, the plugin empowers users with insights that facilitate informed decision-making regarding resource allocation, troubleshooting, and ensuring optimal system performance. Additionally, the support for secret-store integration allows secure handling of sensitive credentials, promoting best practices in security and compliance assessments.
InfluxDB
The InfluxDB Telegraf plugin serves to send metrics to the InfluxDB HTTP API, facilitating the storage and query of time series data in a structured manner. Integrating seamlessly with InfluxDB, this plugin provides essential features such as token-based authentication and support for multiple InfluxDB cluster nodes, ensuring reliable and scalable data ingestion. Through its configurability, users can specify options like organization, destination buckets, and HTTP-specific settings, providing flexibility to tailor how data is sent and stored. The plugin also supports secret management for sensitive data, which enhances security in production environments. This plugin is particularly beneficial in modern observability stacks where real-time analytics and storage of time series data are crucial.
Configuration
VMware vSphere
[[inputs.vsphere]]
vcenters = [ "https://vcenter.local/sdk" ]
username = "[email protected]"
password = "secret"
vm_metric_include = [
"cpu.demand.average",
"cpu.idle.summation",
"cpu.latency.average",
"cpu.readiness.average",
"cpu.ready.summation",
"cpu.run.summation",
"cpu.usagemhz.average",
"cpu.used.summation",
"cpu.wait.summation",
"mem.active.average",
"mem.granted.average",
"mem.latency.average",
"mem.swapin.average",
"mem.swapinRate.average",
"mem.swapout.average",
"mem.swapoutRate.average",
"mem.usage.average",
"mem.vmmemctl.average",
"net.bytesRx.average",
"net.bytesTx.average",
"net.droppedRx.summation",
"net.droppedTx.summation",
"net.usage.average",
"power.power.average",
"virtualDisk.numberReadAveraged.average",
"virtualDisk.numberWriteAveraged.average",
"virtualDisk.read.average",
"virtualDisk.readOIO.latest",
"virtualDisk.throughput.usage.average",
"virtualDisk.totalReadLatency.average",
"virtualDisk.totalWriteLatency.average",
"virtualDisk.write.average",
"virtualDisk.writeOIO.latest",
"sys.uptime.latest",
]
host_metric_include = [
"cpu.coreUtilization.average",
"cpu.costop.summation",
"cpu.demand.average",
"cpu.idle.summation",
"cpu.latency.average",
"cpu.readiness.average",
"cpu.ready.summation",
"cpu.swapwait.summation",
"cpu.usage.average",
"cpu.usagemhz.average",
"cpu.used.summation",
"cpu.utilization.average",
"cpu.wait.summation",
"disk.deviceReadLatency.average",
"disk.deviceWriteLatency.average",
"disk.kernelReadLatency.average",
"disk.kernelWriteLatency.average",
"disk.numberReadAveraged.average",
"disk.numberWriteAveraged.average",
"disk.read.average",
"disk.totalReadLatency.average",
"disk.totalWriteLatency.average",
"disk.write.average",
"mem.active.average",
"mem.latency.average",
"mem.state.latest",
"mem.swapin.average",
"mem.swapinRate.average",
"mem.swapout.average",
"mem.swapoutRate.average",
"mem.totalCapacity.average",
"mem.usage.average",
"mem.vmmemctl.average",
"net.bytesRx.average",
"net.bytesTx.average",
"net.droppedRx.summation",
"net.droppedTx.summation",
"net.errorsRx.summation",
"net.errorsTx.summation",
"net.usage.average",
"power.power.average",
"storageAdapter.numberReadAveraged.average",
"storageAdapter.numberWriteAveraged.average",
"storageAdapter.read.average",
"storageAdapter.write.average",
"sys.uptime.latest",
]
datacenter_metric_include = [] ## if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected
datacenter_metric_exclude = [ "*" ] ## Datacenters are not collected by default.
vsan_metric_include = [] ## if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected
vsan_metric_exclude = [ "*" ] ## vSAN are not collected by default.
separator = "_"
max_query_objects = 256
max_query_metrics = 256
collect_concurrency = 1
discover_concurrency = 1
object_discovery_interval = "300s"
timeout = "60s"
use_int_samples = true
custom_attribute_include = []
custom_attribute_exclude = ["*"]
metric_lookback = 3
ssl_ca = "/path/to/cafile"
ssl_cert = "/path/to/certfile"
ssl_key = "/path/to/keyfile"
insecure_skip_verify = false
historical_interval = "5m"
disconnected_servers_behavior = "error"
use_system_proxy = true
http_proxy_url = ""
InfluxDB
[[outputs.influxdb]]
## The full HTTP or UDP URL for your InfluxDB instance.
##
## Multiple URLs can be specified for a single cluster, only ONE of the
## urls will be written to each interval.
# urls = ["unix:///var/run/influxdb.sock"]
# urls = ["udp://127.0.0.1:8089"]
# urls = ["http://127.0.0.1:8086"]
## Local address to bind when connecting to the server
## If empty or not set, the local address is automatically chosen.
# local_address = ""
## The target database for metrics; will be created as needed.
## For UDP url endpoint database needs to be configured on server side.
# database = "telegraf"
## The value of this tag will be used to determine the database. If this
## tag is not set the 'database' option is used as the default.
# database_tag = ""
## If true, the 'database_tag' will not be included in the written metric.
# exclude_database_tag = false
## If true, no CREATE DATABASE queries will be sent. Set to true when using
## Telegraf with a user without permissions to create databases or when the
## database already exists.
# skip_database_creation = false
## Name of existing retention policy to write to. Empty string writes to
## the default retention policy. Only takes effect when using HTTP.
# retention_policy = ""
## The value of this tag will be used to determine the retention policy. If this
## tag is not set the 'retention_policy' option is used as the default.
# retention_policy_tag = ""
## If true, the 'retention_policy_tag' will not be included in the written metric.
# exclude_retention_policy_tag = false
## Write consistency (clusters only), can be: "any", "one", "quorum", "all".
## Only takes effect when using HTTP.
# write_consistency = "any"
## Timeout for HTTP messages.
# timeout = "5s"
## HTTP Basic Auth
# username = "telegraf"
# password = "metricsmetricsmetricsmetrics"
## HTTP User-Agent
# user_agent = "telegraf"
## UDP payload size is the maximum packet size to send.
# udp_payload = "512B"
## Optional TLS Config for use on HTTP connections.
# 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
## HTTP Proxy override, if unset values the standard proxy environment
## variables are consulted to determine which proxy, if any, should be used.
# http_proxy = "http://corporate.proxy:3128"
## Additional HTTP headers
# http_headers = {"X-Special-Header" = "Special-Value"}
## HTTP Content-Encoding for write request body, can be set to "gzip" to
## compress body or "identity" to apply no encoding.
# content_encoding = "gzip"
## When true, Telegraf will output unsigned integers as unsigned values,
## i.e.: "42u". You will need a version of InfluxDB supporting unsigned
## integer values. Enabling this option will result in field type errors if
## existing data has been written.
# influx_uint_support = false
## When true, Telegraf will omit the timestamp on data to allow InfluxDB
## to set the timestamp of the data during ingestion. This is generally NOT
## what you want as it can lead to data points captured at different times
## getting omitted due to similar data.
# influx_omit_timestamp = false
Input and output integration examples
VMware vSphere
-
Dynamic Resource Allocation: Utilize this plugin to monitor resource usage across a fleet of VMs and automatically adjust resource allocations based on performance metrics. This scenario could involve triggering scaling actions in real time based on CPU and memory usage metrics collected from the vSphere API, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
-
Capacity Planning and Forecasting: Leverage the historical metrics gathered from vSphere to conduct capacity planning. Analyzing the trends of CPU, memory, and storage usage over time helps administrators anticipate when additional resources will be needed, avoiding outages and ensuring that the virtual infrastructure can handle growth.
-
Automated Alerting and Incident Response: Integrate this plugin with alerting tools to set up automated notifications based on the metrics gathered. For example, if the CPU usage on a host exceeds a specified threshold, it could trigger alerts and automatically initiate predefined remediation steps, such as migrating VMs to less utilized hosts.
-
Performance Benchmarking Across Clusters: Use the metrics collected to compare the performance of clusters in different vCenters. This benchmarking provides insights into which cluster configurations yield the best resource efficiency and can guide future infrastructure enhancements.
InfluxDB
-
Real-Time System Monitoring: Utilize the InfluxDB plugin to capture and store metrics from a range of system components, such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and disk I/O. By pushing these metrics into InfluxDB, you can create a live dashboard that visualizes system performance in real time. This setup not only helps in identifying performance bottlenecks but also assists in proactive capacity planning by analyzing trends over time.
-
Performance Tracking for Web Applications: Automatically gather and push metrics related to web application performance, such as request durations, error rates, and user interactions, to InfluxDB. By employing this plugin in your monitoring stack, you can use the stored metrics to generate reports and analyses that help understand user behavior and application efficiency, thus guiding development and optimization efforts.
-
IoT Data Aggregation: Leverage the InfluxDB Telegraf plugin to collect sensor data from various IoT devices and store it in a centralized InfluxDB instance. This use case enables you to analyze trends and patterns in environmental or machine data over time, facilitating smarter decisions and predictive maintenance strategies. By integrating IoT data into InfluxDB, organizations can harness the power of historical data analysis to drive innovation and operational efficiency.
-
Analyzing Historical Metrics for Forecasting: Set up the InfluxDB plugin to send historical metric data into InfluxDB and use it to drive forecasting models. By analyzing past performance metrics, you can create predictive models that forecast future trends and demands. This application is particularly useful for business intelligence purposes, helping organizations prepare for fluctuations in resource needs based on historical usage patterns.
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.
Powerful Performance, Limitless Scale
Collect, organize, and act on massive volumes of high-velocity data. Any data is more valuable when you think of it as time series data. with InfluxDB, the #1 time series platform built to scale with Telegraf.
See Ways to Get Started
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