VMware vSphere and TimescaleDB Integration
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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.
This output plugin delivers a reliable and efficient mechanism for routing Telegraf collected metrics directly into TimescaleDB. By leveraging PostgreSQL’s robust ecosystem combined with TimescaleDB’s time series optimizations, it supports high-performance data ingestion and advanced querying capabilities.
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.
TimescaleDB
TimescaleDB is an open source time series database built as an extension to PostgreSQL, designed to handle large scale, time-oriented data efficiently. Launched in 2017, TimescaleDB emerged in response to the growing need for a robust, scalable solution that could manage vast volumes of data with high insert rates and complex queries. By leveraging PostgreSQL’s familiar SQL interface and enhancing it with specialized time series capabilities, TimescaleDB quickly gained popularity among developers looking to integrate time series functionality into existing relational databases. Its hybrid approach allows users to benefit from PostgreSQL’s flexibility, reliability, and ecosystem while providing optimized performance for time series data.
The database is particularly effective in environments that demand fast ingestion of data points combined with sophisticated analytical queries over historical periods. TimescaleDB has a number of innovative features like hypertables which transparently partition data into manageable chunks and built-in continuous aggregation. These allow for significantly improved query speed and resource efficiency.
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 = ""
TimescaleDB
# Publishes metrics to a TimescaleDB database
[[outputs.postgresql]]
## Specify connection address via the standard libpq connection string:
## host=... user=... password=... sslmode=... dbname=...
## Or a URL:
## postgres://[user[:password]]@localhost[/dbname]?sslmode=[disable|verify-ca|verify-full]
## See https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNSTRING
##
## All connection parameters are optional. Environment vars are also supported.
## e.g. PGPASSWORD, PGHOST, PGUSER, PGDATABASE
## All supported vars can be found here:
## https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-envars.html
##
## Non-standard parameters:
## pool_max_conns (default: 1) - Maximum size of connection pool for parallel (per-batch per-table) inserts.
## pool_min_conns (default: 0) - Minimum size of connection pool.
## pool_max_conn_lifetime (default: 0s) - Maximum connection age before closing.
## pool_max_conn_idle_time (default: 0s) - Maximum idle time of a connection before closing.
## pool_health_check_period (default: 0s) - Duration between health checks on idle connections.
# connection = ""
## Postgres schema to use.
# schema = "public"
## Store tags as foreign keys in the metrics table. Default is false.
# tags_as_foreign_keys = false
## Suffix to append to table name (measurement name) for the foreign tag table.
# tag_table_suffix = "_tag"
## Deny inserting metrics if the foreign tag can't be inserted.
# foreign_tag_constraint = false
## Store all tags as a JSONB object in a single 'tags' column.
# tags_as_jsonb = false
## Store all fields as a JSONB object in a single 'fields' column.
# fields_as_jsonb = false
## Name of the timestamp column
## NOTE: Some tools (e.g. Grafana) require the default name so be careful!
# timestamp_column_name = "time"
## Type of the timestamp column
## Currently, "timestamp without time zone" and "timestamp with time zone"
## are supported
# timestamp_column_type = "timestamp without time zone"
## Templated statements to execute when creating a new table.
# create_templates = [
# '''CREATE TABLE {{ .table }} ({{ .columns }})''',
# ]
## Templated statements to execute when adding columns to a table.
## Set to an empty list to disable. Points containing tags for which there is
## no column will be skipped. Points containing fields for which there is no
## column will have the field omitted.
# add_column_templates = [
# '''ALTER TABLE {{ .table }} ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS {{ .columns|join ", ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS " }}''',
# ]
## Templated statements to execute when creating a new tag table.
# tag_table_create_templates = [
# '''CREATE TABLE {{ .table }} ({{ .columns }}, PRIMARY KEY (tag_id))''',
# ]
## Templated statements to execute when adding columns to a tag table.
## Set to an empty list to disable. Points containing tags for which there is
## no column will be skipped.
# tag_table_add_column_templates = [
# '''ALTER TABLE {{ .table }} ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS {{ .columns|join ", ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS " }}''',
# ]
## The postgres data type to use for storing unsigned 64-bit integer values
## (Postgres does not have a native unsigned 64-bit integer type).
## The value can be one of:
## numeric - Uses the PostgreSQL "numeric" data type.
## uint8 - Requires pguint extension (https://github.com/petere/pguint)
# uint64_type = "numeric"
## When using pool_max_conns > 1, and a temporary error occurs, the query is
## retried with an incremental backoff. This controls the maximum duration.
# retry_max_backoff = "15s"
## Approximate number of tag IDs to store in in-memory cache (when using
## tags_as_foreign_keys). This is an optimization to skip inserting known
## tag IDs. Each entry consumes approximately 34 bytes of memory.
# tag_cache_size = 100000
## Cut column names at the given length to not exceed PostgreSQL's
## 'identifier length' limit (default: no limit)
## (see https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/limits.html)
## Be careful to not create duplicate column names!
# column_name_length_limit = 0
## Enable & set the log level for the Postgres driver.
# log_level = "warn" # trace, debug, info, warn, error, none
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.
TimescaleDB
-
Real-Time IoT Data Ingestion: Use the plugin to collect and store sensor data from thousands of IoT devices in real time. This setup facilitates immediate analysis, helping organizations monitor operational efficiency and respond quickly to changing conditions.
-
Cloud Application Performance Monitoring: Leverage the plugin to feed detailed performance metrics from distributed cloud applications into TimescaleDB. This integration supports real-time dashboards and alerts, enabling teams to swiftly identify and mitigate performance bottlenecks.
-
Historical Data Analysis and Reporting: Implement a system where long-term metrics are stored in TimescaleDB for comprehensive historical analysis. This approach allows businesses to perform trend analysis, generate detailed reports, and make data-driven decisions based on archived time-series data.
-
Adaptive Alerting and Anomaly Detection: Integrate the plugin with automated anomaly detection workflows. By continuously streaming metrics to TimescaleDB, machine learning models can analyze data patterns and trigger alerts when anomalies occur, enhancing system reliability and proactive maintenance.
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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