hostmetricsreceiver

Host Metrics Receiver

Status
Stability	development: logs
	beta: metrics
Distributions	core, contrib, k8s
Issues
Code coverage
Code Owners	@dmitryax, @braydonk

The Host Metrics receiver generates metrics about the host system scraped from various sources and host entity event as log. This is intended to be used when the collector is deployed as an agent.

Getting Started

The collection interval, root path, and the categories of metrics to be scraped can be configured:

hostmetrics:
  collection_interval:  # default = 1m
  initial_delay:  # default = 1s
  root_path: 
  scrapers:
    :
    :
    ...

The available scrapers are:

Notes

^[1] Not supported on Mac when compiled without cgo which is the default.

Several scrapers support additional configuration:

Disk

disk:
  :
    devices: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 

File System

filesystem:
  :
    devices: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 
  :
    fs_types: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 
  :
    mount_points: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 
  include_virtual_filesystems: 

Load

cpu_average specifies whether to divide the average load by the reported number of logical CPUs (default: false).

load:
  cpu_average: 

Network

network:
  :
    interfaces: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 

Process

process:
  :
    names: [ , ... ]
    match_type: 
  mute_process_all_errors: 
  mute_process_name_error: 
  mute_process_exe_error: 
  mute_process_io_error: 
  mute_process_user_error: 
  mute_process_cgroup_error: 
  scrape_process_delay: 

The following settings are optional:

• mute_process_all_errors (default: false): mute all the errors encountered when trying to read metrics of a process. When this flag is enabled, there is no need to activate any other error suppression flags.
• mute_process_name_error (default: false): mute the error encountered when trying to read a process name the collector does not have permission to read. This flag is ignored when mute_process_all_errors is set to true as all errors are muted.
• mute_process_io_error (default: false): mute the error encountered when trying to read IO metrics of a process the collector does not have permission to read. This flag is ignored when mute_process_all_errors is set to true as all errors are muted.
• mute_process_cgroup_error (default: false): mute the error encountered when trying to read the cgroup of a process the collector does not have permission to read. This flag is ignored when mute_process_all_errors is set to true as all errors are muted.
• mute_process_exe_error (default: false): mute the error encountered when trying to read the executable path of a process the collector does not have permission to read (Linux only). This flag is ignored when mute_process_all_errors is set to true as all errors are muted.
• mute_process_user_error (default: false): mute the error encountered when trying to read a uid which doesn't exist on the system, eg. is owned by a user that only exists in a container. This flag is ignored when mute_process_all_errors is set to true as all errors are muted.

Advanced Configuration

Filtering

If you are only interested in a subset of metrics from a particular source, it is recommended you use this receiver with the Filter Processor.

Different Frequencies

If you would like to scrape some metrics at a different frequency than others, you can configure multiple hostmetrics receivers with different collection_interval values. For example:

receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    collection_interval: 30s
    scrapers:
      cpu:
      memory:

  hostmetrics/disk:
    collection_interval: 1m
    scrapers:
      disk:
      filesystem:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [hostmetrics, hostmetrics/disk]

Collecting host metrics from inside a container (Linux only)

Host metrics are collected from the Linux system directories on the filesystem. You likely want to collect metrics about the host system and not the container. This is achievable by following these steps:

1. Bind mount the host filesystem

The simplest configuration is to mount the entire host filesystem when running the container. e.g. docker run -v /:/hostfs ....

You can also choose which parts of the host filesystem to mount, if you know exactly what you'll need. e.g. docker run -v /proc:/hostfs/proc.

2. Configure root_path

Configure root_path so the hostmetrics receiver knows where the root filesystem is. Note: if running multiple instances of the host metrics receiver, they must all have the same root_path.

Example:

receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    root_path: /hostfs

Resource attributes

Currently, the hostmetrics receiver does not set any Resource attributes on the exported metrics. However, if you want to set Resource attributes, you can provide them via environment variables via the resourcedetection processor. For example, you can add the following resource attributes to adhere to Resource Semantic Conventions:

export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="service.name=,service.namespace=,service.instance.id="

Entity Events

Entity Events as logs are experimental and might eventually be replaced by the result of the OTEP. For now, the hostmetrics receiver can send the host entity event as a log records. By default, the hostmetrics receiver sends periodic EntityState events every 5 minutes. You can change that by setting metadata_collection_interval. Entity Events as logs are experimental. The result of the OTEP might eventually replace that.