What is Telegraf?

Telegraf is a lightweight, open-source metrics collection agent. It is designed to collect, process, and send metrics from various sources, such as system resources, applications, and databases, to different monitoring and observability platforms like Grafana and Prometheus.

Telegraf is plugin-based, meaning it supports multiple input, processor, and output plugins, making it highly flexible for different use cases.

Why Use Telegraf for Metrics Collection?

Whether you're monitoring infrastructure performance, tracking business KPIs, or analyzing application behavior, Telegraf simplifies observability by offering a flexible, scalable, and real-time metrics collection solution. Here is a summary of what Telegraf offers:

Lightweight and efficient

Supports over 300 plugins for various data sources

Easily configurable with a simple TOML file

Supports multiple output formats, including JSON, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and more

Works across different OS platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS

Collecting Metrics (Input Plugins)

Telegraf collects system and application metrics using input plugins. These plugins fetch data from various sources, here are some popular examples:

System Metrics

The System Metrics Telegraf plugin collects essential performance data from a system, including CPU usage, memory consumption, disk I/O, and network activity. It provides real-time insights into resource utilization, helping users monitor system health and detect performance bottlenecks. This plugin is ideal for tracking infrastructure metrics across Windows, Linux and macOS environments, making it a key component of application performance monitoring.

To find out more about Configuring Telegraf to ship system metrics to Logit.io click here

Application Metrics

Application Metrics refer to performance data collected from applications, such as request rates, error rates, response times, and database query performance. These metrics help monitor application health, detect performance issues, and optimize resource usage. Telegraf gathers application metrics using various input plugins and database monitoring plugins, enabling seamless integration with different frameworks, microservices, and cloud environments.

Here are examples of plugins to send application metrics to Logit.io.

Nginx: The Nginx Telegraf plugin collects key performance metrics from Nginx servers, including active connections, request rates, response statuses, and upstream performance. It retrieves data from the Nginx stub status module or the Plus API, providing insights into server load, traffic patterns, and potential bottlenecks. This plugin is essential for monitoring web server health, optimizing performance, and ensuring high availability in production environments.

To find out more about Configuring Telegraf to ship Nginx metrics to Logit.io click here.

MySQL: The MySQL Telegraf plugin collects vital performance metrics from MySQL and MariaDB databases, including query performance, connections, buffer usage, cache hit rates, and replication status. It retrieves data from the MySQL ‘SHOW STATUS’ and ‘SHOW VARIABLES’ commands, helping users monitor database health, optimize queries, and detect performance bottlenecks. This plugin is essential for ensuring database efficiency, stability, and scalability in production environments.

To find out more about Configuring Telegraf to ship MySQL metrics to Logit.io click here.

PostgreSQL: The PostgreSQL Telegraf plugin collects key performance metrics from PostgreSQL databases, including active connections, query execution times, cache hit rates, replication status, and table statistics. It retrieves data using SQL queries and PostgreSQL’s built-in statistics views, helping users monitor database health, optimize queries, and detect potential bottlenecks. This plugin is essential for ensuring efficient, stable, and scalable database performance in production environments.

To find out more about Configuring Telegraf to ship PostgreSQL metrics to Logit.io click here.

Redis: The Redis Telegraf plugin collects key performance metrics from Redis instances, including memory usage, keyspace statistics, connected clients, command rates, replication status, and cache hit rates. It gathers data using the ‘INFO’ and ‘CLIENT LIST’ commands, helping users monitor database health, optimize performance, and detect potential bottlenecks. This plugin is essential for ensuring Redis runs efficiently, especially in high-performance caching and data storage scenarios.

To find out more about Configuring Telegraf to ship Redis metrics to Logit.io click here.

Custom Metrics

In Telegraf, Custom Metrics allow users to collect and process application-specific data that isn't covered by standard plugins. Using custom input plugins Telegraf can ingest metrics from custom applications, scripts, or services. This flexibility enables teams to monitor unique performance indicators, integrate with proprietary systems, and tailor observability to their specific operational needs. Here is an example of a custom plugin that can be used to send metrics to Logit.io.

Prometheus: The Prometheus Telegraf plugin collects metrics from Prometheus exporters or services exposing metrics in Prometheus format. It acts as a Prometheus scraper, gathering application, system, and infrastructure metrics over HTTP endpoints. This plugin enables seamless integration with Prometheus-based monitoring setups, allowing users to centralize data collection, analyze trends, and optimize performance across distributed systems.

To find out more about Configuring The Prometheus Telegraf plugin to ship metrics to Logit.io click here.