execd

Execd Input Plugin

The execd plugin runs an external program as a long-running daemon. The programs must output metrics in any one of the accepted Input Data Formats on the process's STDOUT, and is expected to stay running. If you'd instead like the process to collect metrics and then exit, check out the inputs.exec plugin.

The signal can be configured to send a signal the running daemon on each collection interval. This is used for when you want to have Telegraf notify the plugin when it's time to run collection. STDIN is recommended, which writes a new line to the process's STDIN.

STDERR from the process will be relayed to Telegraf as errors in the logs.

Service Input

This plugin is a service input. Normal plugins gather metrics determined by the interval setting. Service plugins start a service to listens and waits for metrics or events to occur. Service plugins have two key differences from normal plugins:

1. The global or plugin specific interval setting may not apply
2. The CLI options of --test, --test-wait, and --once may not produce output for this plugin

Global configuration options

In addition to the plugin-specific configuration settings, plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings. These settings are used to modify metrics, tags, and field or create aliases and configure ordering, etc. See the CONFIGURATION.md for more details.

Configuration

# Run executable as long-running input plugin
[[inputs.execd]]
  ## One program to run as daemon.
  ## NOTE: process and each argument should each be their own string
  command = ["telegraf-smartctl", "-d", "/dev/sda"]

  ## Environment variables
  ## Array of "key=value" pairs to pass as environment variables
  ## e.g. "KEY=value", "USERNAME=John Doe",
  ## "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/custom/lib64:/usr/local/libs"
  # environment = []

  ## Define how the process is signaled on each collection interval.
  ## Valid values are:
  ##   "none"    : Do not signal anything. (Recommended for service inputs)
  ##               The process must output metrics by itself.
  ##   "STDIN"   : Send a newline on STDIN. (Recommended for gather inputs)
  ##   "SIGHUP"  : Send a HUP signal. Not available on Windows. (not recommended)
  ##   "SIGUSR1" : Send a USR1 signal. Not available on Windows.
  ##   "SIGUSR2" : Send a USR2 signal. Not available on Windows.
  signal = "none"

  ## Delay before the process is restarted after an unexpected termination
  restart_delay = "10s"

  ## Buffer size used to read from the command output stream
  ## Optional parameter. Default is 64 Kib, minimum is 16 bytes
  # buffer_size = "64Kib"

  ## Data format to consume.
  ## Each data format has its own unique set of configuration options, read
  ## more about them here:
  ## https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md
  data_format = "influx"

Example

Daemon written in bash using STDIN signaling

#!/bin/bash

counter=0

while IFS= read -r LINE; do
    echo "counter_bash count=${counter}"
    let counter=counter+1
done

[[inputs.execd]]
  command = ["plugins/inputs/execd/examples/count.sh"]
  signal = "STDIN"

Go daemon using SIGHUP

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "os/signal"
    "syscall"
)

func main() {
    c := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
    signal.Notify(c, syscall.SIGHUP)

    counter := 0

    for {
        <-c

        fmt.Printf("counter_go count=%d\n", counter)
        counter++
    }
}

[[inputs.execd]]
  command = ["plugins/inputs/execd/examples/count.go.exe"]
  signal = "SIGHUP"

Ruby daemon running standalone

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

counter = 0

loop do
  puts "counter_ruby count=#{counter}"
  STDOUT.flush

  counter += 1
  sleep 1
end

[[inputs.execd]]
  command = ["plugins/inputs/execd/examples/count.rb"]
  signal = "none"

Metrics

Example Output