Telegraf
What is this?
Telegraf is an open-source agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data. It ships with 300+ plugins covering system monitoring, cloud services, and messaging.
Telegraf is an open-source agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data. It ships with 300+ plugins covering system monitoring, cloud services, and messaging.So it's one agent I install on every machine I want to watch?Yes — it compiles into a standalone static binary with no external dependencies, so deploying it is just dropping one binary on each machine and pointing its outputs at your backend.
Yes — it compiles into a standalone static binary with no external dependencies, so deploying it is just dropping one binary on each machine and pointing its outputs at your backend.How do I get it running?Install a binary build, Docker image, or RPM/DEB package from the install guide, then write a TOML config listing your plugins and run it — the agent collects from inputs at each interval and flushes to outputs at each flush interval.
Install a binary build, Docker image, or RPM/DEB package from the install guide, then write a TOML config listing your plugins and run it — the agent collects from inputs at each interval and flushes to outputs at each flush interval.Is there a dashboard, or is everything done through config files?There is no UI mentioned — you describe everything in a TOML config file and hand it to the agent. The TOML setup is designed to be user-friendly and unambiguous, but it is all text files.
There is no UI mentioned — you describe everything in a TOML config file and hand it to the agent. The TOML setup is designed to be user-friendly and unambiguous, but it is all text files.Does it run on Windows servers too, or is it Linux-only?It runs cross-platform: binaries, Docker images, and RPM/DEB packages are published, and there is a dedicated Windows plugin family — Event Log, Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Performance Counters.
It runs cross-platform: binaries, Docker images, and RPM/DEB packages are published, and there is a dedicated Windows plugin family — Event Log, Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Performance Counters.What kinds of data sources can it pull from out of the box?Over 300 plugins: system stats (CPU, memory, disk, network, SMART, Docker, Nvidia SMI), devices (OPC UA, Modbus), logs (file, tail, directory monitor), messaging (Kafka, MQTT, AMQP), monitoring (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus), networking (Cisco Telemetry MDT, gNMI), plus SNMP, SQL, HTTP, and Windows Event Log.
Over 300 plugins: system stats (CPU, memory, disk, network, SMART, Docker, Nvidia SMI), devices (OPC UA, Modbus), logs (file, tail, directory monitor), messaging (Kafka, MQTT, AMQP), monitoring (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus), networking (Cisco Telemetry MDT, gNMI), plus SNMP, SQL, HTTP, and Windows Event Log.Do I have to use InfluxDB as the backend?Nothing in the README requires it — outputs are plugins you pick yourself. Telegraf comes from InfluxData, and if you are completely new to both, InfluxDB University offers free courses.
Nothing in the README requires it — outputs are plugins you pick yourself. Telegraf comes from InfluxData, and if you are completely new to both, InfluxDB University offers free courses.How do I figure out the settings for a particular plugin?Each plugin has its own README under the /plugins directory covering how to configure, use, and sometimes debug or troubleshoot it; the /docs folder holds the general documentation.
Each plugin has its own README under the /plugins directory covering how to configure, use, and sometimes debug or troubleshoot it; the /docs folder holds the general documentation.What are similar projects?vector, ctop, VictoriaMetrics, lazydocker, signoz, k9s, influxdb, node_exporter
vector, ctop, VictoriaMetrics, lazydocker, signoz, k9s, influxdb, node_exporterWhich topics is it in?logs, influxdb, network-monitoring, daemon, mqtt, system-monitor, time-series, kafka, metrics, logging, infrastructure, iot
logs, influxdb, network-monitoring, daemon, mqtt, system-monitor, time-series, kafka, metrics, logging, infrastructure, iot