GCP Chronicle Unstructured

Store unstructured log events in Google Chronicle

status: beta delivery: at-least-once acknowledgements: yes egress: batch state: stateless
input: logs
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Configuration

Example configurations

{
  "sinks": {
    "my_sink_id": {
      "type": "gcp_chronicle_unstructured",
      "inputs": [
        "my-source-or-transform-id"
      ],
      "customer_id": "c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c",
      "log_type": "WINDOWS_DNS"
    }
  }
}
[sinks.my_sink_id]
type = "gcp_chronicle_unstructured"
inputs = [ "my-source-or-transform-id" ]
customer_id = "c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c"
log_type = "WINDOWS_DNS"

sinks:
  my_sink_id:
    type: gcp_chronicle_unstructured
    inputs:
      - my-source-or-transform-id
    customer_id: c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c
    log_type: WINDOWS_DNS

{
  "sinks": {
    "my_sink_id": {
      "type": "gcp_chronicle_unstructured",
      "inputs": [
        "my-source-or-transform-id"
      ],
      "compression": "none",
      "customer_id": "c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c",
      "endpoint": "127.0.0.1:8080",
      "fallback_log_type": "VECTOR_DEV",
      "labels": {
        "source": "vector",
        "tenant": "marketing"
      },
      "log_type": "WINDOWS_DNS",
      "namespace": "production",
      "region": "asia"
    }
  }
}
[sinks.my_sink_id]
type = "gcp_chronicle_unstructured"
inputs = [ "my-source-or-transform-id" ]
compression = "none"
customer_id = "c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c"
endpoint = "127.0.0.1:8080"
fallback_log_type = "VECTOR_DEV"
log_type = "WINDOWS_DNS"
namespace = "production"
region = "asia"

  [sinks.my_sink_id.labels]
  source = "vector"
  tenant = "marketing"

sinks:
  my_sink_id:
    type: gcp_chronicle_unstructured
    inputs:
      - my-source-or-transform-id
    compression: none
    customer_id: c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c
    endpoint: 127.0.0.1:8080
    fallback_log_type: VECTOR_DEV
    labels:
      source: vector
      tenant: marketing
    log_type: WINDOWS_DNS
    namespace: production
    region: asia

acknowledgements

optional object

Controls how acknowledgements are handled for this sink.

See End-to-end Acknowledgements for more information on how event acknowledgement is handled.

acknowledgements.enabled

optional bool

Whether or not end-to-end acknowledgements are enabled.

When enabled for a sink, any source that supports end-to-end acknowledgements that is connected to that sink waits for events to be acknowledged by all connected sinks before acknowledging them at the source.

Enabling or disabling acknowledgements at the sink level takes precedence over any global acknowledgements configuration.

api_key

optional string literal

An API key.

Either an API key or a path to a service account credentials JSON file can be specified.

If both are unset, the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable is checked for a filename. If no filename is named, an attempt is made to fetch an instance service account for the compute instance the program is running on. If this is not on a GCE instance, then you must define it with an API key or service account credentials JSON file.

batch

optional object
Event batching behavior.

batch.max_bytes

optional uint

The maximum size of a batch that is processed by a sink.

This is based on the uncompressed size of the batched events, before they are serialized or compressed.

default: 1e+06(bytes)

batch.max_events

optional uint
The maximum size of a batch before it is flushed.

batch.timeout_secs

optional float
The maximum age of a batch before it is flushed.
default: 15(seconds)

buffer

optional object

Configures the buffering behavior for this sink.

More information about the individual buffer types, and buffer behavior, can be found in the Buffering Model section.

buffer.max_events

optional uint
The maximum number of events allowed in the buffer.
Relevant when: type = "memory"
default: 500

buffer.max_size

required uint

The maximum size of the buffer on disk.

Must be at least ~256 megabytes (268435488 bytes).

Relevant when: type = "disk"

buffer.type

optional string literal enum
The type of buffer to use.
Enum options
OptionDescription
disk

Events are buffered on disk.

This is less performant, but more durable. Data that has been synchronized to disk will not be lost if Vector is restarted forcefully or crashes.

Data is synchronized to disk every 500ms.

memory

Events are buffered in memory.

This is more performant, but less durable. Data will be lost if Vector is restarted forcefully or crashes.

default: memory

buffer.when_full

optional string literal enum
Event handling behavior when a buffer is full.
Enum options
OptionDescription
block

Wait for free space in the buffer.

This applies backpressure up the topology, signalling that sources should slow down the acceptance/consumption of events. This means that while no data is lost, data will pile up at the edge.

drop_newest

Drops the event instead of waiting for free space in buffer.

The event will be intentionally dropped. This mode is typically used when performance is the highest priority, and it is preferable to temporarily lose events rather than cause a slowdown in the acceptance/consumption of events.

default: block

compression

optional string literal enum

Compression configuration.

All compression algorithms use the default compression level unless otherwise specified.

Enum options string literal
OptionDescription
gzipGzip compression.
noneNo compression.
default: none

credentials_path

optional string literal

Path to a service account credentials JSON file.

Either an API key or a path to a service account credentials JSON file can be specified.

If both are unset, the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable is checked for a filename. If no filename is named, an attempt is made to fetch an instance service account for the compute instance the program is running on. If this is not on a GCE instance, then you must define it with an API key or service account credentials JSON file.

customer_id

required string literal
The Unique identifier (UUID) corresponding to the Chronicle instance.
Examples 
"c8c65bfa-5f2c-42d4-9189-64bb7b939f2c"

encoding

required object
Encoding configuration. Configures how events are encoded into raw bytes. The selected encoding also determines which input types (logs, metrics, traces) are supported.

encoding.avro

required object
Apache Avro-specific encoder options.
Relevant when: codec = "avro"
encoding.avro.schema
required string literal
The Avro schema.
Examples 
"{ \"type\": \"record\", \"name\": \"log\", \"fields\": [{ \"name\": \"message\", \"type\": \"string\" }] }"

encoding.cef

required object
The CEF Serializer Options.
Relevant when: codec = "cef"
encoding.cef.device_event_class_id
required string literal
Unique identifier for each event type. Identifies the type of event reported. The value length must be less than or equal to 1023.
encoding.cef.device_product
required string literal
Identifies the product of a vendor. The part of a unique device identifier. No two products can use the same combination of device vendor and device product. The value length must be less than or equal to 63.
encoding.cef.device_vendor
required string literal
Identifies the vendor of the product. The part of a unique device identifier. No two products can use the same combination of device vendor and device product. The value length must be less than or equal to 63.
encoding.cef.device_version
required string literal
Identifies the version of the problem. The combination of the device product, vendor and this value make up the unique id of the device that sends messages. The value length must be less than or equal to 31.
encoding.cef.extensions
optional object
The collection of key-value pairs. Keys are the keys of the extensions, and values are paths that point to the extension values of a log event. The event can have any number of key-value pairs in any order.
encoding.cef.extensions.*
required string literal
This is a path that points to the extension value of a log event.
encoding.cef.name
required string literal
This is a path that points to the human-readable description of a log event. The value length must be less than or equal to 512. Equals “cef.name” by default.
encoding.cef.severity
required string literal

This is a path that points to the field of a log event that reflects importance of the event. Reflects importance of the event.

It must point to a number from 0 to 10. 0 = lowest_importance, 10 = highest_importance. Set to “cef.severity” by default.

encoding.cef.version
required string literal enum
CEF Version. Can be either 0 or 1. Set to “0” by default.
Enum options
OptionDescription
V0CEF specification version 0.1.
V1CEF specification version 1.x.
Examples 
"V0"
"V1"

encoding.codec

required string literal enum
The codec to use for encoding events.
Enum options
OptionDescription
avroEncodes an event as an Apache Avro message.
cefEncodes an event as a CEF (Common Event Format) formatted message.
csv

Encodes an event as a CSV message.

This codec must be configured with fields to encode.

gelf

Encodes an event as a GELF message.

This codec is experimental for the following reason:

The GELF specification is more strict than the actual Graylog receiver. Vector’s encoder currently adheres more strictly to the GELF spec, with the exception that some characters such as @ are allowed in field names.

Other GELF codecs, such as Loki’s, use a Go SDK that is maintained by Graylog and is much more relaxed than the GELF spec.

Going forward, Vector will use that Go SDK as the reference implementation, which means the codec might continue to relax the enforcement of the specification.

jsonEncodes an event as JSON.
logfmtEncodes an event as a logfmt message.
native

Encodes an event in the native Protocol Buffers format.

This codec is experimental.

native_json

Encodes an event in the native JSON format.

This codec is experimental.

protobufEncodes an event as a Protobuf message.
raw_message

No encoding.

This encoding uses the message field of a log event.

Be careful if you are modifying your log events (for example, by using a remap transform) and removing the message field while doing additional parsing on it, as this could lead to the encoding emitting empty strings for the given event.

text

Plain text encoding.

This encoding uses the message field of a log event. For metrics, it uses an encoding that resembles the Prometheus export format.

Be careful if you are modifying your log events (for example, by using a remap transform) and removing the message field while doing additional parsing on it, as this could lead to the encoding emitting empty strings for the given event.

Examples 
"avro"
"cef"
"csv"
"gelf"
"json"
"logfmt"
"native"
"native_json"
"protobuf"
"raw_message"
"text"

encoding.csv

required object
The CSV Serializer Options.
Relevant when: codec = "csv"
encoding.csv.capacity
optional uint
Sets the capacity (in bytes) of the internal buffer used in the CSV writer. This defaults to 8KB.
default: 8192
encoding.csv.delimiter
optional ascii_char
The field delimiter to use when writing CSV.
default: ,
encoding.csv.double_quote
optional bool

Enables double quote escapes.

This is enabled by default, but you can disable it. When disabled, quotes in field data are escaped instead of doubled.

default: true
encoding.csv.escape
optional ascii_char

The escape character to use when writing CSV.

In some variants of CSV, quotes are escaped using a special escape character like \ (instead of escaping quotes by doubling them).

To use this, double_quotes needs to be disabled as well; otherwise, this setting is ignored.

default: "
encoding.csv.fields
required [string]

Configures the fields that are encoded, as well as the order in which they appear in the output.

If a field is not present in the event, the output for that field is an empty string.

Values of type Array, Object, and Regex are not supported, and the output for any of these types is an empty string.

encoding.csv.quote
optional ascii_char
The quote character to use when writing CSV.
default: "
encoding.csv.quote_style
optional string literal enum
The quoting style to use when writing CSV data.
Enum options
OptionDescription
alwaysAlways puts quotes around every field.
necessaryPuts quotes around fields only when necessary. They are necessary when fields contain a quote, delimiter, or record terminator. Quotes are also necessary when writing an empty record (which is indistinguishable from a record with one empty field).
neverNever writes quotes, even if it produces invalid CSV data.
non_numericPuts quotes around all fields that are non-numeric. This means that when writing a field that does not parse as a valid float or integer, quotes are used even if they aren’t strictly necessary.
default: necessary

encoding.except_fields

optional [string]
List of fields that are excluded from the encoded event.

encoding.json

optional object
Options for the JsonSerializer.
Relevant when: codec = "json"
encoding.json.pretty
optional bool
Whether to use pretty JSON formatting.
default: false

encoding.metric_tag_values

optional string literal enum

Controls how metric tag values are encoded.

When set to single, only the last non-bare value of tags are displayed with the metric. When set to full, all metric tags are exposed as separate assignments.

Relevant when: codec = "json" or codec = "text"
Enum options
OptionDescription
fullAll tags are exposed as arrays of either string or null values.
singleTag values are exposed as single strings, the same as they were before this config option. Tags with multiple values show the last assigned value, and null values are ignored.
default: single

encoding.only_fields

optional [string]
List of fields that are included in the encoded event.

encoding.protobuf

required object
Options for the Protobuf serializer.
Relevant when: codec = "protobuf"
encoding.protobuf.desc_file
required string literal

The path to the protobuf descriptor set file.

This file is the output of protoc -I <include path> -o <desc output path> <proto>

You can read more here.

Examples 
"/etc/vector/protobuf_descriptor_set.desc"
encoding.protobuf.message_type
required string literal
The name of the message type to use for serializing.
Examples 
"package.Message"

encoding.timestamp_format

optional string literal enum
Format used for timestamp fields.
Enum options
OptionDescription
rfc3339Represent the timestamp as a RFC 3339 timestamp.
unixRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp.
unix_floatRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp in floating point.
unix_msRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp in milliseconds.
unix_nsRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp in nanoseconds.
unix_usRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp in microseconds

endpoint

optional string literal
The endpoint to send data to.
Examples 
"127.0.0.1:8080"
"example.com:12345"

fallback_log_type

optional string literal
The default log_type to attach to events if the template in log_type cannot be resolved.
Examples 
"VECTOR_DEV"

healthcheck

optional object
Healthcheck configuration.

healthcheck.enabled

optional bool
Whether or not to check the health of the sink when Vector starts up.
default: true

inputs

required [string]

A list of upstream source or transform IDs.

Wildcards (*) are supported.

See configuration for more info.

Array string literal
Examples 
[
  "my-source-or-transform-id",
  "prefix-*"
]

labels

optional object
A set of labels that are attached to each batch of events.

labels.*

required string literal
A Chronicle label.

log_type

required string template

The type of log entries in a request.

This must be one of the supported log types, otherwise Chronicle rejects the entry with an error.

Note: This parameter supports Vector's template syntax, which enables you to use dynamic per-event values.
Examples 
"WINDOWS_DNS"
"{{ log_type }}"

namespace

optional string template
User-configured environment namespace to identify the data domain the logs originated from.
Note: This parameter supports Vector's template syntax, which enables you to use dynamic per-event values.
Examples 
"production"
"production-{{ namespace }}"

proxy

optional object

Proxy configuration.

Configure to proxy traffic through an HTTP(S) proxy when making external requests.

Similar to common proxy configuration convention, you can set different proxies to use based on the type of traffic being proxied. You can also set specific hosts that should not be proxied.

proxy.enabled

optional bool
Enables proxying support.
default: true

proxy.http

optional string literal

Proxy endpoint to use when proxying HTTP traffic.

Must be a valid URI string.

Examples 
"http://foo.bar:3128"

proxy.https

optional string literal

Proxy endpoint to use when proxying HTTPS traffic.

Must be a valid URI string.

Examples 
"http://foo.bar:3128"

proxy.no_proxy

optional [string]

A list of hosts to avoid proxying.

Multiple patterns are allowed:

PatternExample match
Domain namesexample.com matches requests to example.com
Wildcard domains.example.com matches requests to example.com and its subdomains
IP addresses127.0.0.1 matches requests to 127.0.0.1
CIDR blocks192.168.0.0/16 matches requests to any IP addresses in this range
Splat* matches all hosts

region

optional string literal enum
The GCP region to use.
Enum options string literal
OptionDescription
asiaAPAC region (this is the same as the Singapore region endpoint retained for backwards compatibility)
canadaCanada Region
dammamDammam Region
dohaDoha Region
euEuropean Multi region
frankfurtFrankfurt Region
londonLondon Region
mumbaiMumbai Region
parisParis Region
singaporeSingapore Region
sydneySydney Region
são_pauloSãoPaulo Region
tel_avivTelAviv Region
tokyoTokyo Region
turinTurin Region
usUS Multi region
zurichZurich Region

request

optional object

Middleware settings for outbound requests.

Various settings can be configured, such as concurrency and rate limits, timeouts, and retry behavior.

Note that the retry backoff policy follows the Fibonacci sequence.

request.adaptive_concurrency

optional object

Configuration of adaptive concurrency parameters.

These parameters typically do not require changes from the default, and incorrect values can lead to meta-stable or unstable performance and sink behavior. Proceed with caution.

request.adaptive_concurrency.decrease_ratio
optional float

The fraction of the current value to set the new concurrency limit when decreasing the limit.

Valid values are greater than 0 and less than 1. Smaller values cause the algorithm to scale back rapidly when latency increases.

Note: The new limit is rounded down after applying this ratio.

default: 0.9
request.adaptive_concurrency.ewma_alpha
optional float

The weighting of new measurements compared to older measurements.

Valid values are greater than 0 and less than 1.

ARC uses an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) of past RTT measurements as a reference to compare with the current RTT. Smaller values cause this reference to adjust more slowly, which may be useful if a service has unusually high response variability.

default: 0.4
request.adaptive_concurrency.initial_concurrency
optional uint

The initial concurrency limit to use. If not specified, the initial limit is 1 (no concurrency).

Datadog recommends setting this value to your service’s average limit if you’re seeing that it takes a long time to ramp up adaptive concurrency after a restart. You can find this value by looking at the adaptive_concurrency_limit metric.

default: 1
request.adaptive_concurrency.max_concurrency_limit
optional uint

The maximum concurrency limit.

The adaptive request concurrency limit does not go above this bound. This is put in place as a safeguard.

default: 200
request.adaptive_concurrency.rtt_deviation_scale
optional float

Scale of RTT deviations which are not considered anomalous.

Valid values are greater than or equal to 0, and we expect reasonable values to range from 1.0 to 3.0.

When calculating the past RTT average, we also compute a secondary “deviation” value that indicates how variable those values are. We use that deviation when comparing the past RTT average to the current measurements, so we can ignore increases in RTT that are within an expected range. This factor is used to scale up the deviation to an appropriate range. Larger values cause the algorithm to ignore larger increases in the RTT.

default: 2.5

request.concurrency

optional string literal enum uint

Configuration for outbound request concurrency.

This can be set either to one of the below enum values or to a positive integer, which denotes a fixed concurrency limit.

Enum options
OptionDescription
adaptiveConcurrency is managed by Vector’s Adaptive Request Concurrency feature.
none

A fixed concurrency of 1.

Only one request can be outstanding at any given time.

default: adaptive

request.rate_limit_duration_secs

optional uint
The time window used for the rate_limit_num option.
default: 1(seconds)

request.rate_limit_num

optional uint
The maximum number of requests allowed within the rate_limit_duration_secs time window.
default: 1000(requests)

request.retry_attempts

optional uint
The maximum number of retries to make for failed requests.
default: 9.223372036854776e+18(retries)

request.retry_initial_backoff_secs

optional uint

The amount of time to wait before attempting the first retry for a failed request.

After the first retry has failed, the fibonacci sequence is used to select future backoffs.

default: 1(seconds)

request.retry_jitter_mode

optional string literal enum
The jitter mode to use for retry backoff behavior.
Enum options
OptionDescription
Full

Full jitter.

The random delay is anywhere from 0 up to the maximum current delay calculated by the backoff strategy.

Incorporating full jitter into your backoff strategy can greatly reduce the likelihood of creating accidental denial of service (DoS) conditions against your own systems when many clients are recovering from a failure state.

NoneNo jitter.
default: Full

request.retry_max_duration_secs

optional uint
The maximum amount of time to wait between retries.
default: 30(seconds)

request.timeout_secs

optional uint

The time a request can take before being aborted.

Datadog highly recommends that you do not lower this value below the service’s internal timeout, as this could create orphaned requests, pile on retries, and result in duplicate data downstream.

default: 60(seconds)

tls

optional object
TLS configuration.

tls.alpn_protocols

optional [string]

Sets the list of supported ALPN protocols.

Declare the supported ALPN protocols, which are used during negotiation with a peer. They are prioritized in the order that they are defined.

tls.ca_file

optional string literal

Absolute path to an additional CA certificate file.

The certificate must be in the DER or PEM (X.509) format. Additionally, the certificate can be provided as an inline string in PEM format.

Examples 
"/path/to/certificate_authority.crt"

tls.crt_file

optional string literal

Absolute path to a certificate file used to identify this server.

The certificate must be in DER, PEM (X.509), or PKCS#12 format. Additionally, the certificate can be provided as an inline string in PEM format.

If this is set and is not a PKCS#12 archive, key_file must also be set.

Examples 
"/path/to/host_certificate.crt"

tls.key_file

optional string literal

Absolute path to a private key file used to identify this server.

The key must be in DER or PEM (PKCS#8) format. Additionally, the key can be provided as an inline string in PEM format.

Examples 
"/path/to/host_certificate.key"

tls.key_pass

optional string literal

Passphrase used to unlock the encrypted key file.

This has no effect unless key_file is set.

Examples 
"${KEY_PASS_ENV_VAR}"
"PassWord1"

tls.server_name

optional string literal

Server name to use when using Server Name Indication (SNI).

Only relevant for outgoing connections.

Examples 
"www.example.com"

tls.verify_certificate

optional bool

Enables certificate verification. For components that create a server, this requires that the client connections have a valid client certificate. For components that initiate requests, this validates that the upstream has a valid certificate.

If enabled, certificates must not be expired and must be issued by a trusted issuer. This verification operates in a hierarchical manner, checking that the leaf certificate (the certificate presented by the client/server) is not only valid, but that the issuer of that certificate is also valid, and so on, until the verification process reaches a root certificate.

Do NOT set this to false unless you understand the risks of not verifying the validity of certificates.

tls.verify_hostname

optional bool

Enables hostname verification.

If enabled, the hostname used to connect to the remote host must be present in the TLS certificate presented by the remote host, either as the Common Name or as an entry in the Subject Alternative Name extension.

Only relevant for outgoing connections.

Do NOT set this to false unless you understand the risks of not verifying the remote hostname.

Environment variables

GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS

common optional string literal
The filename for a Google Cloud service account credentials JSON file used for authentication.
Examples
/path/to/credentials.json

Input Types

The following section shows which telemetry data types are supported.

Logs

Log events are supported.

Telemetry

Metrics

link

buffer_byte_size

gauge
The number of bytes current in the buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_discarded_events_total

counter
The number of events dropped by this non-blocking buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_events

gauge
The number of events currently in the buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_received_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of bytes received by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_received_events_total

counter
The number of events received by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_sent_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of bytes sent by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_sent_events_total

counter
The number of events sent by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

component_discarded_events_total

counter
The number of events dropped by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
intentional
True if the events were discarded intentionally, like a filter transform, or false if due to an error.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

component_errors_total

counter
The total number of errors encountered by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
error_type
The type of the error
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
stage
The stage within the component at which the error occurred.

component_received_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of event bytes accepted by this component either from tagged origins like file and uri, or cumulatively from other origins.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_received_events_count

histogram

A histogram of the number of events passed in each internal batch in Vector’s internal topology.

Note that this is separate than sink-level batching. It is mostly useful for low level debugging performance issues in Vector due to small internal batches.

component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_received_events_total

counter
The number of events accepted by this component either from tagged origins like file and uri, or cumulatively from other origins.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_sent_bytes_total

counter
The number of raw bytes sent by this component to destination sinks.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
endpoint optional
The endpoint to which the bytes were sent. For HTTP, this will be the host and path only, excluding the query string.
file optional
The absolute path of the destination file.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
protocol
The protocol used to send the bytes.
region optional
The AWS region name to which the bytes were sent. In some configurations, this may be a literal hostname.

component_sent_event_bytes_total

counter
The total number of event bytes emitted by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
output optional
The specific output of the component.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

component_sent_events_total

counter
The total number of events emitted by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
output optional
The specific output of the component.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

utilization

gauge
A ratio from 0 to 1 of the load on a component. A value of 0 would indicate a completely idle component that is simply waiting for input. A value of 1 would indicate a that is never idle. This value is updated every 5 seconds.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

How it works

Buffers and batches

This component buffers & batches data as shown in the diagram above. You’ll notice that Vector treats these concepts differently, instead of treating them as global concepts, Vector treats them as sink specific concepts. This isolates sinks, ensuring services disruptions are contained and delivery guarantees are honored.

Batches are flushed when 1 of 2 conditions are met:

  1. The batch age meets or exceeds the configured timeout_secs.
  2. The batch size meets or exceeds the configured max_bytes or max_events.

Buffers are controlled via the buffer.* options.

GCP Authentication

GCP offers a variety of authentication methods and Vector is concerned with the server to server methods and will find credentials in the following order:

  1. If the credentials_path option is set.
  2. If the api_key option is set.
  3. If the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable is set.
  4. Finally, Vector will check for an instance service account.

If credentials aren’t found, Vector’s health checks fail and an error is logged.

Health checks

Health checks ensure that the downstream service is accessible and ready to accept data. This check is performed upon sink initialization. If the health check fails an error will be logged and Vector will proceed to start.

Require health checks

If you’d like to exit immediately upon a health check failure, you can pass the --require-healthy flag:

vector --config /etc/vector/vector.yaml --require-healthy

Disable health checks

If you’d like to disable health checks for this sink you can set the healthcheck option to false.

Rate limits & adaptive concurrency

Adaptive Request Concurrency (ARC)

Adaptive Request Concurrency is a feature of Vector that does away with static concurrency limits and automatically optimizes HTTP concurrency based on downstream service responses. The underlying mechanism is a feedback loop inspired by TCP congestion control algorithms. Checkout the announcement blog post,

We highly recommend enabling this feature as it improves performance and reliability of Vector and the systems it communicates with. As such, we have made it the default, and no further configuration is required.

Static concurrency

If Adaptive Request Concurrency is not for you, you can manually set static concurrency limits by specifying an integer for request.concurrency:

sinks:
	my-sink:
		request:
			concurrency: 10

Rate limits

In addition to limiting request concurrency, you can also limit the overall request throughput via the request.rate_limit_duration_secs and request.rate_limit_num options.

sinks:
	my-sink:
		request:
			rate_limit_duration_secs: 1
			rate_limit_num: 10

These will apply to both adaptive and fixed request.concurrency values.

Retry policy

Vector will retry failed requests (status in [408, 429], >= 500, and != 501). Other responses will not be retried. You can control the number of retry attempts and backoff rate with the request.retry_attempts and request.retry_backoff_secs options.

State

This component is stateless, meaning its behavior is consistent across each input.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Vector uses OpenSSL for TLS protocols due to OpenSSL’s maturity. You can enable and adjust TLS behavior via the tls.* options and/or via an OpenSSL configuration file. The file location defaults to /usr/local/ssl/openssl.cnf or can be specified with the OPENSSL_CONF environment variable.
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