GCP PubSub

Fetch observability events from GCP’s PubSub messaging system

status: beta role: aggregator delivery: at-least-once acknowledgements: yes egress: stream state: stateless output: log

Requirements

The GCP Pub/Sub source requires a Pub/Sub subscription.

Configuration

Example configurations

{
  "sources": {
    "my_source_id": {
      "type": "gcp_pubsub",
      "project": "my-log-source-project",
      "subscription": "my-vector-source-subscription"
    }
  }
}
[sources.my_source_id]
type = "gcp_pubsub"
project = "my-log-source-project"
subscription = "my-vector-source-subscription"
sources:
  my_source_id:
    type: gcp_pubsub
    project: my-log-source-project
    subscription: my-vector-source-subscription
{
  "sources": {
    "my_source_id": {
      "type": "gcp_pubsub",
      "ack_deadline_secs": 600,
      "endpoint": "https://pubsub.googleapis.com",
      "full_response_size": 100,
      "keepalive_secs": 60,
      "max_concurrency": 10,
      "poll_time_seconds": 2,
      "project": "my-log-source-project",
      "retry_delay_secs": 1,
      "subscription": "my-vector-source-subscription"
    }
  }
}
[sources.my_source_id]
type = "gcp_pubsub"
ack_deadline_secs = 600
endpoint = "https://pubsub.googleapis.com"
full_response_size = 100
keepalive_secs = 60
max_concurrency = 10
poll_time_seconds = 2
project = "my-log-source-project"
retry_delay_secs = 1
subscription = "my-vector-source-subscription"
sources:
  my_source_id:
    type: gcp_pubsub
    ack_deadline_secs: 600
    endpoint: https://pubsub.googleapis.com
    full_response_size: 100
    keepalive_secs: 60
    max_concurrency: 10
    poll_time_seconds: 2
    project: my-log-source-project
    retry_delay_secs: 1
    subscription: my-vector-source-subscription

ack_deadline_seconds

optional uint

Deprecated

This option has been deprecated, use ack_deadline_secs instead.

The acknowledgement deadline, in seconds, to use for this stream.

Messages that are not acknowledged when this deadline expires may be retransmitted.

ack_deadline_secs

optional uint

The acknowledgement deadline, in seconds, to use for this stream.

Messages that are not acknowledged when this deadline expires may be retransmitted.

default: 600 (seconds)

acknowledgements

optional object

Deprecated

This field is deprecated.

Controls how acknowledgements are handled by this source.

This setting is deprecated in favor of enabling acknowledgements at the global or sink level.

Enabling or disabling acknowledgements at the source level has no effect on acknowledgement behavior.

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

Whether or not end-to-end acknowledgements are enabled for this source.

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.

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.

decoding

optional object
Configures how events are decoded from raw bytes.

decoding.avro

required object
Apache Avro-specific encoder options.
Relevant when: codec = "avro"
decoding.avro.schema
required string literal

The Avro schema definition. Please note that the following [apache_avro::types::Value] variants are currently not supported:

  • Date
  • Decimal
  • Duration
  • Fixed
  • TimeMillis
Examples
"{ \"type\": \"record\", \"name\": \"log\", \"fields\": [{ \"name\": \"message\", \"type\": \"string\" }] }"
For Avro datum encoded in Kafka messages, the bytes are prefixed with the schema ID. Set this to true to strip the schema ID prefix. According to Confluent Kafka’s document.

decoding.codec

optional string literal enum
The codec to use for decoding events.
Enum options
OptionDescription
avroDecodes the raw bytes as as an Apache Avro message.
bytesUses the raw bytes as-is.
gelf

Decodes the raw bytes 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 decoder 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 may continue to relax the enforcement of specification.

jsonDecodes the raw bytes as JSON.
native

Decodes the raw bytes as native Protocol Buffers format.

This codec is experimental.

native_json

Decodes the raw bytes as native JSON format.

This codec is experimental.

protobufDecodes the raw bytes as protobuf.
syslog

Decodes the raw bytes as a Syslog message.

Decodes either as the RFC 3164-style format (“old” style) or the RFC 5424-style format (“new” style, includes structured data).

vrlDecodes the raw bytes as a string and passes them as input to a VRL program.
default: bytes

decoding.gelf

optional object
GELF-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "gelf"
decoding.gelf.lossy
optional bool

Determines whether or not to replace invalid UTF-8 sequences instead of failing.

When true, invalid UTF-8 sequences are replaced with the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.

default: true

decoding.json

optional object
JSON-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "json"
decoding.json.lossy
optional bool

Determines whether or not to replace invalid UTF-8 sequences instead of failing.

When true, invalid UTF-8 sequences are replaced with the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.

default: true

decoding.native_json

optional object
Vector’s native JSON-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "native_json"

Determines whether or not to replace invalid UTF-8 sequences instead of failing.

When true, invalid UTF-8 sequences are replaced with the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.

default: true

decoding.protobuf

optional object
Protobuf-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "protobuf"
decoding.protobuf.desc_file
optional string literal
Path to desc file
decoding.protobuf.message_type
optional string literal
message type. e.g package.message

decoding.syslog

optional object
Syslog-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "syslog"

Determines whether or not to replace invalid UTF-8 sequences instead of failing.

When true, invalid UTF-8 sequences are replaced with the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.

default: true

decoding.vrl

required object
VRL-specific decoding options.
Relevant when: codec = "vrl"
decoding.vrl.source
required string literal
The Vector Remap Language (VRL) program to execute for each event. Note that the final contents of the . target will be used as the decoding result. Compilation error or use of ‘abort’ in a program will result in a decoding error.
decoding.vrl.timezone
optional string literal

The name of the timezone to apply to timestamp conversions that do not contain an explicit time zone. The time zone name may be any name in the TZ database, or local to indicate system local time.

If not set, local will be used.

Examples
"local"
"America/New_York"
"EST5EDT"

endpoint

optional string literal
The endpoint from which to pull data.
Examples
"https://us-central1-pubsub.googleapis.com"
default: https://pubsub.googleapis.com

framing

optional object

Framing configuration.

Framing handles how events are separated when encoded in a raw byte form, where each event is a frame that must be prefixed, or delimited, in a way that marks where an event begins and ends within the byte stream.

Options for the character delimited decoder.
Relevant when: method = "character_delimited"
The character that delimits byte sequences.

The maximum length of the byte buffer.

This length does not include the trailing delimiter.

By default, there is no maximum length enforced. If events are malformed, this can lead to additional resource usage as events continue to be buffered in memory, and can potentially lead to memory exhaustion in extreme cases.

If there is a risk of processing malformed data, such as logs with user-controlled input, consider setting the maximum length to a reasonably large value as a safety net. This ensures that processing is not actually unbounded.

framing.method

optional string literal enum
The framing method.
Enum options
OptionDescription
bytesByte frames are passed through as-is according to the underlying I/O boundaries (for example, split between messages or stream segments).
character_delimitedByte frames which are delimited by a chosen character.
length_delimitedByte frames which are prefixed by an unsigned big-endian 32-bit integer indicating the length.
newline_delimitedByte frames which are delimited by a newline character.
octet_countingByte frames according to the octet counting format.
default: bytes
Options for the newline delimited decoder.
Relevant when: method = "newline_delimited"

The maximum length of the byte buffer.

This length does not include the trailing delimiter.

By default, there is no maximum length enforced. If events are malformed, this can lead to additional resource usage as events continue to be buffered in memory, and can potentially lead to memory exhaustion in extreme cases.

If there is a risk of processing malformed data, such as logs with user-controlled input, consider setting the maximum length to a reasonably large value as a safety net. This ensures that processing is not actually unbounded.

framing.octet_counting

optional object
Options for the octet counting decoder.
Relevant when: method = "octet_counting"
The maximum length of the byte buffer.

full_response_size

optional uint

The number of messages in a response to mark a stream as “busy”. This is used to determine if more streams should be started.

The GCP Pub/Sub servers send responses with 100 or more messages when the subscription is busy.

default: 100

keepalive_secs

optional float
The amount of time, in seconds, with no received activity before sending a keepalive request. If this is set larger than 60, you may see periodic errors sent from the server.
default: 60 (seconds)

max_concurrency

optional uint
The maximum number of concurrent stream connections to open at once.
default: 10

poll_time_seconds

optional float
How often to poll the currently active streams to see if they are all busy and so open a new stream.
default: 2 (seconds)

project

required string literal
The project name from which to pull logs.
Examples
"my-log-source-project"

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, as well as 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

retry_delay_seconds

optional float

Deprecated

This option has been deprecated, use retry_delay_secs instead.
The amount of time, in seconds, to wait between retry attempts after an error.

retry_delay_secs

optional float
The amount of time, in seconds, to wait between retry attempts after an error.
default: 1 (seconds)

subscription

required string literal
The subscription within the project which is configured to receive logs.
Examples
"my-vector-source-subscription"

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 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"

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

HTTPS_PROXY

common optional string literal

The global URL to proxy HTTPS requests through.

If another HTTPS proxy is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one will be overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
http://foo.bar:3128

HTTP_PROXY

common optional string literal

The global URL to proxy HTTP requests through.

If another HTTP proxy is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one will be overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
http://foo.bar:3128

NO_PROXY

common optional string literal

List of hosts to avoid proxying globally.

Allowed patterns here include:

PatternExample match
Domain namesexample.com matches requests to example.com
Wildcard domains.example.come 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

If another no_proxy value is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one is overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
localhost,.example.com,192.168.0.0./16
*

http_proxy

common optional string literal

The global URL to proxy HTTP requests through.

If another HTTP proxy is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one will be overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
http://foo.bar:3128

https_proxy

common optional string literal

The global URL to proxy HTTPS requests through.

If another HTTPS proxy is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one will be overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
http://foo.bar:3128

no_proxy

common optional string literal

List of hosts to avoid proxying globally.

Allowed patterns here include:

PatternExample match
Domain namesexample.com matches requests to example.com
Wildcard domains.example.come 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

If another no_proxy value is set in the configuration file or at a component level, this one is overridden.

The lowercase variant has priority over the uppercase one.

Examples
localhost,.example.com,192.168.0.0./16
*

Outputs

<component_id>

Default output stream of the component. Use this component’s ID as an input to downstream transforms and sinks.

Output Data

Logs

Warning

The fields shown below will be different if log namespacing is enabled. See Log Namespacing for more details

Record

An individual Pub/Sub record
Fields
attributes required object
Attributes that were published with the Pub/Sub record.
Examples
{
  "key": "value"
}
message required string literal
The message from the Pub/Sub record, parsed from the raw data.
Examples
53.126.150.246 - - [01/Oct/2020:11:25:58 -0400] "GET /disintermediate HTTP/2.0" 401 20308
message_id required string literal
The ID of this message, assigned by the server when the message is published. Guaranteed to be unique within the topic.
Examples
2345
source_type required string literal
The name of the source type.
Examples
gcp_pubsub
timestamp required timestamp
The time this message was published in the topic.
Examples
2020-10-10T17:07:36.452332Z

Telemetry

Metrics

link

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_bytes_total

counter
The number of raw bytes accepted by this component from source 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_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_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.

source_lag_time_seconds

histogram
The difference between the timestamp recorded in each event and the time when it was ingested, expressed as fractional 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

Automatic Concurrency Management

The `gcp_pubsub` source automatically manages the number of concurrent active streams by
monitoring the traffic flowing over the streams.
When a stream receives full responses (as determined by the `full_response_size` setting),
it marks itself as being "busy".
Periodically, the source will poll all the active connections and will start a new stream
if all the active streams are marked as busy and fewer than `max_concurrency` streams are
active.
Conversely, when a stream passes an idle interval (configured by the
`idle_timeout_seconds` setting) with no traffic and no outstanding acknowledgements,
it will drop the connection unless there are no other streams active.
This combination of actions allows this source to respond dynamically to high load levels
without opening up extra connections at startup.

Context

By default, the gcp_pubsub source augments events with helpful context keys.

GCP Pub/Sub

The gcp_pubsub source streams messages from GCP Pub/Sub. This is a highly scalable / durable queueing system with at-least-once queuing semantics. Messages are received in a stream and are either acknowledged immediately after receiving or after it has been fully processed by the sink(s), depending on if any of the sink(s) have the acknowledgements setting enabled.

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.