Vector Sink

The Vector vector sink sends data to another downstream Vector instance via the Vector source.

Requirements

• Vector >= 0.11.0 is required.

Configuration

• Common
• Advanced

• vector.toml
• vector.yaml
• vector.json

[sinks.my_sink_id]
  # General
  type = "vector" # required
  inputs = ["my-source-or-transform-id"] # required
  address = "92.12.333.224:5000" # required

  # Encoding

  # Healthcheck
  healthcheck.enabled = true # optional, default

6 items

commonrequired

• commonrequiredstring

  address

  The downstream Vector address to connect to. The address must include a port.

  • View examples
• optionaltable

  buffer

  Configures the sink specific buffer behavior.

  • commonoptionaluint

    max_events

    The maximum number of events allowed in the buffer.

    • Only relevant when: type = "memory"
    • Default: 500 (events)
  • commonrequired*uint

    max_size

    The maximum size of the buffer on the disk.

    • Only required when: type = "disk"
    • View examples
  • enumcommonoptionalstring

    type

    The buffer's type and storage mechanism.

    • Default: "memory"
    • Enum, must be one of: "memory" "disk"
    • View examples
  • enumoptionalstring

    when_full

    The behavior when the buffer becomes full.

    • Default: "block"
    • Enum, must be one of: "block" "drop_newest"
    • View examples
• commonrequiredtable

  encoding

  Configures the encoding specific sink behavior.

  • optional[string]

    except_fields

    Prevent the sink from encoding the specified labels.

    • View examples
  • optional[string]

    only_fields

    Prevent the sink from encoding the specified labels.

    • View examples
  • enumoptionalstring

    timestamp_format

    How to format event timestamps.

    • Default: "rfc3339"
    • Enum, must be one of: "rfc3339" "unix"
    • View examples
• commonoptionaltable

  healthcheck

  Health check options for the sink. See Health checks for more info.

  • commonoptionalbool

    enabled

    Enables/disables the healthcheck upon Vector boot.

    • Default: true
    • View examples
• optionaltable

  keepalive

  Configures the TCP keepalive behavior for the connection to the sink.

  • optionaluint

    time_secs

    The time a connection needs to be idle before sending TCP keepalive probes.
• optionaltable

  tls

  Configures the TLS options for incoming connections.

  • optionalstring

    ca_file

    Absolute path to an additional CA certificate file, in DER or PEM format (X.509), or an inline CA certificate in PEM format.

    • View examples
  • commonoptionalstring

    crt_file

    Absolute path to a certificate file used to identify this connection, in DER or PEM format (X.509) or PKCS#12, or an inline certificate in PEM format. If this is set and is not a PKCS#12 archive, key_file must also be set.

    • View examples
  • commonoptionalbool

    enabled

    Enable TLS during connections to the remote.

    • Default: false
    • View examples
  • commonoptionalstring

    key_file

    Absolute path to a private key file used to identify this connection, in DER or PEM format (PKCS#8), or an inline private key in PEM format. If this is set, crt_file must also be set.

    • View examples
  • optionalstring

    key_pass

    Pass phrase used to unlock the encrypted key file. This has no effect unless key_file is set.

    • View examples
  • optionalbool

    verify_certificate

    If true (the default), Vector will validate the TLS certificate of the remote host.

    • Default: true
    • View examples
  • optionalbool

    verify_hostname

    If true (the default), Vector will validate the configured remote host name against the remote host's TLS certificate. Do NOT set this to false unless you understand the risks of not verifying the remote hostname.

    • Default: true
    • View examples

Telemetry

This component provides the following metrics that can be retrieved through the internal_metrics source. See the metrics section in the monitoring page for more info.

• counter

  protobuf_decode_errors_total

  The total number of Protocol Buffers errors thrown during communication between Vector instances. This metric includes the following tags:

  • component_kind - The Vector component kind.

  • component_name - The Vector component ID.

  • component_type - The Vector component type.

  • instance - The Vector instance identified by host and port.

  • job - The name of the job producing Vector metrics.

• counter

  processed_events_total

  The total number of events processed by this component. This metric includes the following tags:

  • component_kind - The Vector component kind.

  • component_name - The Vector component ID.

  • component_type - The Vector component type.

  • file - The file that produced the error

  • instance - The Vector instance identified by host and port.

  • job - The name of the job producing Vector metrics.

• counter

  processed_bytes_total

  The total number of bytes processed by the component. This metric includes the following tags:

  • component_kind - The Vector component kind.

  • component_name - The Vector component ID.

  • component_type - The Vector component type.

  • instance - The Vector instance identified by host and port.

  • job - The name of the job producing Vector metrics.

How It Works

Communication Protocol

Upstream Vector instances forward data to downstream Vector instances via the TCP protocol.

Context

By default, the vector source will augment events with helpful context keys as shown in the "Output" section.

Encoding

Data is encoded via Vector's event protobuf before it is sent over the wire.

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.toml --require-healthy

Disable health checks

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

Message Acknowledgement

Currently, Vector does not perform any application level message acknowledgement. While rare, this means the individual message could be lost.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Vector uses Openssl for TLS protocols for it's maturity. You can enable and adjust TLS behavior via the tls.* options.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Vector uses Openssl for TLS protocols. You can adjust TLS behavior via the tls.* options.