Docker and M3DB Integration

Input and output integration overview

The Docker input plugin allows you to collect metrics from your Docker containers using the Docker Engine API, facilitating enhanced visibility and monitoring of containerized applications.

This plugin allows Telegraf to stream metrics to M3DB using the Prometheus Remote Write protocol, enabling scalable ingestion through the M3 Coordinator.

Integration details

Docker

The Docker input plugin for Telegraf gathers valuable metrics from the Docker Engine API, providing insights into running containers. This plugin utilizes the Official Docker Client to interface with the Engine API, allowing users to monitor various container states, resource allocations, and performance metrics. With options for filtering containers by names and states, along with customizable tags and labels, this plugin supports flexibility in monitoring containerized applications in diverse environments, whether on local systems or within orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. Additionally, it addresses security considerations by requiring permissions for accessing Docker’s daemon and emphasizes proper configuration when deploying within containerized environments.

M3DB

This configuration uses Telegraf’s HTTP output plugin with prometheusremotewrite format to send metrics directly to M3DB through the M3 Coordinator. M3DB is a distributed time series database designed for scalable, high-throughput metric storage. It supports ingestion of Prometheus remote write data via its Coordinator component, which manages translation and routing into the M3DB cluster. This approach enables organizations to collect metrics from systems that aren’t natively instrumented for Prometheus (e.g., Windows, SNMP, legacy systems) and ingest them efficiently into M3’s long-term, high-performance storage engine. The setup is ideal for high-scale observability stacks with Prometheus compatibility requirements.

Configuration

Docker

[[inputs.docker]]
  ## Docker Endpoint
  ##   To use TCP, set endpoint = "tcp://[ip]:[port]"
  ##   To use environment variables (ie, docker-machine), set endpoint = "ENV"
  endpoint = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"

  ## Set to true to collect Swarm metrics(desired_replicas, running_replicas)
  ## Note: configure this in one of the manager nodes in a Swarm cluster.
  ## configuring in multiple Swarm managers results in duplication of metrics.
  gather_services = false

  ## Only collect metrics for these containers. Values will be appended to
  ## container_name_include.
  ## Deprecated (1.4.0), use container_name_include
  container_names = []

  ## Set the source tag for the metrics to the container ID hostname, eg first 12 chars
  source_tag = false

  ## Containers to include and exclude. Collect all if empty. Globs accepted.
  container_name_include = []
  container_name_exclude = []

  ## Container states to include and exclude. Globs accepted.
  ## When empty only containers in the "running" state will be captured.
  # container_state_include = []
  # container_state_exclude = []

  ## Objects to include for disk usage query
  ## Allowed values are "container", "image", "volume" 
  ## When empty disk usage is excluded
  storage_objects = []

  ## Timeout for docker list, info, and stats commands
  timeout = "5s"

  ## Whether to report for each container per-device blkio (8:0, 8:1...),
  ## network (eth0, eth1, ...) and cpu (cpu0, cpu1, ...) stats or not.
  ## Usage of this setting is discouraged since it will be deprecated in favor of 'perdevice_include'.
  ## Default value is 'true' for backwards compatibility, please set it to 'false' so that 'perdevice_include' setting
  ## is honored.
  perdevice = true

  ## Specifies for which classes a per-device metric should be issued
  ## Possible values are 'cpu' (cpu0, cpu1, ...), 'blkio' (8:0, 8:1, ...) and 'network' (eth0, eth1, ...)
  ## Please note that this setting has no effect if 'perdevice' is set to 'true'
  # perdevice_include = ["cpu"]

  ## Whether to report for each container total blkio and network stats or not.
  ## Usage of this setting is discouraged since it will be deprecated in favor of 'total_include'.
  ## Default value is 'false' for backwards compatibility, please set it to 'true' so that 'total_include' setting
  ## is honored.
  total = false

  ## Specifies for which classes a total metric should be issued. Total is an aggregated of the 'perdevice' values.
  ## Possible values are 'cpu', 'blkio' and 'network'
  ## Total 'cpu' is reported directly by Docker daemon, and 'network' and 'blkio' totals are aggregated by this plugin.
  ## Please note that this setting has no effect if 'total' is set to 'false'
  # total_include = ["cpu", "blkio", "network"]

  ## docker labels to include and exclude as tags.  Globs accepted.
  ## Note that an empty array for both will include all labels as tags
  docker_label_include = []
  docker_label_exclude = []

  ## Which environment variables should we use as a tag
  tag_env = ["JAVA_HOME", "HEAP_SIZE"]

  ## Optional TLS Config
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

M3DB

# Configuration for sending metrics to M3
[outputs.http]
  ## URL is the address to send metrics to
  url = "https://M3_HOST:M3_PORT/api/v1/prom/remote/write"

  ## HTTP Basic Auth credentials
  username = "admin"
  password = "password"

  ## Data format to output.
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"

  ## Outgoing HTTP headers
  [outputs.http.headers]
    Content-Type = "application/x-protobuf"
    Content-Encoding = "snappy"
    X-Prometheus-Remote-Write-Version = "0.1.0"

Input and output integration examples

Docker

1. Monitoring the Performance of Containerized Applications: Use the Docker input plugin in order to track the CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network activity of applications running in Docker containers. By collecting these metrics, DevOps teams can proactively manage resource allocation, troubleshoot performance bottlenecks, and ensure optimal application performance across different environments.

2. Integrating with Kubernetes: Leverage this plugin to gather metrics from Docker containers orchestrated by Kubernetes. By filtering out unnecessary Kubernetes labels and focusing on key metrics, teams can streamline their monitoring solutions and create dashboards that provide insights into the overall health of microservices running within the Kubernetes cluster.

3. Capacity Planning and Resource Optimization: Use the metrics collected by the Docker input plugin to perform capacity planning for Docker deployments. Analyzing usage patterns helps identify underutilized resources and over-provisioned containers, guiding decisions on scaling up or down based on actual usage trends.

4. Automated Alerting for Container Anomalies: Set up alerting rules based on the metrics collected through the Docker plugin to notify teams of unusual spikes in resource usage or service disruptions. This proactive monitoring approach helps maintain service reliability and optimize the performance of containerized applications.

M3DB

1. Large-Scale Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring: Deploy Telegraf agents across thousands of virtual machines and containers to collect metrics and stream them into M3DB through the M3 Coordinator. This provides reliable, long-term visibility with minimal storage overhead and high availability.

2. Legacy System Metrics Ingestion: Use Telegraf to gather metrics from older systems that lack native Prometheus exporters (e.g., Windows servers, SNMP devices) and forward them to M3DB via remote write. This bridges modern observability workflows with legacy infrastructure.

3. Centralized App Telemetry Aggregation: Collect application-specific telemetry using Telegraf’s plugin ecosystem (e.g., exec, http, jolokia) and push it into M3DB for centralized storage and query via PromQL. This enables unified analytics across diverse data sources.

4. Hybrid Cloud Observability: Install Telegraf agents on-prem and in the cloud to collect and remote-write metrics into a centralized M3DB cluster. This ensures consistent visibility across environments while avoiding the complexity of running Prometheus federation layers.

Feedback

Thank you for being part of our community! If you have any general feedback or found any bugs on these pages, we welcome and encourage your input. Please submit your feedback in the InfluxDB community Slack.