Fireboard and Google Cloud Monitoring Integration

Input and output integration overview

The Fireboard plugin enables users to gather real-time temperature readings from Fireboard thermometers using the Fireboard REST API.

The Stackdriver plugin allows users to send metrics directly to a specified project in Google Cloud Monitoring, facilitating robust monitoring capabilities across their cloud resources.

Integration details

Fireboard

This plugin gathers real-time temperature data from Fireboard thermometers. Fireboard is a smart thermometer system that utilizes a REST API to provide user access to temperature monitoring. This plugin allows users to retrieve temperature readings efficiently, utilizing the provided authentication token. It can be configured with an optional server URL and custom HTTP timeout settings, providing flexibility depending on the user’s network conditions or potential changes to the Fireboard API. The metrics captured are essential for monitoring environments that require precise temperature control, thereby aiding in applications such as cooking, brewing, or any scenario where temperature variations are critical.

Google Cloud Monitoring

This plugin writes metrics to a project in Google Cloud Monitoring, which used to be known as Stackdriver. Authentication is a prerequisite and can be achieved via service accounts or user credentials. The plugin is designed to group metrics by a namespace variable and metric key, facilitating organized data management. However, users are encouraged to use the official naming format for enhanced query efficiency. The plugin supports additional configurations for managing metric representation and allows tags to be treated as resource labels. Notably, it imposes certain restrictions on the data it can accept, such as not allowing string values or points that are out of chronological order.

Configuration

Fireboard

[[inputs.fireboard]]
  ## Specify auth token for your account
  auth_token = "invalidAuthToken"
  ## You can override the fireboard server URL if necessary
  # url = https://fireboard.io/api/v1/devices.json
  ## You can set a different http_timeout if you need to
  ## You should set a string using an number and time indicator
  ## for example "12s" for 12 seconds.
  # http_timeout = "4s"

Google Cloud Monitoring

[[outputs.stackdriver]]
  ## GCP Project
  project = "project-id"

  ## Quota Project
  ## Specifies the Google Cloud project that should be billed for metric ingestion.
  ## If omitted, the quota is charged to the service account’s default project.
  ## This is useful when sending metrics to multiple projects using a single service account.
  ## The caller must have the `serviceusage.services.use` permission on the specified project.
  # quota_project = ""

  ## The namespace for the metric descriptor
  ## This is optional and users are encouraged to set the namespace as a
  ## resource label instead. If omitted it is not included in the metric name.
  namespace = "telegraf"

  ## Metric Type Prefix
  ## The DNS name used with the metric type as a prefix.
  # metric_type_prefix = "custom.googleapis.com"

  ## Metric Name Format
  ## Specifies the layout of the metric name, choose from:
  ##  * path: 'metric_type_prefix_namespace_name_key'
  ##  * official: 'metric_type_prefix/namespace_name_key/kind'
  # metric_name_format = "path"

  ## Metric Data Type
  ## By default, telegraf will use whatever type the metric comes in as.
  ## However, for some use cases, forcing int64, may be preferred for values:
  ##   * source: use whatever was passed in
  ##   * double: preferred datatype to allow queries by PromQL.
  # metric_data_type = "source"

  ## Tags as resource labels
  ## Tags defined in this option, when they exist, are added as a resource
  ## label and not included as a metric label. The values from tags override
  ## the values defined under the resource_labels config options.
  # tags_as_resource_label = []

  ## Custom resource type
  # resource_type = "generic_node"

  ## Override metric type by metric name
  ## Metric names matching the values here, globbing supported, will have the
  ## metric type set to the corresponding type.
  # metric_counter = []
  # metric_gauge = []
  # metric_histogram = []

  ## NOTE: Due to the way TOML is parsed, tables must be at the END of the
  ## plugin definition, otherwise additional config options are read as part of
  ## the table

  ## Additional resource labels
  # [outputs.stackdriver.resource_labels]
  #   node_id = "$HOSTNAME"
  #   namespace = "myapp"
  #   location = "eu-north0"

Input and output integration examples

Fireboard

1. Smart Cooking Assistant: Integrate the Fireboard plugin into a smart kitchen ecosystem to monitor and adjust cooking temperatures in real-time. This setup can leverage the temperature data to automate processes like turning on or off heating elements based on the current cooking stage, ensuring optimal results.

2. Remote Brewing Monitoring: Use this plugin as part of a remote brewing setup for beer production. Brewers can monitor temperatures from multiple fireboards placed in different tanks and receive alerts when temperatures deviate from desired ranges, allowing for timely interventions.

3. Environmental Monitoring System: Incorporate this plugin into a broader environmental monitoring system that tracks temperature changes in various settings, from server rooms to greenhouses. This data can help maintain optimal conditions and can even be tied to automated cooling or heating systems for efficient climate control.

4. Automated Alerting for Temperature Sensitive Products: Employ the Fireboard plugin to monitor temperatures of products requiring specific storage conditions, such as pharmaceuticals or perishables. When temperature thresholds are breached, automated alerts could be sent to management systems to initiate corrective actions, thereby preventing spoilage.

Google Cloud Monitoring

1. Multi-Project Metric Aggregation: Use this plugin to send aggregated metrics from various applications across different projects into a single Google Cloud Monitoring project. This use case helps centralize metrics for teams managing multiple applications, providing a unified view for performance monitoring and enhancing decision-making. By configuring different quota projects for billing, organizations can ensure proper cost management while benefiting from a consolidated monitoring strategy.

2. Anomaly Detection Setup: Integrate the plugin with a machine learning-based analytics tool that identifies anomalies in the collected metrics. Using the historical data provided by the plugin, the tool can learn normal baseline behavior and promptly alert the operations team when unusual patterns arise, enabling proactive troubleshooting and minimizing service disruptions.

3. Dynamic Resource Labeling: Implement dynamic tagging by utilizing the tags_as_resource_label option to adaptively attach resource labels based on runtime conditions. This setup allows metrics to provide context-sensitive information, such as varying environmental parameters or operational states, enhancing the granularity of monitoring and reporting without changing the fundamental metric structure.

4. Custom Metric Visualization Dashboards: Leverage the data collected by the Google Cloud Monitoring output plugin to feed a custom metrics visualization dashboard using a third-party framework. By visualizing metrics in real-time, teams can achieve better situational awareness, notably by correlating different metrics, improving operational decision-making, and streamlining performance management workflows.

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