InfiniBand and Thanos Integration

Input and output integration overview

The InfiniBand Telegraf plugin collects performance metrics from all InfiniBand devices installed on a Linux system, providing essential insights for monitoring network performance and reliability.

This plugin sends metrics from Telegraf to Thanos using the Prometheus remote write protocol over HTTP, allowing efficient and scalable ingestion into Thanos Receive components.

Integration details

InfiniBand

This plugin gathers statistics for all InfiniBand devices and ports on the system. InfiniBand is a high-speed networking technology commonly used in high-performance computing and enterprise data centers. The plugin retrieves various performance counters from the system’s InfiniBand devices located in /sys/class/infiniband/<dev>/port/<port>/counters/. The metrics depend on the specific InfiniBand hardware and include various packet and error statistics that are essential for monitoring network health and performance. By utilizing this plugin, users can gain insights into the operational status of their InfiniBand networks, helping to identify potential issues and optimize performance.

Thanos

Telegraf’s HTTP plugin can send metrics directly to Thanos via its Remote Write-compatible Receive component. By setting the data format to prometheusremotewrite, Telegraf can serialize metrics into the same protobuf-based format used by native Prometheus clients. This setup enables high-throughput, low-latency metric ingestion into Thanos, facilitating centralized observability at scale. It is particularly useful in hybrid environments where Telegraf is collecting metrics from systems outside Prometheus’ native reach, such as SNMP devices, Windows hosts, or custom apps, and streams them directly to Thanos for long-term storage and global querying.

Configuration

InfiniBand

# Gets counters from all InfiniBand cards and ports installed
# This plugin ONLY supports Linux
[[inputs.infiniband]]
  # no configuration

  ## Collect RDMA counters
  # gather_rdma = false

Thanos

[[outputs.http]]
  ## Thanos Receive endpoint for remote write
  url = "http://thanos-receive.example.com/api/v1/receive"

  ## HTTP method
  method = "POST"

  ## Data format set to Prometheus remote write
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"

  ## Optional headers (authorization, etc.)
  # [outputs.http.headers]
  #   Authorization = "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

  ## Optional TLS configuration
  # tls_ca = "/path/to/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/path/to/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/path/to/key.pem"
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

  ## Request timeout
  timeout = "10s"

Input and output integration examples

InfiniBand

1. Performance Monitoring in High-Performance Computing (HPC): Monitor the performance metrics of InfiniBand interconnects in a high-performance computing cluster. By analyzing metrics such as packet errors and throughput, system administrators can ensure optimal operation and quickly identify any performance degradation. This setup enhances the reliability of computational tasks by allowing timely interventions based on accurate monitoring data.

2. Network Health Audits: Perform routine health checks of InfiniBand networks. The detailed metrics gathered, such as excessive buffer overruns and link integrity errors, provide valuable insights for network audits. By establishing baseline performance and watching for anomalies, IT professionals can ensure the stability and performance of critical infrastructures.

3. Integration with Alerting Systems: Set up the InfiniBand plugin to work in conjunction with alerting systems to trigger notifications based on performance thresholds. For instance, if the number of link errors exceeds a predefined limit, an alert can be sent to the network operations team. This proactive approach ensures that potential issues are addressed before they impact business operations.

4. Data Visualization Dashboards: Feed InfiniBand metrics to a visualization tool to create dashboards that display the real-time performance of the network. This can help stakeholders visualize critical data such as packet transmission rates and errors, facilitating better decision-making regarding network management and capacity planning.

Thanos

1. Agentless Cloud Monitoring: Deploy Telegraf agents across cloud VMs to collect system and application metrics, then stream them directly into Thanos using Remote Write. This provides centralized observability without requiring Prometheus nodes at each location.

2. Scalable Windows Host Monitoring: Use Telegraf on Windows machines to collect OS-level metrics and send them via Remote Write to Thanos Receive. This enables observability across heterogeneous environments with native Prometheus support only on Linux.

3. Cross-Region Metrics Federation: Telegraf agents in multiple geographic regions can push data to region-local Thanos Receivers using this plugin. From there, Thanos can deduplicate and query metrics globally, reducing latency and network egress costs.

4. Integrating Third-Party Data into Thanos: Collect metrics from custom telemetry sources such as REST APIs or proprietary logs using Telegraf inputs and forward them to Thanos via Remote Write. This brings non-native data into a Prometheus-compatible, long-term analytics pipeline.

Feedback

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