KNX and Parquet Integration

Input and output integration overview

The KNX plugin listens for messages from the KNX home-automation bus via a KNX-IP interface, allowing for real-time data integration from KNX-enabled devices.

This plugin writes metrics to parquet files, utilizing a schema based on the metrics grouped by name. It supports file rotation and buffered writing for optimal performance.

Integration details

KNX

The KNX plugin allows for the listening to messages transmitted over the KNX home-automation bus. It establishes a connection with the KNX bus through a KNX-IP interface, making it compatible with various message datapoint types that KNX employs. The plugin supports service input configuration, wherein it remains active to listen for relevant metrics or events rather than relying solely on scheduled intervals. This inherent characteristic enables real-time data capture from the KNX systems, enhancing automation and integration possibilities for building management and smart home applications. Additionally, this plugin is designed to handle multiple measurements from the KNX data, allowing for a flexible categorization of metrics based on the derived datapoint types, thus broadening the scope of data integration in smart environments.

Parquet

The Parquet output plugin for Telegraf writes metrics to parquet files, which are columnar storage formats optimized for analytics. By default, this plugin groups metrics by their name, writing them to a single file. If a metric’s schema does not align with existing schemas, those metrics are dropped. The plugin generates an Apache Arrow schema based on all grouped metrics, ensuring that the schema reflects the union of all fields and tags. It operates in a buffered manner, meaning it temporarily holds metrics in memory before writing them to disk for efficiency. Parquet files require proper closure to ensure readability, and this is crucial when using the plugin, as improper closure can lead to unreadable files. Additionally, the plugin supports file rotation after specific time intervals, preventing overwrites of existing files and schema conflicts when a file with the same name already exists.

Configuration

KNX

[[inputs.knx_listener]]
  ## Type of KNX-IP interface.
  ## Can be either "tunnel_udp", "tunnel_tcp", "tunnel" (alias for tunnel_udp) or "router".
  # service_type = "tunnel"

  ## Address of the KNX-IP interface.
  service_address = "localhost:3671"

  ## Measurement definition(s)
  # [[inputs.knx_listener.measurement]]
  #   ## Name of the measurement
  #   name = "temperature"
  #   ## Datapoint-Type (DPT) of the KNX messages
  #   dpt = "9.001"
  #   ## Use the string representation instead of the numerical value for the
  #   ## datapoint-type and the addresses below
  #   # as_string = false
  #   ## List of Group-Addresses (GAs) assigned to the measurement
  #   addresses = ["5/5/1"]

  # [[inputs.knx_listener.measurement]]
  #   name = "illumination"
  #   dpt = "9.004"
  #   addresses = ["5/5/3"]

Parquet

[[outputs.parquet]]
  ## Directory to write parquet files in. If a file already exists the output
  ## will attempt to continue using the existing file.
  # directory = "."
  
  ## Files are rotated after the time interval specified. When set to 0 no time
  ## based rotation is performed.
  # rotation_interval = "0h"
  
  ## Timestamp field name
  ## Field name to use to store the timestamp. If set to an empty string, then
  ## the timestamp is omitted.
  # timestamp_field_name = "timestamp"

Input and output integration examples

KNX

1. Smart Home Energy Monitoring: Utilize the KNX plugin to monitor energy consumption across various devices in a smart home setup. By configuring measurements for different appliances, users can gather real-time data on power usage, enabling them to optimize energy consumption and reduce costs. This setup can also integrate with visualization tools to provide insights into energy trends and usage patterns.

2. Automated Lighting Control System: Leverage this plugin to listen for lighting status updates from KNX sensors in a building. By capturing measurements related to illumination, users can develop an automated lighting control system that adjusts the brightness based on the time of day or occupancy, enhancing comfort and energy efficiency.

3. HVAC Performance Tracking: Implement the KNX plugin to track temperature and ventilation data across different zones in a building. By monitoring these metrics, facilities managers can identify trends in HVAC performance, optimize climate control strategies, and proactively address maintenance needs to ensure consistent environmental quality.

4. Integrated Security Solutions: Use the plugin to capture data from KNX security sensors, such as door/window open/close statuses. This information can be routed into a central monitoring system, providing real-time alerts and enabling automated responses, such as locking doors or activating alarms, thus enhancing the building’s security posture.

Parquet

1. Data Lake Ingestion: Utilize the Parquet plugin to store metrics from various sources into a data lake. By writing metrics in parquet format, you establish a standardized and efficient way to manage time-series data, enabling faster querying capabilities and seamless integration with analytics tools like Apache Spark or AWS Athena. This setup can significantly improve data retrieval times and analysis workflows.

2. Long-term Storage of Metrics: Implement the Parquet plugin in a monitoring setup where metrics are collected over time from multiple applications. This allows for long-term storage of performance data in a compact format, making it cost-effective to store vast amounts of historical data while preserving the ability for quick retrieval and analysis later on. By archiving metrics in parquet files, organizations can maintain compliance and create detailed reports from historical performance trends.

3. Analytics and Reporting: After writing metrics to parquet files, leverage tools like Apache Arrow or PyArrow to perform complex analytical queries directly on the files without needing to load all the data into memory. This can enhance reporting capabilities, allowing teams to generate insights and visualization from large datasets efficiently, thereby improving decision-making processes based on accurate, up-to-date performance metrics.

4. Integrating with Data Warehouses: Use the Parquet plugin as part of a data integration pipeline that feeds into a modern data warehouse. By converting metrics to parquet format, the data can be easily ingested by systems like Snowflake or Google BigQuery, enabling powerful analytics and business intelligence capabilities that drive actionable insights from the collected metrics.

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