SNMP and Azure Application Insights Integration

Input and output integration overview

The SNMP plugin allows you to collect a variety of metrics from SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) agents. It provides flexibility in how data is retrieved, whether collecting single metrics or entire tables.

This plugin writes Telegraf metrics to Azure Application Insights, enabling powerful monitoring and diagnostics.

Integration details

SNMP

This plugin uses polling to gather metrics from SNMP agents, supporting retrieval of individual OIDs and complete SNMP tables. It can be configured to handle multiple SNMP versions, authentication, and other features.

Azure Application Insights

The Azure Application Insights plugin integrates Telegraf with Azure’s Application Insights service, facilitating the seamless transmission of metrics from various sources to a centralized monitoring platform. This plugin empowers users to harness the capabilities of Azure Application Insights, a powerful application performance management tool, allowing developers and IT operations teams to gain valuable insights into the performance, availability, and usage of their applications. By employing this plugin, users can monitor application telemetry and operational data efficiently, contributing to better diagnostics and improved application performance.

Key features of this plugin include the ability to specify an instrumentation key for the Application Insights resource, configure the endpoint URL for tracking, and enable additional diagnostic logging for a more comprehensive analysis. Furthermore, the plugin provides context tagging capabilities, allowing the addition of specific Application Insights context tags to enhance the contextual information associated with metrics being sent. These features collectively make the Azure Application Insights Output Plugin a vital tool for organizations looking to optimize their monitoring capabilities within Azure.

Configuration

SNMP

[[inputs.snmp]]
  agents = ["udp://127.0.0.1:161"]

  [[inputs.snmp.field]]
    oid = "RFC1213-MIB::sysUpTime.0"
    name = "sysUptime"
    conversion = "float(2)"

  [[inputs.snmp.field]]
    oid = "RFC1213-MIB::sysName.0"
    name = "sysName"
    is_tag = true

  [[inputs.snmp.table]]
    oid = "IF-MIB::ifTable"
    name = "interface"
    inherit_tags = ["sysName"]

    [[inputs.snmp.table.field]]
      oid = "IF-MIB::ifDescr"
      name = "ifDescr"
      is_tag = true

Azure Application Insights

[[outputs.application_insights]]
  ## Instrumentation key of the Application Insights resource.
  instrumentation_key = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx"

  ## Regions that require endpoint modification https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/app/custom-endpoints
  # endpoint_url = "https://dc.services.visualstudio.com/v2/track"

  ## Timeout for closing (default: 5s).
  # timeout = "5s"

  ## Enable additional diagnostic logging.
  # enable_diagnostic_logging = false

  ## 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

  ## Context Tag Sources add Application Insights context tags to a tag value.
  ##
  ## For list of allowed context tag keys see:
  ## https://github.com/microsoft/ApplicationInsights-Go/blob/master/appinsights/contracts/contexttagkeys.go
  # [outputs.application_insights.context_tag_sources]
  #   "ai.cloud.role" = "kubernetes_container_name"
  #   "ai.cloud.roleInstance" = "kubernetes_pod_name"

Input and output integration examples

SNMP

1. Basic SNMP Configuration: Collect metrics from a local SNMP agent using typical SNMP community string settings. This setup is ideal for local monitoring of device performance.
2. Advanced SNMPv3 Setup: Securely collect metrics using SNMPv3 with authentication and encryption to enhance security. This configuration is recommended for production environments.
3. Collect Interface Metrics: Configure the plugin to collect interface metrics from the device’s SNMP table. Utilize fields to capture specific data points for traffic analysis.
4. Join Two SNMP Tables: By using translation fields, join data from two SNMP tables for a comprehensive view of correlated performance metrics.

Azure Application Insights

1. Application Performance Monitoring: Utilize the Azure Application Insights plugin to continuously monitor the performance of your web applications or microservices. By sending Telegraf metrics directly to Application Insights, teams can visualize real-time application performance data, enabling proactive tuning and optimization of application resources. This setup not only enhances the reliability of applications but also ensures user satisfaction through consistent performance monitoring.

2. Integrated Logging and Telemetry: Combine this plugin with centralized logging solutions to provide a comprehensive observability stack. By sending telecom data to Azure Application Insights, teams can correlate performance metrics with log data and gain deeper insights into application behavior, allowing for more efficient troubleshooting and root cause analysis.

3. Contextual Monitoring of Cloud Resources: Use the context tagging feature to enrich your application metrics with specific contextual information related to your cloud environment. This enhanced context can be invaluable for understanding the performance of cloud-native applications, enabling better scaling decisions and resource management based on real usage patterns.

4. Real-time Alerts Setup: Configure Application Insights to trigger alerts based on specific metrics received via this plugin. This allows teams to be notified of performance degradation or anomalies in real-time, enabling immediate action to mitigate issues and maintain high availability of applications.

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.