docker-collectd

Description

collectd is a daemon which collects system performance statistics periodically and provides mechanisms to store the values in a variety of ways, for example in RRD files.

This image allows you to run collectd in a completely containerized environment, but while retaining the ability to report statistics about the host the collectd container is running on.

The SignalFx collectd Docker plugin is also included, and will report metrics about your containers.

Image Options

How to use this image

Run collectd with the default configuration with the following command:

docker run --privileged \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com"
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

If you don't want to report Docker metrics from the SignalFx Docker collectd plugin, then you can leave out the argument that mounts the Docker socket -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock.

docker run --privileged \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

If you just want to look around inside the image, you can run bash. Then you can run /opt/setup/run.sh yourself to configure the bind mount and start collectd.

docker run -ti --privileged \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd bash

If you don't want to pass your API token through a command-line argument, you can put SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN into a file (that you can chmod 600) and use the --env-file command-line argument:

docker run --privileged --env-file=token.env \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

If you want to apply custom dimensions and values to all metrics, you set the environment variable DIMENSIONS to a string of space separated Key/Value pairs defined KEY=VALUE.

docker run --privileged --env-file=token.env \
  --net="host" \
  -e DIMENSIONS="hello=world foo=bar" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

On CoreOS because /etc/*-release are symlinks you want to mount /usr/share/coreos in place of /etc.

docker run --privileged \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

If you're using the dogstatsd listener in the SignalFx plugin. You will need to expose the container port and specify the port with an environment variable.

docker run --privileged \
  --net="host" \
  -e "SF_API_TOKEN=ORG_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -e "SF_INGEST_HOST=ingest.YOUR_SIGNALFX_REALM.signalfx.com" \
  -e DOG_STATSD_PORT=8126 \
  -p 8126:8126 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /:/hostfs:ro \
  quay.io/signalfuse/collectd

FAQ

Do I need to run the container as privileged?

Yes. Collectd needs access to the parent host's /proc filesystem to get statistics. It's possible to run collectd without passing the parent host's /proc filesystem without running the container as privileged, but the metrics would not be accurate.

Do I need to provide the network flag?

Yes. Setting the --net option to "host" allows the container to see the host's networking stack and provide accurate information.

Do I need to mount the host's / to /hostfs?

This is a requirement for the collectd to accurately report information about the underlying host.

Do I need to provide a host name?

You may set FQDN_LOOKUP to true to enable collectd to perform an FQDN look up, but this may not work in all circumstances. If a lookup fails the container will exit and log a message indicating that fqdn lookup failed. You may optionally set the environment variable using the runtime option -e "COLLECTD_HOSTNAME=<hostname>" where <hostname> is a valid host name string. You may also set the environment variable in an optional environment file. If a host name is not specified /hostfs/etc/hostname name will be used. The container will exit with an error if FQDN_LOOKUP is not true, COLLECTD_HOSTNAME is not set, and hostname can't be found under /hostfs/etc/hostname.

Can I configure anything?

Yes! You are required to set the SF_API_TOKEN, but you also can set the following:

Extending

Click this link to read about Extending SignalFx Docker collectd image