Update the exporting documentation (#9066)

1 files changed, 260 insertions, 30 deletions

diff --git a/exporting/README.md b/exporting/README.md
index bc4003aa69..b37387277f 100644
--- a/exporting/README.md
+++ b/exporting/README.md
@@ -4,48 +4,278 @@ description: "With the exporting engine, you can archive your Netdata metrics to
 custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/exporting/README.md
 -->
 
-# Exporting metrics to external databases (experimental)
+# Exporting metrics to external databases
 
-The exporting engine is an update for the former [backends](/backends/README.md). It's still work in progress. It has a
-modular structure and supports metric exporting via multiple exporting connector instances at the same time. You can
-have different update intervals and filters configured for every exporting connector instance. The exporting engine has
-its own configuration file `exporting.conf`. Configuration is almost similar to [backends](/backends/README.md#configuration).
-The only difference is that the type of a connector should be specified in a section name before a colon and a name after
-the colon. At the moment only four types of connectors are supported: `graphite`, `json`, `opentsdb`, `opentsdb:http`.
+The exporting engine is an update for the former [backends](/backends/README.md) which is deprecated and will be deleted
+soon. It has a modular structure and supports metric exporting via multiple exporting connector instances at the same
+time. You can have different update intervals and filters configured for every exporting connector instance. The
+exporting engine has its own configuration file `exporting.conf`. Configuration is almost similar to
+[backends](/backends/README.md#configuration). The most important difference is that type of a connector should be
+specified in a section name before a colon and an instance name after the colon. Also, you can't use `host tags`
+anymore. Set your labels using the [`[host labels]`](/docs/tutorials/using-host-labels.md) section in `netdata.conf`.
+
+# Metrics long term archiving
+
+Netdata supports external databases and services for archiving the metrics, or providing long term dashboards, using
+Grafana or other tools, like this:
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20649711/29f182ba-b4ce-11e6-97c8-ab2c0ab59833.png)
+
+Since Netdata collects thousands of metrics per server per second, which would easily congest any database server when
+several Netdata servers are sending data to it, Netdata allows sending metrics at a lower frequency, by resampling them.
+
+So, although Netdata collects metrics every second, it can send to the external database servers averages or sums every
+X seconds (though, it can send them per second if you need it to).
+
+## features
+
+1.  Supported databases and services
+
+    -   **graphite** (`plaintext interface`, used by **Graphite**, **InfluxDB**, **KairosDB**, **Blueflood**,
+        **ElasticSearch** via logstash tcp input and the graphite codec, etc)
+
+        metrics are sent to the database server as `prefix.hostname.chart.dimension`. `prefix` is configured below,
+        `hostname` is the hostname of the machine (can also be configured).
+
+    -   **opentsdb** (`telnet or HTTP interfaces`, used by **OpenTSDB**, **InfluxDB**, **KairosDB**, etc)
+
+        metrics are sent to OpenTSDB as `prefix.chart.dimension` with tag `host=hostname`.
+
+    -   **json** document DBs
+
+        metrics are sent to a document DB, `JSON` formatted.
+
+    -   **prometheus** is described at [prometheus page](/exporting/prometheus/README.md) since it pulls data from
+        Netdata.
+
+    -   **prometheus remote write** (a binary snappy-compressed protocol buffer encoding over HTTP used by
+        **Elasticsearch**, **Gnocchi**, **Graphite**, **InfluxDB**, **Kafka**, **OpenTSDB**, **PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB**,
+        **Splunk**, **VictoriaMetrics**, and a lot of other [storage
+        providers](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage))
+
+        metrics are labeled in the format, which is used by Netdata for the [plaintext prometheus
+        protocol](/exporting/prometheus/README.md). Notes on using the remote write connector are
+        [here](/exporting/prometheus/remote_write/README.md).
+
+    -   **TimescaleDB** via [community-built connector](/exporting/TIMESCALE.md) that takes JSON streams from a Netdata
+        client and writes them to a TimescaleDB table.
+
+    -   **AWS Kinesis Data Streams**
+
+        metrics are sent to the service in `JSON` format.
+
+    -   **Google Cloud Pub/Sub Service**
+
+        metrics are sent to the service in `JSON` format.
+
+    -   **MongoDB**
+
+        metrics are sent to the database in `JSON` format.
+
+2.  Netdata can filter metrics (at the chart level), to send only a subset of the collected metrics.
+
+3.  Netdata supports three modes of operation for all exporting connectors:
+
+    -   `as-collected` sends to external databases the metrics as they are collected, in the units they are collected.
+        So, counters are sent as counters and gauges are sent as gauges, much like all data collectors do. For example,
+        to calculate CPU utilization in this format, you need to know how to convert kernel ticks to percentage.
+
+    -   `average` sends to external databases normalized metrics from the Netdata database. In this mode, all metrics
+        are sent as gauges, in the units Netdata uses. This abstracts data collection and simplifies visualization, but
+        you will not be able to copy and paste queries from other sources to convert units. For example, CPU utilization
+        percentage is calculated by Netdata, so Netdata will convert ticks to percentage and send the average percentage
+        to the external database.
+
+    -   `sum` or `volume`: the sum of the interpolated values shown on the Netdata graphs is sent to the external
+        database. So, if Netdata is configured to send data to the database every 10 seconds, the sum of the 10 values
+        shown on the Netdata charts will be used.
+
+    Time-series databases suggest to collect the raw values (`as-collected`). If you plan to invest on building your
+    monitoring around a time-series database and you already know (or you will invest in learning) how to convert units
+    and normalize the metrics in Grafana or other visualization tools, we suggest to use `as-collected`.
+
+    If, on the other hand, you just need long term archiving of Netdata metrics and you plan to mainly work with
+    Netdata, we suggest to use `average`. It decouples visualization from data collection, so it will generally be a lot
+    simpler. Furthermore, if you use `average`, the charts shown in the external service will match exactly what you
+    see in Netdata, which is not necessarily true for the other modes of operation.
+
+4.  This code is smart enough, not to slow down Netdata, independently of the speed of the external database server. You
+    should keep in mind though that many exporting connector instances can consume a lot of CPU resources if they run
+    their batches at the same time. You can set different update intervals for every exporting connector instance, but
+    even in that case they can occasionally synchronize their batches for a moment.
+
+## configuration
+
+In `/etc/netdata/exporting.conf` you should have something like this:
 
-An example configuration:
 ```conf
 [exporting:global]
-enabled = yes
+    enabled = yes
+    send configured labels = no
+    send automatic labels = no
+    update every = 10
+
+[prometheus:exporter]
+    send charts matching = system.processes
 
-[graphite:my_instance1]
-enabled = yes
-destination = localhost:2003
-data source = sum
-update every = 5
-send charts matching = system.load
+[graphite:my_instance_1]
+    enabled = yes
+    destination = localhost:2003
+    data source = average
+    prefix = Netdata
+    hostname = my-name
+    update every = 10
+    buffer on failures = 10
+    timeout ms = 20000
+    send charts matching = *
+    send hosts matching = localhost *
+    send names instead of ids = yes
 
 [json:my_instance2]
-enabled = yes
-destination = localhost:5448
-data source = as collected
-update every = 2
-send charts matching = system.active_processes
+    enabled = yes
+    destination = localhost:5448
+    data source = as collected
+    update every = 2
+    send charts matching = system.active_processes
 
 [opentsdb:my_instance3]
-enabled = yes
-destination = localhost:4242
-data source = sum
-update every = 10
-send charts matching = system.cpu
+    enabled = yes
+    destination = localhost:4242
+    data source = sum
+    update every = 10
+    send charts matching = system.cpu
 
 [opentsdb:http:my_instance4]
-enabled = yes
-destination = localhost:4243
-data source = average
-update every = 3
-send charts matching = system.active_processes
+    enabled = yes
+    destination = localhost:4243
+    data source = average
+    update every = 3
+    send charts matching = system.active_processes
+```
+
+Sections:
+- `[exporting:global]` is a section where you can set your defaults for all exporting connectors
+- `[prometheus:exporter]` defines settings for Prometheus exporter API queries (e.g.:
+  `http://your.netdata.ip:19999/api/v1/allmetrics?format=prometheus&help=yes&source=as-collected`).
+- `[<type>:<name>]` keeps settings for a particular exporting connector instance, where:
+  - `type` selects the exporting connector type: graphite | opentsdb:telnet | opentsdb:http | opentsdb:https |
+    prometheus_remote_write | json | kinesis | pubsub | mongodb
+  - `name` can be arbitrary instance name you chose.
+
+Options:
+-   `enabled = yes | no`, enables or disables an exporting connector instance
+
+-   `destination = host1 host2 host3 ...`, accepts **a space separated list** of hostnames, IPs (IPv4 and IPv6) and
+     ports to connect to. Netdata will use the **first available** to send the metrics.
 
+     The format of each item in this list, is: `[PROTOCOL:]IP[:PORT]`.
+
+     `PROTOCOL` can be `udp` or `tcp`. `tcp` is the default and only supported by the current exporting engine.
+
+     `IP` can be `XX.XX.XX.XX` (IPv4), or `[XX:XX...XX:XX]` (IPv6). For IPv6 you can to enclose the IP in `[]` to
+     separate it from the port.
+
+     `PORT` can be a number of a service name. If omitted, the default port for the exporting connector will be used
+     (graphite = 2003, opentsdb = 4242).
+
+     Example IPv4:
+
+```conf
+   destination = 10.11.14.2:4242 10.11.14.3:4242 10.11.14.4:4242
+```
+
+   Example IPv6 and IPv4 together:
+
+```conf
+   destination = [ffff:...:0001]:2003 10.11.12.1:2003
 ```
 
+   When multiple servers are defined, Netdata will try the next one when the previous one fails.
+
+   Netdata also ships `nc-exporting.sh`, a script that can be used as a fallback exporting connector to save the
+   metrics to disk and push them to the time-series database when it becomes available again. It can also be used to
+   monitor / trace / debug the metrics Netdata generates.
+
+   For the Kinesis exporting connector `destination` should be set to an AWS region (for example, `us-east-1`).
+
+   For the MongoDB exporting connector `destination` should be set to a
+   [MongoDB URI](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/connection-string/).
+
+   For the Pub/Sub exporting connector `destination` can be set to a specific service endpoint.
+
+-   `data source = as collected`, or `data source = average`, or `data source = sum`, selects the kind of data that will
+     be sent to the external database.
+
+-   `hostname = my-name`, is the hostname to be used for sending data to the external database server. By default this
+    is `[global].hostname`.
+
+-   `prefix = Netdata`, is the prefix to add to all metrics.
+
+-   `update every = 10`, is the number of seconds between sending data to the external datanase. Netdata will add some
+    randomness to this number, to prevent stressing the external server when many Netdata servers send data to the same
+    database. This randomness does not affect the quality of the data, only the time they are sent.
+
+-   `buffer on failures = 10`, is the number of iterations (each iteration is `update every` seconds) to buffer data,
+    when the external database server is not available. If the server fails to receive the data after that many
+    failures, data loss on the connector instance is expected (Netdata will also log it).
+
+-   `timeout ms = 20000`, is the timeout in milliseconds to wait for the external database server to process the data.
+    By default this is `2 * update_every * 1000`.
+
+-   `send hosts matching = localhost *` includes one or more space separated patterns, using `*` as wildcard (any number
+    of times within each pattern). The patterns are checked against the hostname (the localhost is always checked as
+    `localhost`), allowing us to filter which hosts will be sent to the external database when this Netdata is a central
+    Netdata aggregating multiple hosts. A pattern starting with `!` gives a negative match. So to match all hosts named
+    `*db*` except hosts containing `*slave*`, use `!*slave* *db*` (so, the order is important: the first pattern
+    matching the hostname will be used - positive or negative).
+
+-   `send charts matching = *` includes one or more space separated patterns, using `*` as wildcard (any number of times
+    within each pattern). The patterns are checked against both chart id and chart name. A pattern starting with `!`
+    gives a negative match. So to match all charts named `apps.*` except charts ending in `*reads`, use `!*reads
+    apps.*` (so, the order is important: the first pattern matching the chart id or the chart name will be used -
+    positive or negative).
+
+-   `send names instead of ids = yes | no` controls the metric names Netdata should send to the external database.
+    Netdata supports names and IDs for charts and dimensions. Usually IDs are unique identifiers as read by the system
+    and names are human friendly labels (also unique). Most charts and metrics have the same ID and name, but in several
+    cases they are different: disks with device-mapper, interrupts, QoS classes, statsd synthetic charts, etc.
+
+-   `send configured labels = yes | no` controls if labels defined in the `[host labels]` section in `netdata.conf`
+    should be sent to the external database
+
+-   `send automatic labels = yes | no` controls if automatially created labels, like `_os_name` or `_architecture`
+    should be sent to the external database
+
+> Starting from Netdata v1.20 the host tags (defined in the `[backend]` section of `netdata.conf`) are parsed in
+> accordance with a configured backend type and stored as host labels so that they can be reused in API responses and
+> exporting connectors. The parsing is supported for graphite, json, opentsdb, and prometheus (default) backend types.
+> You can check how the host tags were parsed using the /api/v1/info API call. But, keep in mind that backends subsystem
+> is deprecated and will be deleted soon. Please move your existing tags to the `[host labels]` section.
+
+## monitoring operation
+
+Netdata provides 5 charts:
+
+1.  **Buffered metrics**, the number of metrics Netdata added to the buffer for dispatching them to the
+    external database server.
+
+2.  **Exporting data size**, the amount of data (in KB) Netdata added the buffer.
+
+3.  **Exporting operations**, the number of operations performed by Netdata.
+
+4.  **Exporting thread CPU usage**, the CPU resources consumed by the Netdata thread, that is responsible for sending the
+    metrics to the external database server.
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20463536/eb196084-af3d-11e6-8ee5-ddbd3b4d8449.png)
+
+## alarms
+
+Netdata adds 3 alarms:
+
+1.  `exporting_last_buffering`, number of seconds since the last successful buffering of exported data
+2.  `exporting_metrics_sent`, percentage of metrics sent to the external database server
+3.  `exporting_metrics_lost`, number of metrics lost due to repeating failures to contact the external database server
+
+![image](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2662304/20463779/a46ed1c2-af43-11e6-91a5-07ca4533cac3.png)
+
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