The best practice is to establish a dedicated, direct channel for Microsoft SQL Server events from the sqlserver receiver to an OpenTelemetry Collector running in gateway mode. The receiver sends these events as logs to a unique OTLP HTTP endpoint on the gateway. The gateway, in turn, has a dedicated receiver configured to listen exclusively on this endpoint, ensuring it directs these events to the Database Monitoring pipeline (dbmon).

This approach provides a clear separation of concerns, making the Database Monitoring data flow transparent and robust.

This approach has several benefits:

• Efficiency: A dedicated port and receiver allow the gateway to immediately process Database Monitoring events.

• Clarity: The data flow is explicit. Receivers send Database Monitoring events to a specific port, and the gateway expects only that data there, simplifying configuration and troubleshooting.

• Isolation: Critical Database Monitoring data is isolated to its own channel.

Sample configurations:

sqlserver receiver running in an agent mode collector

The agent is responsible for collecting database metrics and events, and then exporting them directly to a dedicated endpoint on the gateway.

receivers:
  sqlserver:
    collection_interval: 10s
    username: sa
    password: secure-password
    server: mssql-server.mssqltest.svc.cluster.local
    port: 1433
    resource_attributes:
      sqlserver.computer.name:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.instance.name:
        enabled: true
    events:
      db.server.query_sample:
        enabled: true
      db.server.top_query:
        enabled: true
    top_query_collection:
      lookback_time: 120s

exporters:
  otlphttp/dbmon:
    endpoint: "http://${SPLUNK_GATEWAY_URL}:7276" # Direct endpoint to gateway's dedicated dbmon receiver
    sending_queue:
      batch:
        flush_timeout: 15s
        max_size: 10485760 # 10 MiB
        sizer: bytes

service:
  pipelines:
    logs/dbmon:
      receivers: [sqlserver]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/dbmon]

Agent mode collector sending to gateway mode collector

The gateway is configured to receive Database Monitoring events as logs on a specific, dedicated OTLP HTTP endpoint.

receivers:
  otlp/dbmon:
    protocols:
      http:
        endpoint: "${SPLUNK_LISTEN_INTERFACE}:7276" # Dedicated port for dbmon events

exporters:
  otlphttp/dbmon:
    headers:
      X-SF-Token: "${SPLUNK_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
      X-splunk-instrumentation-library: dbmon
    logs_endpoint: "${SPLUNK_INGEST_URL}/v3/event" # Final destination for dbmon events
    sending_queue:
      batch:
        flush_timeout: 15s
        max_size: 10485760 # 10 MiB
        sizer: bytes

service:
  pipelines:
    logs/dbmon:
      receivers: [otlp/dbmon]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/dbmon]