PostgreSQL receiver

The PostgreSQL receiver allows the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector to collect metrics from PostgreSQL through its statistics collector.

The PostgreSQL receiver allows the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector to collect metrics from PostgreSQL using the PostgreSQL statistics collector. The supported pipeline type is metrics. See Process your data with pipelines for more information.

Note: Use the PostgreSQL receiver in place of the SignalFx Smart Agent postgresql monitor type.

Requirements

This receiver supports PostgreSQL version 9.6 and higher.

To let the receiver collect data, grant the monitoring user SELECT permissions for pg_stat_database. Learn more at the official PostgreSQL statistics collector documentation.

Get started

Follow these steps to configure and activate the component:

  1. Deploy the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector to your host or container platform:

  2. Configure the PostgreSQL receiver as described in the next section.

  3. Restart the Collector.

Sample configurations

To activate the PostgreSQL receiver, add postgresql to the receivers section of your configuration file, as shown in the following example:

receivers:
  postgresql:
    endpoint: localhost:5432
    transport: tcp
    username: otel
    password: ${env:PGSQL_PASSWORD}
    databases:
      - otel
    collection_interval: 10s
    tls:
      insecure: false
      insecure_skip_verify: false
      ca_file: /home/otel/authorities.crt
      cert_file: /home/otel/mypostgrescert.crt
      key_file: /home/otel/mypostgreskey.key

The username and password fields are mandatory. By default, the receiver searches for a PostgreSQL server at localhost:5432. You can customize the address by editing the value of the endpoint field.

To complete the configuration, include the receiver in the metrics pipeline of the service section of your configuration file. For example:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [postgresql]

Settings

The following table shows the configuration options for the PostgreSQL:

included

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/splunk/collector-config-tools/main/cfg-metadata/receiver/postgresql.yaml

Metrics

The following metrics, resource attributes, and attributes are available.

included

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/splunk/collector-config-tools/main/metric-metadata/postgresqlreceiver.yaml

Activate or deactivate specific metrics

You can activate or deactivate specific metrics by setting the enabled field in the metrics section for each metric. For example:

receivers:
  samplereceiver:
    metrics:
      metric-one:
        enabled: true
      metric-two:
        enabled: false

The following is an example of host metrics receiver configuration with activated metrics:

receivers:
  hostmetrics:
    scrapers:
      process:
        metrics:
          process.cpu.utilization:
            enabled: true
Note: Deactivated metrics aren’t sent to Splunk Observability Cloud.
Billing
  • If you’re in a MTS-based subscription, all metrics count towards metrics usage.

  • If you’re in a host-based plan, metrics listed as active (Active: Yes) on this document are considered default and are included free of charge.

Learn more at Infrastructure Monitoring subscription usage (Host and metric plans).

Troubleshooting

If you are a Splunk Observability Cloud customer and are not able to see your data in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can get help in the following ways.

Available to Splunk Observability Cloud customers

Available to prospective customers and free trial users

  • Ask a question and get answers through community support at Splunk Answers.

  • Join the Splunk #observability user group Slack channel to communicate with customers, partners, and Splunk employees worldwide. To join, see Chat groups.