Smart Agent receiver

The Smart Agent receiver lets you use Smart Agent monitors in the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

The Smart Agent receiver is a native OTel component that lets you use Smart Agent monitors through the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector. Supported pipeline types are traces, metrics, and logs. See Process your data with pipelines for more information.

The Smart Agent receiver is fully supported only on AMD64 Linux and Windows platforms. Support for ARM64 is experimental starting from the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector version 0.73 and higher.

Note: For instructions on how to migrate from the Smart Agent to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see Migrate from SignalFx Smart Agent to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

Supported monitors

The Smart Agent bundle provides the following monitor types for each platform:

Platform

Monitor types

Linux (AMD64 and ARM64)

  • collectd subprocess

  • sfxcollectd Python

  • Java/JMX with OpenJDK runtime

Windows (AMD64)

  • sfxcollectd Python

For more information about monitors included in the agent bundle, see Subprocess Smart Agent monitors.

Native Smart Agent monitors

Native Smart Agent monitors are grouped into 3 types:

  • Standalone

  • Prometheus

  • Telegraf

The following matrices list support for each monitor in each architecture.

Support for native standalone monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

appmesh

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

cadvisor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

cgroups

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

cloudfoundry-firehose-nozzle

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

conviva

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

cpu

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

disk-io

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

docker-container-stats

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

ecs-metadata

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

elasticsearch

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

elasticsearch-query

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

expvar

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

filesystems

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

trace-forwarder

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

haproxy

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

heroku-metadata

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

host-metadata

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

http

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

jaeger-grpc

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-cluster

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-events

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubelet-metrics

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubelet-stats

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-volumes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

load

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

logstash

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

logstash-tcp

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

memory

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

mongodb-atlas

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

net-io

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

ntp

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

postgresql

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

processlist

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

sql

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

statsd

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

supervisor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

vmem

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

vsphere

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Support for native Prometheus monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

coredns

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

gitlab

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

prometheus/go

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-apiserver

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kube-controller-manager

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-proxy

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

kubernetes-scheduler

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

prometheus/nginx-vts

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

prometheus/node

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

prometheus/postgres

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

prometheus/redis

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

traefik

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Support for native Telegraf monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

aspdotnet

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/dns

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/exec

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

windows-iis

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/logparser

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/sqlserver

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

dotnet

No

Yes

No

No

telegraf/procstat

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/snmp

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/statsd

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/tail

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

telegraf/win_perf_counters

No

Yes

No

No

windows-legacy

No

Yes

No

No

telegraf/win_services

No

Yes

No

No

Subprocess Smart Agent monitors

Support for Smart Agent receiver monitor types is experimental for ARM64 starting from the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector version 0.73 and higher. Using the Smart Agent receiver with monitor types is not supported for ppc64le architectures.

Subprocess monitor types are those that initiate the creation and management of a child process where metric gathering occurs. There are three major subprocess monitor types:

  • collectd and its associated collectd/GenericJMX plugin-based integrations

  • sfxcollectd

  • JMX

These types derive from integrations that produce metrics in the Smart Agent and are not reflective of the current ability to run arbitrary Python or Java applications.

Support for collectd subprocess monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

collectd/apache

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/chrony

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/cpufreq

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/memcached

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/mysql

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/nginx

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/php-fpm

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/postgresql

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/processes

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/uptime

Yes

No

Experimental

No

Support for collectd or GenericJMX subprocess monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

collectd/activemq

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/cassandra

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/hadoopjmx

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/kafka

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/kafka_consumer

Yes

No

Experimental

No

collectd/kafka_producer

Yes

No

Experimental

No

Support for sfxcollectd Python subprocess monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

collectd/consul

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/couchbase

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/elasticsearch

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/hadoop

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/health-checker

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/jenkins

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/kong

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/mongodb

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/openstack

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/rabbitmq

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/solr

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/spark

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/systemd

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

collectd/zookeeper

Yes

Yes

Experimental

No

Support for subprocess JMX monitors

Monitor

Support for AMD64 Linux

Support for AMD64 Windows

Support for ARM64 Linux

Support for ppc64le Linux

jmx

Yes

Yes (requires JRE)

Experimental

No

Benefits

The Smart Agent receiver lets you use Smart Agent monitors through the OpenTelemetry Collector. In most cases, you can move your existing Smart Agent monitor configuration to the configuration file of the Collector without changes.

For a list of monitor data sources, see Supported integrations in Splunk Observability Cloud.

Get started

By default, the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector includes the Smart Agent receiver with the processlist monitor when deploying in host monitoring (agent) mode. See Collector deployment modes for more information.

For each Smart Agent monitor you want to add to the Collector, add a Smart Agent receiver. After you’ve configured a Smart Agent monitor in the Collector, each Smart Agent receiver behaves like the corresponding Smart Agent monitor.

Sample configurations

The following example adds the Postgresql monitor to the Collector using the Smart Agent receiver:

receivers:
  smartagent/postgresql:
    type: postgresql
    host: mypostgresinstance
    port: 5432
    dimensionClients:
      - signalfx # Instructs the receiver to use this exporter for dimension updates

You can then add the receiver to any compatible pipeline. For example:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers:
        - smartagent/postgresql
      exporters:
        - signalfx

If you use a monitor that updates dimension properties or tags, for example postgresql, add the name of your SignalFx exporter in the dimensionClients field in Smart Agent receiver configuration block. If you don’t set any exporter in the dimensionClients field, the receiver tries to use the pipeline to which it’s connected. If you don’t require dimension updates, you can use an empty array ([]) to deactivate it.

CAUTION: Don’t remove the smartagent/processlist receiver from the configuration. System processes and Smart Agent telemetry depend on the receiver’s configuration.

Add additional metrics

To ingest additional metrics using Smart Agent monitors, add the extraMetrics field to the monitor configuration. For example:

receivers:
  smartagent/postgresql:
    type: postgresql
    host: mypostgresinstance
    port: 5432
    extraMetrics:
      - actual-name-0 # Add metrics to be ingested
      - actual-name-1

Settings

To configure Smart Agent monitors, see the documentation on each monitor type in Supported integrations in Splunk Observability Cloud.

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

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