Infrastructure Metrics: Scrape Config Overview

What is a Scrape Config?

A scrape config in the context of infrastructure metrics refers to a configuration used to collect or scrape performance and monitoring data from various components of an IT infrastructure. This data is essential for tracking the health, performance, and availability of infrastructure elements such as servers, databases, network devices, and more.

Working with Infrastructure Metrics Scrape Config

To locate Infrastructure Metrics Scrape Config, first, navigate to the menu on the left side of your screen. Then, under the heading 'Infrastructure Metrics' you will find 'Scrape Config', select this.

Now that you've located Infrastructure Metrics Scrape Config you can add a configuration for your Victoria Metrics Agent. After selecting 'Create New Scrape Config' in the Infrastructure Metrics Scrape Config section, a configuration interface or popup appears (see image below), allowing you to set up the scrape.

Here you can configure an input. This is simple to follow, you'll just need to input the appropriate values to each corresponding box. Additionally, you can add multiple labels to the input.

Here's how you would typically complete the fields:

1. Targets: This is where you specify the IP addresses or hostnames of the components or systems from which you want to scrape data. For example, you might enter the IP address of a server or a database.
2. Scheme: The "scheme" field often refers to the protocol used for scraping data. Common schemes include HTTP and HTTPS for web-based scraping. Choose the appropriate scheme based on your target's protocol.

For the authentication (username and password), if your targets require authentication to access the data, you would enter the username and password in the corresponding fields. This is common for web services or APIs that require authentication.

Regarding the labels, labels are metadata that you can attach to scraped data. They provide additional context to the data you're collecting. For instance, you might add labels to categorize the data by application, location, or other relevant attributes.

Finally, the key and value pairs are often used in scrape configurations to specify additional parameters or options for data collection. The specific usage of key-value pairs can vary based on the scraping system being used (e.g., Prometheus). They can be used to pass configuration options or filters to the scraping process.

Once you've completed the configuration with the necessary details, including targets, authentication, labels, and key-value pairs, the Victoria Metrics Agent will use this configuration to initiate the scraping process. It will connect to the specified targets using the provided IP addresses and scheme, and if authentication is required, it will use the provided username and password to authenticate.

If key-value pairs are used, they will be passed as part of the scraping process, possibly as query parameters or options depending on the specific scraping system and protocol.

The scraped data is then collected and stored by the Victoria Metrics Agent as per the configured settings. This data can be used for monitoring, analysis, and visualization of the health and performance of the targeted infrastructure components.