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chore: RFC for Data Volume Insights (vectordotdev#17322)
[Rendered](https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector/blob/stephen/data_volume_rfc/rfcs/2023-05-03-data-volume-metrics.md) --------- Signed-off-by: Stephen Wakely <fungus.humungus@gmail.com>
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# RFC 2023-05-02 - Data Volume Insights metrics | ||
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Vector needs to be able to emit accurate metrics that can be usefully queried | ||
to give users insights into the volume of data moving through the system. | ||
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## Scope | ||
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### In scope | ||
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- All volume event metrics within Vector need to emit the estimated JSON size of the | ||
event. With a consistent method for determining the size it will be easier to accurately | ||
compare data in vs data out. | ||
- `component_received_event_bytes_total` | ||
- `component_sent_event_bytes_total` | ||
- `component_received_event_total` | ||
- `component_sent_event_total` | ||
- The metrics sent by each sink needs to be tagged with the source id of the | ||
event so the route an event takes through Vector can be queried. | ||
- Each event needs to be labelled with a `service`. This is a new concept | ||
within Vector and represents the application that generated the log, | ||
metric or trace. | ||
- The service tag and source tag in the metrics needs to be opt in so customers | ||
that don't need the increased cardinality are unaffected. | ||
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### Out of scope | ||
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- Separate metrics, `component_sent_bytes_total` and `component_received_bytes_total` | ||
that indicate network bytes sent by Vector are not considered here. | ||
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## Pain | ||
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Currently it is difficult to accurately gauge the volume of data that is moving | ||
through Vector. It is difficult to query where data being sent out has come | ||
from. | ||
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## Proposal | ||
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### User Experience | ||
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Global config options will be provided to indicate that the `service` tag and the | ||
`source` tag should be sent. For example: | ||
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```yaml | ||
telemetry: | ||
tags: | ||
service: true | ||
source_id: true | ||
``` | ||
This will cause Vector to emit a metric like (note the last two tags): | ||
```prometheus | ||
vector_component_sent_event_bytes_total{component_id="out",component_kind="sink",component_name="out",component_type="console" | ||
,host="machine",service="potato",source_id="stdin"} 123 | ||
``` | ||
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The default will be to not emit these tags. | ||
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### Implementation | ||
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#### Metric tags | ||
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**service** - to attach the service, we need to add a new meaning to Vector - | ||
`service`. Any sources that receive data that could potentially | ||
be considered a service will need to indicate which field means | ||
`service`. This work has largely already been done with the | ||
LogNamespacing work, so it will be trivial to add this new field. | ||
Not all sources will be able to specify a specific field to | ||
indicate the `service`. In time it will be possible for this to | ||
be accomplished through `VRL`. | ||
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**source_id** - A new field will be added to the [Event metadata][event_metadata] - | ||
`Arc<OutputId>` that will indicate the source of the event. | ||
`OutputId` will need to be serializable so it can be stored in | ||
the disk buffer. Since this field is just an identifier, it can | ||
still be used even if the source no longer exists when the event | ||
is consumed by a sink. | ||
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We will need to do an audit of all components to ensure the | ||
bytes emitted for the `component_received_event_bytes_total` and | ||
`component_sent_event_bytes_total` metrics are the estimated JSON size of the | ||
event. | ||
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These tags will be given the name that was configured in [User Experience] | ||
(#user-experience). | ||
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Transforms `reduce` and `aggregate` combine multiple events together. In this | ||
case the `source` and `service` of the first event will be taken. | ||
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If there is no `source` a source of `-` will be emitted. The only way this can | ||
happen is if the event was created by the `lua` transform. | ||
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If there is no `service` available, a service of `-` will be emitted. | ||
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Emitting a `-` rather than not emitting anything at all makes it clear that | ||
there was no value rather than it just having been forgotten and ensures it | ||
is clear that the metric represents no `service` or `source` rather than the | ||
aggregate value across all services. | ||
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The [Component Spec][component_spec] will need updating to indicate these tags | ||
will need including. | ||
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**Performance** - There is going to be a performance hit when emitting these metrics. | ||
Currently for each batch a simple event is emitted containing the count and size | ||
of the entire batch. With this change it will be necessary to scan the entire | ||
batch to obtain the count of source, service combinations of events before emitting | ||
the counts. This will involve additional allocations to maintain the counts as well | ||
as the O(1) scan. | ||
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#### `component_received_event_bytes_total` | ||
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This metric is emitted by the framework [here][source_sender], so it looks like | ||
the only change needed is to add the service tag. | ||
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#### `component_sent_event_bytes_total` | ||
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For stream based sinks this will typically be the byte value returned by | ||
`DriverResponse::events_sent`. | ||
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Despite being in the [Component Spec][component_spec], not all sinks currently | ||
conform to this. | ||
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As an example, from a cursory glance over a couple of sinks: | ||
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The Amqp sink currently emits this value as the length of the binary | ||
data that is sent. By the time the data has reached the code where the | ||
`component_sent_event_bytes_total` event is emitted, that event has been | ||
encoded and the actual estimated JSON size has been lost. The sink will need | ||
to be updated so that when the event is encoded, the encoded event together | ||
with the pre-encoded JSON bytesize will be sent to the service where the event | ||
is emitted. | ||
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The Kafka sink also currently sends the binary size, but it looks like the | ||
estimated JSON bytesize is easily accessible at the point of emitting, so would | ||
not need too much of a change. | ||
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To ensure that the correct metric is sent in a type-safe manner, we will wrap | ||
the estimated JSON size in a newtype: | ||
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```rust | ||
pub struct JsonSize(usize); | ||
``` | ||
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The `EventsSent` metric will only accept this type. | ||
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### Registered metrics | ||
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It is currently not possible to have dynamic tags with preregistered metrics. | ||
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Preregistering these metrics are essential to ensure that they don't expire. | ||
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The current mechanism to expire metrics is to check if a handle to the given | ||
metric is being held. If it isn't, and nothing has updated that metric in | ||
the last cycle - the metric is dropped. If a metric is dropped, the next time | ||
that event is emitted with those tags, the count starts at zero again. | ||
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We will need to introduce a registered event caching layer that will register | ||
and cache new events keyed on the tags that are sent to it. | ||
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Currently a registered metrics is stored in a `Registered<EventSent>`. | ||
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We will need a new struct that can wrap this that will be generic over a tuple of | ||
the tags for each event and the event - eg. `Cached<(String, String), EventSent>`. | ||
This struct will maintain a BTreeMap of tags -> `Registered`. Since this will | ||
need to be shared across threads, the cache will need to be stored in an `RwLock`. | ||
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In pseudo rust: | ||
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```rust | ||
struct Cached<Tags, Event> { | ||
cache: Arc<RwLock<BTreemap<Tags, Registered<Event>>>, | ||
register: Fn(Tags) -> Registered<Event>, | ||
} | ||
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impl<Tags, Event> Cached<Tags, Event> { | ||
fn emit(&mut self, tags: Tags, value: Event) -> { | ||
if Some(event) = self.cache.get(tags) { | ||
event.emit(value); | ||
} else { | ||
let event = self.register(tags); | ||
event.emit(value); | ||
self.cache.insert(tags, event); | ||
} | ||
} | ||
} | ||
``` | ||
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## Rationale | ||
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The ability to visualize data flowing through Vector will allow users to ascertain | ||
the effectiveness of the current use of Vector. This will enable users to | ||
optimise their configurations to make the best use of Vector's features. | ||
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## Drawbacks | ||
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The additional tags being added to the metrics will increase the cardinality of | ||
those metrics if they are enabled. | ||
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## Prior Art | ||
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## Alternatives | ||
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We could use an alternative metric instead of estimated JSON size. | ||
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- *Network bytes* This provides a more accurate picture of the actual data being received | ||
and sent by Vector, but will regularly produce different sizes for an incoming event | ||
to an outgoing event. | ||
- *In memory size* The size of the event as held in memory. This may be more accurate in | ||
determining the amount of memory Vector will be utilizing at any time, will often be | ||
less accurate compared to the data being sent and received which is often JSON. | ||
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## Outstanding Questions | ||
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## Plan Of Attack | ||
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Incremental steps to execute this change. These will be converted to issues after the RFC is approved: | ||
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- [ ] Add the `source` field to the Event metadata to indicate the source the event has come from. | ||
- [ ] Update the Volume event metrics to take a `JsonSize` value. Use the compiler to ensure all metrics | ||
emitted use this. The `EstimatedJsonEncodedSizeOf` trait will be updated return a `JsonSize`. | ||
- [ ] Add the Service meaning. Update any sources that potentially create a service to point the meaning | ||
to the relevant field. | ||
- [ ] Introduce an event caching layer that caches registered events based on the tags sent to it. | ||
- [ ] Update the emitted events to accept the new tags - taking the `telemetry` configuration options | ||
into account. | ||
- [ ] There is going to be a hit on performance with these changes. Add benchmarking to help us understand | ||
how much the impact will be. | ||
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## Future Improvements | ||
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- Logs emitted by Vector should also be tagged with `source_id` and `service`. | ||
- This rfc proposes storing the source and service as strings. This incurs a cost since scanning each | ||
event to get the counts of events by source and service will involve multiple string comparisons. A | ||
future optimization could be to hash the combination of these values at the source into a single | ||
integer. | ||
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[component_spec]: https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector/blob/master/docs/specs/component.md#componenteventssent | ||
[source_sender]: https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector/blob/master/src/source_sender/mod.rs#L265-L268 | ||
[event_metadata]: https://github.com/vectordotdev/vector/blob/master/lib/vector-core/src/event/metadata.rs#L20-L38 |