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Add encode implementations for SocketAddr and IpAddr #87

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rnijveld
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@rnijveld rnijveld commented Sep 8, 2022

Something I encounter quite often is having metrics based on connection information, so I frequently find myself wanting to use either a SocketAddr or IpAddr in a label.

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@mxinden mxinden left a comment

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In general I am not opposed to this change. Though I would guess that in most cases, this is not what one wants. In case the number of unique IP addresses is large, this can easily lead to a cardinality explosion.

https://www.robustperception.io/cardinality-is-key/

What do you think of adding a warning doc comment to the implementations to make sure users are aware of what they are doing?

Also would you mind resolving the merge conflicts?

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mxinden commented Oct 2, 2022

Friendly ping @rnijveld.

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@mxinden Sorry about the slow response, life got in the way a little. I definitely agree with not wanting to use this for high cardinality situations. Although of course such cases could happen just as easily with other label types, I do agree that IP addresses might more quickly result in a cardinality explosion when not used correctly. I've added a little warning text to each of the implementations, I hope that resolves your concerns, let me know if there's anything else I can do!

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Sorry for the delay here.

Thanks for adding the warning. One confusion on my end.

Comment on lines +211 to +212
/// distinct values is low (i.e. low cardinality). In all other cases you should
/// combine your metrics into a single metric instead. Especially bad examples
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In all other cases you should combine your metrics into a single metric instead.

I don't understand this. How is combining multiple metrics into one solving the issue of a cardinality explosion?

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Ah, as in dropping the label?

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Friendly ping @rnijveld. I would like to get this merged into master.

Comment on lines +211 to +212
/// distinct values is low (i.e. low cardinality). In all other cases you should
/// combine your metrics into a single metric instead. Especially bad examples
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Ah, as in dropping the label?

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08d2 commented Jan 10, 2023

It is effectively never appropriate to use an address as a label, for reasons of cardinality already discussed.

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mxinden commented Jan 10, 2023

I don't think "never" is correct. One use-case I can come up with is exposing ones listening address as an info metric. See e.g. kubernetes/kube-state-metrics#498 as an example on how far one can push cardinality in Prometheus with info metrics.

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3 participants