Caution
Grafana Alloy is the new name for our distribution of the OTel collector. Grafana Agent has been deprecated and is in Long-Term Support (LTS) through October 31, 2025. Grafana Agent will reach an End-of-Life (EOL) on November 1, 2025. Read more about why we recommend migrating to Grafana Alloy.
Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
EXPERIMENTAL: This is an experimental component. Experimental components are subject to frequent breaking changes, and may be removed with no equivalent replacement.
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
accepts metrics from a
vCenter or ESXi host running VMware vSphere APIs and
forwards it to other otelcol.*
components.
NOTE:
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
is a wrapper over the upstream OpenTelemetry Collectorvcenter
receiver from theotelcol-contrib
distribution. Bug reports or feature requests will be redirected to the upstream repository, if necessary.
Multiple otelcol.receiver.vcenter
components can be specified by giving them
different labels.
The full list of metrics that can be collected can be found in vcenter receiver documentation.
Prerequisites
This receiver has been built to support ESXi and vCenter versions:
- 8
- 7.0
- 6.7
A “Read Only” user assigned to a vSphere with permissions to the vCenter server, cluster and all subsequent resources being monitored must be specified in order for the receiver to retrieve information about them.
Usage
otelcol.receiver.vcenter "LABEL" {
endpoint = "VCENTER_ENDPOINT"
username = "VCENTER_USERNAME"
password = "VCENTER_PASSWORD"
output {
metrics = [...]
}
}
Arguments
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
supports the following arguments:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
endpoint | string | Endpoint to a vCenter Server or ESXi host which has the SDK path enabled. | yes | |
username | string | Username to use for authentication. | yes | |
password | string | Password to use for authentication. | yes | |
collection_interval | duration | Defines how often to collect metrics. | "1m" | no |
initial_delay | duration | Defines how long this receiver waits before starting. | "1s" | no |
timeout | duration | Defines the timeout for the underlying HTTP client. | "0s" | no |
endpoint
has the format <protocol>://<hostname>
. For example, https://vcsa.hostname.localnet
.
Blocks
The following blocks are supported inside the definition of
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
:
Hierarchy | Block | Description | Required |
---|---|---|---|
tls | tls | Configures TLS for the HTTP client. | no |
metrics | metrics | Configures which metrics will be sent to downstream components. | no |
resource_attributes | resource_attributes | Configures resource attributes for metrics sent to downstream components. | no |
debug_metrics | debug_metrics | Configures the metrics that this component generates to monitor its state. | no |
output | output | Configures where to send received telemetry data. | yes |
tls block
The tls
block configures TLS settings used for a server. If the tls
block
isn’t provided, TLS won’t be used for connections to the server.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
ca_file | string | Path to the CA file. | no | |
ca_pem | string | CA PEM-encoded text to validate the server with. | no | |
cert_file | string | Path to the TLS certificate. | no | |
cert_pem | string | Certificate PEM-encoded text for client authentication. | no | |
insecure_skip_verify | boolean | Ignores insecure server TLS certificates. | no | |
include_system_ca_certs_pool | boolean | Whether to load the system certificate authorities pool alongside the certificate authority. | false | no |
insecure | boolean | Disables TLS when connecting to the configured server. | no | |
key_file | string | Path to the TLS certificate key. | no | |
key_pem | secret | Key PEM-encoded text for client authentication. | no | |
max_version | string | Maximum acceptable TLS version for connections. | "TLS 1.3" | no |
min_version | string | Minimum acceptable TLS version for connections. | "TLS 1.2" | no |
cipher_suites | list(string) | A list of TLS cipher suites that the TLS transport can use. | [] | no |
reload_interval | duration | The duration after which the certificate is reloaded. | "0s" | no |
server_name | string | Verifies the hostname of server certificates when set. | no |
If the server doesn’t support TLS, you must set the insecure
argument to true
.
To disable tls
for connections to the server, set the insecure
argument to true
.
If reload_interval
is set to "0s"
, the certificate never reloaded.
The following pairs of arguments are mutually exclusive and can’t both be set simultaneously:
ca_pem
andca_file
cert_pem
andcert_file
key_pem
andkey_file
If cipher_suites
is left blank, a safe default list is used.
See the Go TLS documentation for a list of supported cipher suites.
metrics block
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
vcenter.cluster.cpu.effective | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.cpu.effective metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.cpu.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.cpu.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.host.count | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.host.count metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.memory.effective | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.memory.effective metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.memory.limit | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.memory.limit metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.memory.used | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.memory.used metric. | true | no |
vcenter.cluster.vm.count | metric | Enables the vcenter.cluster.vm.count metric. | true | no |
vcenter.datastore.disk.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.datastore.disk.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.datastore.disk.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.datastore.disk.utilization metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.cpu.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.cpu.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.cpu.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.cpu.utilization metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.disk.latency.avg | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.disk.latency.avg metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.disk.latency.max | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.disk.latency.max metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.disk.throughput | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.disk.throughput metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.memory.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.memory.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.memory.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.memory.utilization metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.network.packet.count | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.network.packet.count metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.network.packet.errors | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.network.packet.errors metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.network.throughput | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.network.throughput metric. | true | no |
vcenter.host.network.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.host.network.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.shares | metric | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.shares metric. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.cpu.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.shares | metric | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.memory.shares metric. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.memory.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.memory.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.cpu.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.cpu.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.cpu.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.cpu.utilization metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.disk.latency.avg | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.disk.latency.avg metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.disk.latency.max | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.disk.latency.max metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.disk.throughput | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.disk.throughput metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.disk.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.disk.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.disk.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.disk.utilization metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.memory.ballooned | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.memory.ballooned metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.memory.swapped | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.memory.swapped metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.memory.swapped_ssd | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.memory.swapped_ssd metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.memory.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.memory.usage metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.memory.utilization | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.memory.utilization metric. | false | no |
vcenter.vm.network.packet.count | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.network.packet.count metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.network.throughput | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.network.throughput metric. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.network.usage | metric | Enables the vcenter.vm.network.usage metric. | true | no |
metric block
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
enabled | boolean | Whether to enable the metric. | true | no |
resource_attributes block
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
vcenter.cluster.name | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.cluster.name resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.datastore.name | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.cluster.resource_pool resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.host.name | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.host.name resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.inventory_path | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.inventory_path resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.resource_pool.name | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.resource_pool.name resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.id | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.vm.id resource attribute. | true | no |
vcenter.vm.name | resource_attribute | Enables the vcenter.vm.name resource attribute. | true | no |
resource_attribute block
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
enabled | boolean | Whether to enable the resource attribute. | true | no |
debug_metrics block
The debug_metrics
block configures the metrics that this component generates to monitor its state.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
disable_high_cardinality_metrics | boolean | Whether to disable certain high cardinality metrics. | true | no |
disable_high_cardinality_metrics
is the Grafana Agent equivalent to the telemetry.disableHighCardinalityMetrics
feature gate in the OpenTelemetry Collector.
It removes attributes that could cause high cardinality metrics.
For example, attributes with IP addresses and port numbers in metrics about HTTP and gRPC connections are removed.
output block
The output
block configures a set of components to forward resulting telemetry data to.
The following arguments are supported:
Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
---|---|---|---|---|
logs | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send logs to. | [] | no |
metrics | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send metrics to. | [] | no |
traces | list(otelcol.Consumer) | List of consumers to send traces to. | [] | no |
You must specify the output
block, but all its arguments are optional.
By default, telemetry data is dropped.
Configure the metrics
, logs
, and traces
arguments accordingly to send telemetry data to other components.
Exported fields
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
does not export any fields.
Component health
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid
configuration.
Debug information
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
does not expose any component-specific debug
information.
Example
This example forwards received telemetry data through a batch processor before finally sending it to an OTLP-capable endpoint:
otelcol.receiver.vcenter "default" {
endpoint = "http://localhost:15672"
username = "otelu"
password = "password"
output {
metrics = [otelcol.processor.batch.default.input]
}
}
otelcol.processor.batch "default" {
output {
metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlp.default.input]
}
}
otelcol.exporter.otlp "default" {
client {
endpoint = env("OTLP_ENDPOINT")
}
}
Compatible components
otelcol.receiver.vcenter
can accept arguments from the following components:
- Components that export OpenTelemetry
otelcol.Consumer
Note
Connecting some components may not be sensible or components may require further configuration to make the connection work correctly. Refer to the linked documentation for more details.