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prometheus.exporter.windows

The prometheus.exporter.windows component embeds windows_exporter which exposes a wide variety of hardware and OS metrics for Windows-based systems.

The windows_exporter itself comprises various collectors, which you can enable and disable as needed. For more information on collectors, refer to the collectors-list section.

Note

The black and white list configuration options are available for backwards compatibility but are deprecated. The include and exclude configuration options are preferred going forward.

Usage

Alloy 
prometheus.exporter.windows "LABEL" {
}

Arguments

The following arguments can be used to configure the exporter’s behavior. All arguments are optional. Omitted fields take their default values.

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
enabled_collectorslist(string)List of collectors to enable.["cpu","cs","logical_disk","net","os","service","system"]no
timeoutdurationConfigure timeout for collecting metrics.4mno

enabled_collectors defines a hand-picked list of enabled-by-default collectors. If set, anything not provided in that list is disabled by default. Refer to the Collectors list for the default set.

Blocks

The following blocks are supported inside the definition of prometheus.exporter.windows to configure collector-specific options:

HierarchyNameDescriptionRequired
dfsrdfsrConfigures the dfsr collector.no
exchangeexchangeConfigures the exchange collector.no
iisiisConfigures the iis collector.no
logical_disklogical_diskConfigures the logical_disk collector.no
msmqmsmqConfigures the msmq collector.no
mssqlmssqlConfigures the mssql collector.no
networknetworkConfigures the network collector.no
processprocessConfigures the process collector.no
scheduled_taskscheduled_taskConfigures the scheduled_task collector.no
serviceserviceConfigures the service collector.no
smtpsmtpConfigures the smtp collector.no
text_filetext_fileConfigures the text_file collector.no

dfsr block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
source_enabledlist(string)Comma-separated list of DFSR Perflib sources to use.["connection","folder","volume"]no

exchange block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
enabled_liststringComma-separated list of collectors to use.""no

The collectors specified by enabled_list can include the following:

  • ADAccessProcesses
  • TransportQueues
  • HttpProxy
  • ActiveSync
  • AvailabilityService
  • OutlookWebAccess
  • Autodiscover
  • WorkloadManagement
  • RpcClientAccess

For example, enabled_list may be set to "AvailabilityService,OutlookWebAccess".

iis block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
app_excludestringRegular expression of applications to ignore.""no
app_includestringRegular expression of applications to report on.".*"no
site_excludestringRegular expression of sites to ignore.""no
site_includestringRegular expression of sites to report on.".*"no

logical_disk block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
excludestringRegular expression of volumes to exclude.""no
includestringRegular expression of volumes to include.".+"no

Volume names must match the regular expression specified by include and must not match the regular expression specified by exclude to be included.

msmq block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
where_clausestringWQL ‘where’ clause to use in WMI metrics query.""no

Specifying enabled_classes is useful to limit the response to the MSMQs you specify, reducing the size of the response.

mssql block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
enabled_classeslist(string)Comma-separated list of MSSQL WMI classes to use.["accessmethods", "availreplica", "bufman", "databases", "dbreplica", "genstats", "locks", "memmgr", "sqlstats", "sqlerrorstransactions"]no

network block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
excludestringRegular expression of NIC:s to exclude.""no
includestringRegular expression of NIC:s to include.".*"no

NIC names must match the regular expression specified by include and must not match the regular expression specified by exclude to be included.

process block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
excludestringRegular expression of processes to exclude.""no
includestringRegular expression of processes to include.".*"no

Processes must match the regular expression specified by include and must not match the regular expression specified by exclude to be included.

scheduled_task block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
excludestringRegexp of tasks to exclude.""no
includestringRegexp of tasks to include.".+"no

For a server name to be included, it must match the regular expression specified by include and must not match the regular expression specified by exclude.

service block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
use_apistringUse the Windows API to collect service data instead of WMI.falseno
where_clausestringWQL ‘where’ clause to use in WMI metrics query.""no

The where_clause argument can be used to limit the response to the services you specify, reducing the size of the response. If use_api is enabled, ‘where_clause’ won’t be effective.

The Windows API is more performant than WMI. Set use_api to true in situations when the WMI takes too long to get the service information. Setting use_api to true does have a few disadvantages compared to using WMI:

  • WMI queries in where_clause won’t work.
  • The status field of the service is not available. You can use the state property to retrieve status information. This property provides the same information, but it is formatted differently.

smtp block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
excludestringRegexp of virtual servers to ignore.no
includestringRegexp of virtual servers to include.".+"no

For a server name to be included, it must match the regular expression specified by include and must not match the regular expression specified by exclude.

text_file block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
text_file_directorystringThe directory containing the files to be ingested.C:\Program Files\Grafana Agent Flow\textfile_inputsno

When text_file_directory is set, only files with the extension .prom inside the specified directory are read. Each .prom file found must end with an empty line feed to work properly.

Exported fields

The following fields are exported and can be referenced by other components.

NameTypeDescription
targetslist(map(string))The targets that can be used to collect exporter metrics.

For example, the targets can either be passed to a discovery.relabel component to rewrite the targets’ label sets or to a prometheus.scrape component that collects the exposed metrics.

The exported targets use the configured in-memory traffic address specified by the run command.

Component health

prometheus.exporter.windows is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid configuration. In those cases, exported fields retain their last healthy values.

Debug information

prometheus.exporter.windows does not expose any component-specific debug information.

Debug metrics

prometheus.exporter.windows does not expose any component-specific debug metrics.

Collectors list

The following table lists the available collectors that windows_exporter brings bundled in. Some collectors only work on specific operating systems; enabling a collector that is not supported by the host OS where Flow is running is a no-op.

Users can choose to enable a subset of collectors to limit the amount of metrics exposed by the prometheus.exporter.windows component, or disable collectors that are expensive to run.

NameDescriptionEnabled by default
adActive Directory Domain Services
adcsActive Directory Certificate Services
adfsActive Directory Federation Services
cacheCache metrics
cpuCPU usage✓
cpu_infoCPU Information
cs“Computer System” metrics (system properties, num cpus/total memory)✓
containerContainer metrics
dfsrDFSR metrics
dhcpDHCP Server
dnsDNS Server
exchangeExchange metrics
fsrmquotaMicrosoft File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) Quotas collector
hypervHyper-V hosts
iisIIS sites and applications
logical_diskLogical disks, disk I/O✓
logonUser logon sessions
memoryMemory usage metrics
mscluster_clusterMSCluster cluster metrics
mscluster_networkMSCluster network metrics
mscluster_nodeMSCluster Node metrics
mscluster_resourceMSCluster Resource metrics
mscluster_resourcegroupMSCluster ResourceGroup metrics
msmqMSMQ queues
mssqlSQL Server Performance Objects metrics
netframework_clrexceptions.NET Framework CLR Exceptions
netframework_clrinterop.NET Framework Interop Metrics
netframework_clrjit.NET Framework JIT metrics
netframework_clrloading.NET Framework CLR Loading metrics
netframework_clrlocksandthreads.NET Framework locks and metrics threads
netframework_clrmemory.NET Framework Memory metrics
netframework_clrremoting.NET Framework Remoting metrics
netframework_clrsecurity.NET Framework Security Check metrics
netNetwork interface I/O✓
osOS metrics (memory, processes, users)✓
physical_diskPhysical disks✓
processPer-process metrics
remote_fxRemoteFX protocol (RDP) metrics
scheduled_taskScheduled Tasks metrics
serviceService state metrics✓
smtpIIS SMTP Server
systemSystem calls✓
tcpTCP connections
teradici_pcoipTeradici PCoIP session metrics
timeWindows Time Service
thermalzoneThermal information
terminal_servicesTerminal services (RDS)
textfileRead prometheus metrics from a text file
vmware_blastVMware Blast session metrics
vmwarePerformance counters installed by the Vmware Guest agent

Refer to the linked documentation on each collector for more information on reported metrics, configuration settings and usage examples.

Caution

Certain collectors will cause Grafana Agent to crash if those collectors are used and the required infrastructure isn’t installed. These include but aren’t limited to mscluster_*, vmware, nps, dns, msmq, teradici_pcoip, ad, hyperv, and scheduled_task.

Example

This example uses a prometheus.scrape component to collect metrics from prometheus.exporter.windows:

Alloy 
prometheus.exporter.windows "default" { }

// Configure a prometheus.scrape component to collect windows metrics.
prometheus.scrape "example" {
  targets    = prometheus.exporter.windows.default.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.demo.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "demo" {
  endpoint {
    url = PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL

    basic_auth {
      username = USERNAME
      password = PASSWORD
    }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL: The URL of the Prometheus remote_write-compatible server to send metrics to.
  • USERNAME: The username to use for authentication to the remote_write API.
  • PASSWORD: The password to use for authentication to the remote_write API.

Compatible components

prometheus.exporter.windows has exports that can be consumed by the following components:

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.