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Datadog metrics supported features

FeatureSupported?
MetricsYes
DashboardsYes
AlarmsNo
LogsNo

Every metric type except DISTRIBUTION is supported. Some visualization representations will look different when a dashboard is imported to Grafana Cloud.

  • COUNT: Converted into a Prometheus gauge instead of a Prometheus counter. Prometheus counters cannot handle decreases.
  • RATE: Multiplied by the flush interval and then converted into a Prometheus gauge. The rate is transformed into its count equivalent.
  • GAUGE: Converted to a Prometheus gauge.
  • SET: Converted to a Prometheus gauge.
  • HISTOGRAM: The server receives a set of GAUGE and RATE metrics that are converted.

Data model

Internally, Datadog metrics are translated into Prometheus ones. Because of incompatibilities between the Datadog and Prometheus metric data formats, translating a metric between requires some special transformations. In addition to the translation tables below, some internal labels are also added to the Prometheus version of the metric. The original version of the metric can be queried using the Datadog datasource.

  • Metric names: Because Prometheus metric names have different character restrictions than Datadog, the translation might look different.
  • Tags: Called labels in Prometheus. Since Prometheus labels have different character restrictions than Datadog, the translation might look different.

Metric name mappings

Datadog characterPrometheus mappingExample Datadog metricExample translated to Prometheus metric
___metric_1metric__1
._dot_metric.1metric_dot_1
Unsupported characters__metric$1metric__1

Tag mappings

Datadog tag componentPrometheus mappingExample Datadog metricExample translated to Prometheus metric
Tag valuesQuotes around tag valuesmetric{a:b}metric{a=”’b’”}
Multiple tag valuesComma separators between tag valuesmetric{a:b,a:c}metric{a=”’b’,’c’”}
___ for tag names, tag values unchangedmetric{a_b:c_d}metric{a__b=”c_d’”}
._dot_ for tag names, tag values unchangedmetric{a.b:c.d}metric{a_dot_b=”’c.d’”}
-_dsh_ for tag names, tag values unchangedmetric{a-b:c-d}metric{a_dsh_b=”c-d’”}
/_sls_ for tag names, tag values unchangedmetric{a/b:c/d}metric{a_sls_b=”c/d’”}
Unnamed tagPrepended with _dot_unnamed_dot_metric{a}metric{_dot_unnamed_dot_a=”’a’”}
Unsupported characters__ for tag names, _ for tag valuesmetric{a$b:c!d}metric{a__b:c_d}

Other

FeatureSupported?Notes
Host TagsYes
Service checksYes
Data RetentionYesGrafana Cloud retains metrics for 13 months. This is customizable.
Out of Order MetricsYesMimir has experimental support for out of order metrics.
Metric MetadataNo
SlOsNo

Datadog features

FeatureSupported?Notes
Metric FilterYes
Space AggregationYes
GroupingYes
Metric ArithmeticYes
Metric Type ModifiersYes
Multiple query metricsYes
Time Aggregation (Rollup)PartiallyMultiple rollup intervals for a single metric are not supported.

Datadog functions

  • Algorithms
    • anomalies(): no
    • forecast(): no
    • outliers(): no
  • Arithmetic
    • abs(): yes
    • log2(): yes
    • log10(): no
    • cumsum(): yes
    • integral(): no
  • Count
    • count_non_zero(): yes
    • count_not_null(): yes
  • Exclusion
    • exclude_null(): yes
    • clamp_min(): yes
    • clamp_max(): yes
    • cutoff_min(): yes
    • cutoff_max(): yes
  • Interpolation
    • fill(): no
    • default_zero(): no
  • Rank
    • top(): partially, “area” and “l2norm” aggregation methods are not supported. The convenience functions (e.g. bottom10_min()) are supported
  • Rate
    • per_second(): yes
    • per_minute(): yes
    • per_hour(): yes
    • dt(): no but agent sends metrics every 10s anyway.
    • diff(): yes
    • monotonic_diff(): no
    • derivative(): no
  • Regression
    • robust_trend(): no
    • trend_line(): no
    • piecewise_constant(): no
  • Rollup
    • rollup(): partially, see “Time Aggregation (Rollup)” in previous section
    • moving_rollup(): no
  • Smoothing
    • autosmooth(): no
    • ewma_[3/5/10/20](): yes
    • median_[3/5/7/9](): yes
  • Timeshift
    • timeshift(): yes
    • <TIMEPERIOD>_before(): yes

Dashboard coverage

This section describes the Datadog features that the Datadog Dashboard Translator supports. Unknown widgets are shown as text panels in the converted dashboard.

Dashboard types

Timeboards are supported and automatically snap to a fixed grid.

Datadog screenboards have free-form layouts and different graphs can have different time scopes, they are partially supported. The Grafana migration tool transforms a screenboard into a timeboard.

Widgets

  • Alert Graph: no
  • Alert Value: no
  • Change: no
  • Check Status: yes, that status checks are converted into Prometheus metrics in the background.
  • Distribution : no
  • Event Stream: no
  • Event Timeline: no
  • Free Text: no
  • Geomap: no
  • Group: yes
  • HeatMap: no
  • Hostmap: no
  • Iframe: no
  • Image: yes
  • Links: no
  • Log Stream: no
  • Monitor Summary: no
  • Network: no
  • Notes : yes
  • Query value: partial; each widget can only have a single query.
  • Scatter Plot: no
  • Service Level Objective (SLO): no
  • Service Map: no
  • Service Summary: no
  • Table: partial; each widget can only have a single query and a basic attempt is made for splitting fields into their own columns.
  • Timeseries: yes
  • Top List: partial; each widget can only have a single query.

Other

  • Template Variables: yes
  • Colors: no
  • Events Overlay: no