golagraphite

Graphite client tool written in Go

A tool that can be used to collect Windows Performance Counters and/or SQL Metrics and send them over to the Graphite server.

Features

• Sends Metrics to Graphite's Carbon daemon
• Can collect Windows Performance Counters
• Can collect values by using T-SQL queries against MS SQL databases
• Converts time to UTC on sending
• All configuration can be done from a simple YAML file
• Allows you to override the hostname in Windows Performance Counters before sending on to Graphite
• Executable can be installed to run as a service
• Supports Hosted Graphite (https://www.hostedgraphite.com)

Installation

The simplest way is to download latest release from Github and run executable.

Modifying the Configuration File

The configuration file is fairly self-explanatory, but here is a description for each of the values.

Graphite Configuration Section

Configuration Name	Description
hosts	The server name and the port number where Carbon is running. The Carbon daemon is usually running on the Graphite server.

Performance Counters Configuration Section

Configuration Name	Description
metric_prefix	The path of the Performance Counters metric you want to be sent to the server
interval	The interval to send metrics to Carbon. I recommend 5 seconds or greater. The more queries you are running the longer it takes to send them to the Graphite server.
counters	This section lists the performance counters you want the machine to send to Graphite.

You can get counters from Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) or by using the command typeperf -qx in a command prompt. I have included some basic performance counters in the configuration file. Asterisks can be used as a wildcard. Here are some other examples:

• \Network Interface(*)\Bytes Received/sec
• \Network Interface(*)\Bytes Sent/sec
• \PhysicalDisk(*)\Avg. Disk Write Queue Length

MSSQLMetrics Configuration Section

This section allows you to configure a list of SQL servers and the queries that will be run against those servers. You can add as many queries or servers as required.

<sql_servers> Configuration Values	Description
connection_string	The connection string to connect to SQL with using SQL Authentication. Leaving the password option blank will make the script use Windows Authentication against the SQL Server.

The next part of the configuration allows you to add a list of the T-SQL queries that will be run against the SQL server. You can add as many queries or servers as required.

<queries> Configuration Values	Description
interval	The interval to send metrics to Carbon. I recommend 5 seconds or greater. The more queries you are running the longer it takes to send them to the Graphite server.
tsql_*	The T-SQL query to run against the SQL Server. See SQL Metric types section for details.
metric_prefix	The Graphite metric name to use for this SQL server.
timestamp	You can specify column name which will be interpreted as metric timestamp or leave now to use current resultset's timestamp

There are a few important things to keep in mind when using this feature.

• If you provide the SQL Username and Password options, they is stored in plain text in the configuration file. If you do not provide a username and password, the windows account that the golagraphite is running under will be used against the SQL Server. This is a good way to protect the credentials.
• There is no verification that the SQL command in the configuration file is not destructive. Be sure to use a low privilege account to authenticate against SQL so that any malicious T-SQL queries don't destroy your data.
• If you use timestamp field other than now, ensure that your resultset returns datetime type in that field

SQL Metric types

There are two different types of sql queries you can use. Which one to use is depend on you sql-query, find suitable for you.

TSQL Row

If your query results in simple one-row resultset and you want to use current timestamp use tsql_row query type. The T-SQL query resultset should be returned with named columns which will be used as metric suffixes.

If your resultset contains timestamp column which you want to be used as metric timestamp, simply change the timestamp-field of config with the name of that column. With timestamp != now you can return as many rows as you want, otherwise only the last value of each metric will be sent to graphite server.

TSQL Table

If you query results in key-value table, where key is metric-name and value is metric-value, you may want to use tsql_table query type

Example of suitable resultset of tsql_table-type and timestamps enabled.

Installing as a Service

Once you have edited the configuration file and verified everything is functioning correctly, you might want to install golagraphite as a service.

The easiest way to achieve this is using NSSM - the Non-Sucking Service Manager.

1. Download nssm from nssm.cc
2. Open up an Administrative command prompt and run nssm install golagraphite. (You can call the service whatever you want).
3. A dialog will pop up allowing you to enter in settings for the new service. The following two tables below contains the settings to use.

4. Click Install Service
5. Make sure the service is started and it is set to Automatic
6. Check your Graphite server and make sure the metrics are coming in