Network I/O metrics

The Network I/O metrics (netif) input plugin gathers network traffic information of the running system at regular intervals, and reports them.

The Network I/O metrics plugin creates metrics that are log-based, such as JSON payload. For Prometheus-based metrics, see the Node Exporter metrics input plugin.

Configuration parameters

The plugin supports the following configuration parameters:

Key	Description	Default
Interface	Specify the network interface to monitor. For example, eth0.	none
Interval_Sec	Polling interval (seconds).	1
Interval_NSec	Polling interval (nanosecond).	0
Verbose	If true, gather metrics precisely.	false
Test_At_Init	If true, testing if the network interface is valid at initialization.	false
Threaded	Indicates whether to run this input in its own thread.	false

Get started

To monitor network traffic from your system, you can run the plugin from the command line or through the configuration file:

Command line

Run Fluent Bit using a command similar to the following:

fluent-bit -i netif -p interface=eth0 -o stdout

Which returns something the following:

...
[0] netif.0: [1499524459.001698260, {"eth0.rx.bytes"=>89769869, "eth0.rx.packets"=>73357, "eth0.rx.errors"=>0, "eth0.tx.bytes"=>4256474, "eth0.tx.packets"=>24293, "eth0.tx.errors"=>0}]
[1] netif.0: [1499524460.002541885, {"eth0.rx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.rx.packets"=>1, "eth0.rx.errors"=>0, "eth0.tx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.tx.packets"=>1, "eth0.tx.errors"=>0}]
[2] netif.0: [1499524461.001142161, {"eth0.rx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.rx.packets"=>1, "eth0.rx.errors"=>0, "eth0.tx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.tx.packets"=>1, "eth0.tx.errors"=>0}]
[3] netif.0: [1499524462.002612971, {"eth0.rx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.rx.packets"=>1, "eth0.rx.errors"=>0, "eth0.tx.bytes"=>98, "eth0.tx.packets"=>1, "eth0.tx.errors"=>0}]
...

Configuration file

In your main configuration file append the following:

fluent-bit.yaml

pipeline:
  inputs:
    - name: netif
      tag: netif
      interval_sec: 1
      interval_nsec: 0
      interface: eth0
      
  outputs:
    - name: stdout
      match: '*'

fluent-bit.conf

Which calculates using the formula: Total interval (sec) = Interval_Sec + (Interval_Nsec / 1000000000).

For example: 1.5s = 1s + 500000000ns