These docs are for Cribl Edge 4.10 and are no longer actively maintained.
See the latest version (4.13).
StatsD Extended Destination
Cribl Edge’s StatsD Extended Destination supports sending out data in expanded StatsD format.
The output is an expanded StatsD metric protocol that supports dimensions, along with a sample rate for counter metrics. As with StatsD, downstream components listen for application metrics over UDP or TCP, can aggregate and summarize those metrics, and can relay them to virtually any graphing or monitoring backend.
For details about the syntax expected by one common downstream service, see Splunk’s Expanded StatsD Metric Protocol documentation.
Type: Streaming | TLS Support: No | PQ Support: Yes
Configure Cribl Edge to Output via StatsD Extended
- On the top bar, select Products, and then select Cribl Edge. Under Fleets, select a Fleet. Next, you have two options:
- To configure via QuickConnect, navigate to Routing > QuickConnect (Stream) or Collect (Edge). Select Add Destination and select the Destination you want from the list, choosing either Select Existing or Add New.
- To configure via the Routes, select Data > Destinations or More > Destinations (Edge). Select the Destination you want. Next, select Add Destination.
- In the New Destination modal, configure the following under General Settings:
- Output ID: Enter a unique name to identify this StatsD Extended definition. If you clone this Destination, Cribl Edge will add
-CLONE
to the original Output ID. - Description: Optionally, enter a description.
- Destination protocol: Protocol to use when communicating with the Destination. Defaults to
UDP
. - Host: The hostname of the Destination.
- Port: Destination port. Defaults to
8125
.
- Output ID: Enter a unique name to identify this StatsD Extended definition. If you clone this Destination, Cribl Edge will add
- Next, you can configure the following Optional Settings:
- Throttling: Displayed only when General Settings > Destination protocol is set to
TCP
. Rate (in bytes per second) at which at which to throttle while writing to an output. Also takes numerical values in multiples of bytes (KB, MB, GB, etc.). Default value of0
indicates no throttling. - Backpressure behavior: Displayed only when General Settings > Destination protocol is set to
TCP
. Select whether to block, drop, or queue events when all receivers are exerting backpressure. (Causes might include a broken or denied connection, or a rate limiter.) Defaults toBlock
. - Tags: Optionally, add tags that you can use to filter and group Destinations on the Destinations page. These tags aren’t added to processed events. Use a tab or hard return between (arbitrary) tag names.
- Throttling: Displayed only when General Settings > Destination protocol is set to
- Optionally, you can adjust the Persistent Queue, Timeout, Processing, and Advanced settings outlined in the sections below.
- Select Save, then Commit & Deploy.
Persistent Queue Settings
The Persistent Queue Settings tab displays when the Backpressure behavior option in General settings is set to Persistent Queue. Persistent queue buffers and preserves incoming events when a downstream Destination has an outage or experiences backpressure.
Before enabling persistent queue, learn more about persistent queue behavior and how to optimize it with your system:
- About Persistent Queues
- Optimize Destination Persistent Queues (dPQ)
- Destination Backpressure Triggers
On Cribl-managed Cloud Workers (with an Enterprise plan), this tab exposes only the destructive Clear Persistent Queue button (described at the end of this section). A maximum queue size of 1 GB disk space is automatically allocated per PQ‑enabled Destination, per Worker Process. The 1 GB limit is on outbound uncompressed data, and no compression is applied to the queue.
This limit is not configurable. If the queue fills up, Cribl Stream/Edge will block outbound data. To configure the queue size, compression, queue-full fallback behavior, and other options below, use a hybrid Group.
Mode: Use this menu to select when Cribl Stream/Edge engages the persistent queue in response to backpressure events from this Destination. The options are:
Mode | Description |
---|---|
Error | Queues and stores data on a disk only when the Destination is in an error state. |
Backpressure | After the Destination has been in a backpressure state for a specified amount of time, Cribl Stream/Edge queues and stores data to a disk until the backpressure event resolves. |
Always on | Cribl Stream/Edge immediately queues and stores all data on a disk for all events, even when there is no backpressure. |
If a Worker/Edge Node starts with an invalid Mode setting, it automatically switches to Error mode. This might happen if the Worker/Edge Node is running a version that does not support other modes (older than 4.9.0), or if it encounters a nonexistent value in YAML configuration files.
Max file size: The maximum data volume to store in each queue file before closing it. Enter a numeral with units of KB, MB, etc. Defaults to 1 MB
.
Max queue size: The maximum amount of disk space that the queue can consume on each Worker Process. When the queue reaches this limit, the Destination stops queueing data and applies the Queue‑full behavior. Defaults to 5
GB. This field accepts positive numbers with units of KB
, MB
, GB
, and so on. You can set it as high as 1 TB
, unless you’ve configured a different Worker Process PQ size limit on the Group Settings/Fleet Settings page.
Queue file path: The location for the persistent queue files. Defaults to $CRIBL_HOME/state/queues
. Cribl Stream/Edge will append /<worker‑id>/<output‑id>
to this value.
Compression: Set the codec to use when compressing the persisted data after closing a file. Defaults to None
. Gzip
is also available.
Queue-full behavior: Whether to block or drop events when the queue begins to exert backpressure. A queue begins to exert backpressure when the disk is low or at full capacity. This setting has two options:
- Block: The output will refuse to accept new data until the receiver is ready. The system will return block signals back to the sender.
- Drop new data: Discard all new events until the backpressure event has resolved and the receiver is ready.
Backpressure duration limit: When Mode is set to Backpressure
, this setting controls how long to wait during network slowdowns before activating queues. A shorter duration enhances critical data loss prevention, while a longer duration helps avoid unnecessary queue transitions in environments with frequent, brief network fluctuations. The default value is 30
seconds.
Strict ordering: Toggle on (default) to enable FIFO (first in, first out) event forwarding, ensuring Cribl Stream/Edge sends earlier queued events first when receivers recover. The persistent queue flushes every 10 seconds in this mode. Toggle off to prioritize new events over queued events, configure a custom drain rate for the queue, and display this option:
- Drain rate limit (EPS): Optionally, set a throttling rate (in events per second) on writing from the queue to receivers. (The default
0
value disables throttling.) Throttling the queue drain rate can boost the throughput of new and active connections by reserving more resources for them. You can further optimize Worker startup connections and CPU load in the Group Settings/Fleet Settings > Worker Processes settings.
Clear Persistent Queue: For Cloud Enterprise only, click this button if you want to delete the files that are currently queued for delivery to this Destination. If you click this button, a confirmation modal appears. Clearing the queue frees up disk space by permanently deleting the queued data, without delivering it to downstream receivers. This button only appears after you define the Output ID.
Use the Clear Persistent Queue button with caution to avoid data loss. See Steps to Safely Disable and Clear Persistent Queues for more information.
Processing Settings
Post‑Processing
Pipeline: Pipeline or Pack to process data before sending the data out using this output.
System fields: A list of fields to automatically add to events that use this output. By default, includes cribl_pipe
(identifying the Cribl Edge Pipeline that processed the event). Supports wildcards. Other options include:
cribl_host
– Cribl Edge Node that processed the event.cribl_input
– Cribl Edge Source that processed the event.cribl_output
– Cribl Edge Destination that processed the event.cribl_route
– Cribl Edge Route (or QuickConnect) that processed the event.cribl_wp
– Cribl Edge Worker Process that processed the event.
Advanced Settings
Max record size (bytes): Used when Protocol is UDP. Specifies the maximum size of packets sent to the Destination. (Also known as the MTU – maximum transmission unit – for the network path to the Destination system.) Defaults to 512
.
Flush period (sec): Used when Protocol is TCP. Specifies how often buffers should be flushed, sending records to the Destination. Defaults to 1
.
DNS resolution period (sec): Specify the interval (in seconds) to re-resolve hostnames. This reduces the frequency of DNS lookups, improving performance. Use this setting to balance the overhead of DNS lookup calls with the expected frequency of changes in the DNS records. Defaults to 0
seconds, meaning DNS lookups occur for every outgoing batch.
Environment: If you’re using GitOps, optionally use this field to specify a single Git branch on which to enable this configuration. If empty, the config will be enabled everywhere.
Troubleshooting
The Destination’s configuration modal has helpful tabs for troubleshooting:
Live Data: Try capturing live data to see real-time events as they flow through the Destination. On the Live Data tab, click Start Capture to begin viewing real-time data.
Logs: Review and search the logs that provide detailed information about the delivery process, including any errors or warnings that may have occurred.
Test: Ensures that the Destination is correctly set up and reachable. Verify that sample events are sent correctly by clicking Run Test.
You can also view the Monitoring page that provides a comprehensive overview of data volume and rate, helping you identify delivery issues. Analyze the graphs showing events and bytes in/out over time.