Azure Blob Storage

Store your observability data in Azure Blob Storage

status: beta delivery: at-least-once acknowledgements: yes egress: batch state: stateless
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Configuration

Example configurations 

{
  "sinks": {
    "my_sink_id": {
      "type": "azure_blob",
      "inputs": [
        "my-source-or-transform-id"
      ],
      "container_name": "my-logs"
    }
  }
}
[sinks.my_sink_id]
type = "azure_blob"
inputs = [ "my-source-or-transform-id" ]
container_name = "my-logs"

---
sinks:
  my_sink_id:
    type: azure_blob
    inputs:
      - my-source-or-transform-id
    container_name: my-logs

{
  "sinks": {
    "my_sink_id": {
      "type": "azure_blob",
      "inputs": [
        "my-source-or-transform-id"
      ],
      "blob_prefix": "blob/%F/",
      "compression": "gzip",
      "connection_string": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=mylogstorage;AccountKey=storageaccountkeybase64encoded;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
      "container_name": "my-logs",
      "endpoint": "https://test.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/",
      "storage_account": "mylogstorage"
    }
  }
}
[sinks.my_sink_id]
type = "azure_blob"
inputs = [ "my-source-or-transform-id" ]
blob_prefix = "blob/%F/"
compression = "gzip"
connection_string = "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=mylogstorage;AccountKey=storageaccountkeybase64encoded;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net"
container_name = "my-logs"
endpoint = "https://test.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/"
storage_account = "mylogstorage"

---
sinks:
  my_sink_id:
    type: azure_blob
    inputs:
      - my-source-or-transform-id
    blob_prefix: blob/%F/
    compression: gzip
    connection_string: DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=mylogstorage;AccountKey=storageaccountkeybase64encoded;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net
    container_name: my-logs
    endpoint: https://test.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/
    storage_account: mylogstorage

acknowledgements

optional object

Controls how acknowledgements are handled for this sink.

See End-to-end Acknowledgements for more information on how event acknowledgement is handled.

acknowledgements.enabled

optional bool

Whether or not end-to-end acknowledgements are enabled.

When enabled for a sink, any source connected to that sink, where the source supports end-to-end acknowledgements as well, will wait for events to be acknowledged by the sink before acknowledging them at the source.

Enabling or disabling acknowledgements at the sink level takes precedence over any global acknowledgements configuration.

batch

optional object
Event batching behavior.

batch.max_bytes

optional uint

The maximum size of a batch that will be processed by a sink.

This is based on the uncompressed size of the batched events, before they are serialized / compressed.

default: 1e+07 (bytes)

batch.max_events

optional uint
The maximum size of a batch before it is flushed.

batch.timeout_secs

optional float
The maximum age of a batch before it is flushed.
default: 300 (seconds)

blob_append_uuid

optional bool

Whether or not to append a UUID v4 token to the end of the blob key.

The UUID is appended to the timestamp portion of the object key, such that if the blob key being generated was date=2022-07-18/1658176486, setting this field to true would result in an blob key that looked like date=2022-07-18/1658176486-30f6652c-71da-4f9f-800d-a1189c47c547.

This ensures there are no name collisions, and can be useful in high-volume workloads where blob keys must be unique.

blob_prefix

optional string template

A prefix to apply to all blob keys.

Prefixes are useful for partitioning objects, such as by creating an blob key that stores blobs under a particular “directory”. If using a prefix for this purpose, it must end in / to act as a directory path. A trailing / is not automatically added.

Note: This parameter supports Vector's template syntax, which enables you to use dynamic per-event values.
Examples 
"date/%F/hour/%H/"
"year=%Y/month=%m/day=%d/"
"kubernetes/{{ metadata.cluster }}/{{ metadata.application_name }}/"
default: blob/%F/

blob_time_format

optional string strftime

The timestamp format for the time component of the blob key.

By default, blob keys are appended with a timestamp that reflects when the blob are sent to Azure Blob Storage, such that the resulting blob key is functionally equivalent to joining the blob prefix with the formatted timestamp, such as date=2022-07-18/1658176486.

This would represent a blob_prefix set to date=%F/ and the timestamp of Mon Jul 18 2022 20:34:44 GMT+0000, with the filename_time_format being set to %s, which renders timestamps in seconds since the Unix epoch.

Supports the common strftime specifiers found in most languages.

When set to an empty string, no timestamp will be appended to the blob prefix.

buffer

optional object

Configures the buffering behavior for this sink.

More information about the individual buffer types, and buffer behavior, can be found in the Buffering Model section.

buffer.max_events

optional uint
The maximum number of events allowed in the buffer.
Relevant when: type = "memory"
default: 500

buffer.max_size

required uint

The maximum size of the buffer on disk.

Must be at least ~256 megabytes (268435488 bytes).

Relevant when: type = "disk"

buffer.type

optional string literal enum
The type of buffer to use.
Enum options
OptionDescription
disk

Events are buffered on disk.

This is less performant, but more durable. Data that has been synchronized to disk will not be lost if Vector is restarted forcefully or crashes.

Data is synchronized to disk every 500ms.

memory

Events are buffered in memory.

This is more performant, but less durable. Data will be lost if Vector is restarted forcefully or crashes.

default: memory

buffer.when_full

optional string literal enum
Event handling behavior when a buffer is full.
Enum options
OptionDescription
block

Wait for free space in the buffer.

This applies backpressure up the topology, signalling that sources should slow down the acceptance/consumption of events. This means that while no data is lost, data will pile up at the edge.

drop_newest

Drops the event instead of waiting for free space in buffer.

The event will be intentionally dropped. This mode is typically used when performance is the highest priority, and it is preferable to temporarily lose events rather than cause a slowdown in the acceptance/consumption of events.

default: block

compression

optional string literal enum

Compression configuration.

All compression algorithms use the default compression level unless otherwise specified.

Enum options string literal
OptionDescription
gzipGzip compression.
noneNo compression.
zlibZlib compression.
default: gzip

connection_string

optional string literal

The Azure Blob Storage Account connection string.

Authentication with access key is the only supported authentication method.

Either storage_account, or this field, must be specified.

Examples 
"DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=mylogstorage;AccountKey=storageaccountkeybase64encoded;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net"

container_name

required string literal
The Azure Blob Storage Account container name.
Examples 
"my-logs"

encoding

required object
Configures how events are encoded into raw bytes.

encoding.avro

required object
Apache Avro-specific encoder options.
Relevant when: codec = "avro"
encoding.avro.schema
required string literal
The Avro schema.
Examples 
"{ \"type\": \"record\", \"name\": \"log\", \"fields\": [{ \"name\": \"message\", \"type\": \"string\" }] }"

encoding.codec

required string literal enum
The codec to use for encoding events.
Enum options
OptionDescription
avroEncodes an event as an Apache Avro message.
csv

Encodes an event as a CSV message.

This codec must be configured with fields to encode.

gelfEncodes an event as a GELF message.
jsonEncodes an event as JSON.
logfmtEncodes an event as a logfmt message.
native

Encodes an event in Vector’s native Protocol Buffers format.

This codec is experimental.

native_json

Encodes an event in Vector’s native JSON format.

This codec is experimental.

raw_message

No encoding.

This “encoding” simply uses the message field of a log event.

Users should take care if they’re modifying their log events (such as by using a remap transform, etc) and removing the message field while doing additional parsing on it, as this could lead to the encoding emitting empty strings for the given event.

text

Plain text encoding.

This “encoding” simply uses the message field of a log event. For metrics, it uses an encoding that resembles the Prometheus export format.

Users should take care if they’re modifying their log events (such as by using a remap transform, etc) and removing the message field while doing additional parsing on it, as this could lead to the encoding emitting empty strings for the given event.

Examples 
"avro"
"csv"
"gelf"
"json"
"logfmt"
"native"
"native_json"
"raw_message"
"text"

encoding.csv

required object
The CSV Serializer Options.
Relevant when: codec = "csv"
encoding.csv.fields
required [string]

Configures the fields that will be encoded, as well as the order in which they appear in the output.

If a field is not present in the event, the output will be an empty string.

Values of type Array, Object, and Regex are not supported and the output will be an empty string.

encoding.except_fields

optional [string]
List of fields that will be excluded from the encoded event.

encoding.metric_tag_values

optional string literal enum

Controls how metric tag values are encoded.

When set to single, only the last non-bare value of tags will be displayed with the metric. When set to full, all metric tags will be exposed as separate assignments.

Relevant when: codec = "json" or codec = "text"
Enum options
OptionDescription
fullAll tags will be exposed as arrays of either string or null values.
singleTag values will be exposed as single strings, the same as they were before this config option. Tags with multiple values will show the last assigned value, and null values will be ignored.
default: single

encoding.only_fields

optional [string]
List of fields that will be included in the encoded event.

encoding.timestamp_format

optional string literal enum
Format used for timestamp fields.
Enum options
OptionDescription
rfc3339Represent the timestamp as a RFC 3339 timestamp.
unixRepresent the timestamp as a Unix timestamp.

endpoint

optional string literal

The Azure Blob Storage Endpoint URL.

This is used to override the default blob storage endpoint URL in cases where you are using credentials read from the environment/managed identities or access tokens without using an explicit connection_string (which already explicitly supports overriding the blob endpoint URL).

This may only be used with storage_account and will be ignored when used with connection_string.

Examples 
"https://test.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/"
"https://test.blob.core.windows.net/"

framing

optional object
Framing configuration.

framing.character_delimited

required object
Options for the character delimited encoder.
Relevant when: method = "character_delimited"
framing.character_delimited.delimiter
required uint
The ASCII (7-bit) character that delimits byte sequences.

framing.method

required string literal enum
The framing method.
Enum options
OptionDescription
bytesEvent data is not delimited at all.
character_delimitedEvent data is delimited by a single ASCII (7-bit) character.
length_delimited

Event data is prefixed with its length in bytes.

The prefix is a 32-bit unsigned integer, little endian.

newline_delimitedEvent data is delimited by a newline (LF) character.
Examples 
"bytes"
"character_delimited"
"length_delimited"
"newline_delimited"

healthcheck

optional object
Healthcheck configuration.

healthcheck.enabled

optional bool
Whether or not to check the health of the sink when Vector starts up.
default: true

inputs

required [string]

A list of upstream source or transform IDs.

Wildcards (*) are supported.

See configuration for more info.

Array string literal
Examples 
[
  "my-source-or-transform-id",
  "prefix-*"
]

request

optional object

Middleware settings for outbound requests.

Various settings can be configured, such as concurrency and rate limits, timeouts, etc.

request.adaptive_concurrency

optional object

Configuration of adaptive concurrency parameters.

These parameters typically do not require changes from the default, and incorrect values can lead to meta-stable or unstable performance and sink behavior. Proceed with caution.

request.adaptive_concurrency.decrease_ratio
optional float

The fraction of the current value to set the new concurrency limit when decreasing the limit.

Valid values are greater than 0 and less than 1. Smaller values cause the algorithm to scale back rapidly when latency increases.

Note that the new limit is rounded down after applying this ratio.

default: 0.9
request.adaptive_concurrency.ewma_alpha
optional float

The weighting of new measurements compared to older measurements.

Valid values are greater than 0 and less than 1.

ARC uses an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) of past RTT measurements as a reference to compare with the current RTT. Smaller values cause this reference to adjust more slowly, which may be useful if a service has unusually high response variability.

default: 0.4
request.adaptive_concurrency.rtt_deviation_scale
optional float

Scale of RTT deviations which are not considered anomalous.

Valid values are greater than or equal to 0, and we expect reasonable values to range from 1.0 to 3.0.

When calculating the past RTT average, we also compute a secondary “deviation” value that indicates how variable those values are. We use that deviation when comparing the past RTT average to the current measurements, so we can ignore increases in RTT that are within an expected range. This factor is used to scale up the deviation to an appropriate range. Larger values cause the algorithm to ignore larger increases in the RTT.

default: 2.5

request.concurrency

optional string literal enum uint
Configuration for outbound request concurrency.
Enum options
OptionDescription
adaptiveConcurrency will be managed by Vector’s Adaptive Request Concurrency feature.
none

A fixed concurrency of 1.

Only one request can be outstanding at any given time.

default: none

request.rate_limit_duration_secs

optional uint
The time window used for the rate_limit_num option.
default: 1 (seconds)

request.rate_limit_num

optional uint
The maximum number of requests allowed within the rate_limit_duration_secs time window.
default: 9.223372036854776e+18 (requests)

request.retry_attempts

optional uint

The maximum number of retries to make for failed requests.

The default, for all intents and purposes, represents an infinite number of retries.

default: 9.223372036854776e+18 (retries)

request.retry_initial_backoff_secs

optional uint

The amount of time to wait before attempting the first retry for a failed request.

After the first retry has failed, the fibonacci sequence will be used to select future backoffs.

default: 1 (seconds)

request.retry_max_duration_secs

optional uint
The maximum amount of time to wait between retries.
default: 3600 (seconds)

request.timeout_secs

optional uint

The time a request can take before being aborted.

It is highly recommended that you do not lower this value below the service’s internal timeout, as this could create orphaned requests, pile on retries, and result in duplicate data downstream.

default: 60 (seconds)

storage_account

optional string literal

The Azure Blob Storage Account name.

Attempts to load credentials for the account in the following ways, in order:

Either connection_string, or this field, must be specified.

Examples 
"mylogstorage"

Telemetry

Metrics

link

buffer_byte_size

gauge
The number of bytes current in the buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_discarded_events_total

counter
The number of events dropped by this non-blocking buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_events

gauge
The number of events currently in the buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_received_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of bytes received by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_received_events_total

counter
The number of events received by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_sent_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of bytes sent by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

buffer_sent_events_total

counter
The number of events sent by this buffer.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

component_received_event_bytes_total

counter
The number of event bytes accepted by this component either from tagged origins like file and uri, or cumulatively from other origins.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_received_events_count

histogram

A histogram of the number of events passed in each internal batch in Vector’s internal topology.

Note that this is separate than sink-level batching. It is mostly useful for low level debugging performance issues in Vector due to small internal batches.

component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_received_events_total

counter
The number of events accepted by this component either from tagged origins like file and uri, or cumulatively from other origins.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

component_sent_event_bytes_total

counter
The total number of event bytes emitted by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
output optional
The specific output of the component.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

component_sent_events_total

counter
The total number of events emitted by this component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
output optional
The specific output of the component.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

events_discarded_total

counter
The total number of events discarded by this component.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
reason
The type of the error

events_in_total

counter
The number of events accepted by this component either from tagged origins like file and uri, or cumulatively from other origins. This metric is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Use component_received_events_total instead.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the data originated.
file optional
The file from which the data originated.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the data originated.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the data originated.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the data originated.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the data originated.

http_error_response_total

counter
The total number of HTTP error responses for this component.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

http_request_errors_total

counter
The total number of HTTP request errors for this component.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

processed_bytes_total

counter
The number of bytes processed by the component.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
container_name optional
The name of the container from which the bytes originate.
file optional
The file from which the bytes originate.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
mode optional
The connection mode used by the component.
peer_addr optional
The IP from which the bytes originate.
peer_path optional
The pathname from which the bytes originate.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.
pod_name optional
The name of the pod from which the bytes originate.
uri optional
The sanitized URI from which the bytes originate.

processing_errors_total

counter
The total number of processing errors encountered by this component. This metric is deprecated in favor of component_errors_total.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
error_type
The type of the error
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

utilization

gauge
A ratio from 0 to 1 of the load on a component. A value of 0 would indicate a completely idle component that is simply waiting for input. A value of 1 would indicate a that is never idle. This value is updated every 5 seconds.
component_id
The Vector component ID.
component_kind
The Vector component kind.
component_name
Deprecated, use component_id instead. The value is the same as component_id.
component_type
The Vector component type.
host optional
The hostname of the system Vector is running on.
pid optional
The process ID of the Vector instance.

How it works

Buffers and batches

This component buffers & batches data as shown in the diagram above. You’ll notice that Vector treats these concepts differently, instead of treating them as global concepts, Vector treats them as sink specific concepts. This isolates sinks, ensuring services disruptions are contained and delivery guarantees are honored.

Batches are flushed when 1 of 2 conditions are met:

  1. The batch age meets or exceeds the configured timeout_secs.
  2. The batch size meets or exceeds the configured max_bytes or max_events.

Buffers are controlled via the buffer.* options.

Health checks

Health checks ensure that the downstream service is accessible and ready to accept data. This check is performed upon sink initialization. If the health check fails an error will be logged and Vector will proceed to start.

Require health checks

If you’d like to exit immediately upon a health check failure, you can pass the --require-healthy flag:

vector --config /etc/vector/vector.toml --require-healthy

Disable health checks

If you’d like to disable health checks for this sink you can set the healthcheck option to false.

Object naming

By default, Vector names your blobs different based on whether or not the blobs are compressed.

Here is the format without compression:

<key_prefix><timestamp>-<uuidv4>.log

Here’s an example blob name without compression:

blob/2021-06-23/1560886634-fddd7a0e-fad9-4f7e-9bce-00ae5debc563.log

And here is the format with compression:

<key_prefix><timestamp>-<uuidv4>.log.gz

An example blob name with compression:

blob/2021-06-23/1560886634-fddd7a0e-fad9-4f7e-9bce-00ae5debc563.log.gz

Vector appends a UUIDV4 token to ensure there are no name conflicts in the unlikely event that two Vector instances are writing data at the same time.

You can control the resulting name via the blob_prefix, blob_time_format, and blob_append_uuid options.

For example, to store objects at the root Azure storage folder, without a timestamp or UUID use these configuration options:

blob_prefix = "{{ my_file_name }}"
blob_time_format = ""
blob_append_uuid = false

Rate limits & adaptive concurrency

Adaptive Request Concurrency (ARC)

Adaptive Request Concurrency is a feature of Vector that does away with static concurrency limits and automatically optimizes HTTP concurrency based on downstream service responses. The underlying mechanism is a feedback loop inspired by TCP congestion control algorithms. Checkout the announcement blog post,

We highly recommend enabling this feature as it improves performance and reliability of Vector and the systems it communicates with. As such, we have made it the default, and no further configuration is required.

Static concurrency

If Adaptive Request Concurrency is not for you, you can manually set static concurrency limits by specifying an integer for request.concurrency:

[sinks.my-sink]
  request.concurrency = 10

Rate limits

In addition to limiting request concurrency, you can also limit the overall request throughput via the request.rate_limit_duration_secs and request.rate_limit_num options.

[sinks.my-sink]
  request.rate_limit_duration_secs = 1
  request.rate_limit_num = 10

These will apply to both adaptive and fixed request.concurrency values.

Retry policy

Vector will retry failed requests (status == 429, >= 500, and != 501). Other responses will not be retried. You can control the number of retry attempts and backoff rate with the request.retry_attempts and request.retry_backoff_secs options.

State

This component is stateless, meaning its behavior is consistent across each input.
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