Metrics

The Sysdig metrics dictionary lists all the metrics, both in Sysdig legacy and Prometheus-compatible notation, supported by the Sysdig product suite, as well as kube state and cloud provider metrics.

Difference between a Metric and a Time Series

  • A metric is a name representing a particular set of data.
  • A time series is a combination of a metric name associated with a unique set of label values.
MetricTime SeriesValueDescription
http_requestshttp_requests{method="GET", endpoint="/api/v2/users"}100number of GET HTTP requests to /api/v2/users
http_requests{method="POST", endpoint="/api/v2/users"}250number of POST HTTP requests to /api/v2/users
http_requests{status="500", endpoint="/api/v2/users"}10Number of HTTP requests returning 500 to /api/v2/users

Default Metrics

Default metrics are generated by the Sysdig Agent based on its observation of the system. These metrics provide essential monitoring data for hosts, containers, and processes. Examples of default metrics include:

  • System metrics for hosts, containers, and processes, such as CPU usage (ex: sysdig_host_cpu_cores_total).
  • Orchestrator metrics from platforms like Kubernetes or Mesos, such as workload status (ex: kube_workload_status_ready).
  • Network metrics that capture network traffic details (ex: sysdig_connection_net_in_bytes).
  • HTTP metrics, such as HTTP request counts by status code (ex: sysdig_container_net_http_statuscode_request_count).

These default metrics are primarily collected from two sources: system calls (syscalls) and Kubernetes.

Custom Metrics

Custom metrics on the other hand, refer to any metrics that are not natively generated by Sysdig. There are three main types of custom metrics:

  • Metrics collected by the Sysdig Agent: This includes StatsD metrics, JMX metrics, App Checks, and Prometheus metrics. For more details, see Prometheus Metrics, Monitoring Integrations, JMX Metrics, and StatsD Metrics.

  • Metrics received via Prometheus Remote Write: These are metrics sent directly to Sysdig Monitor without using the Sysdig Agent. See Prometheus Remote Write for more information.

  • Metrics from cloud integrations: Metrics received through cloud service integrations. See Cloud Accounts for more information.

Time series generated by custom metrics count towards your time series usage. See Time Series Billing for more information.