Docs » Get started with the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector » Components » Smart Agent receiver

Smart Agent receiver ๐Ÿ”—

The Smart Agent receiver lets you use Smart Agent monitors through the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. Supported pipeline types are traces, metrics, and logs. See Configure pipelines for more information.

The Smart Agent receiver is fully supported only on amd64 linux platforms. Support for ARM64 is experimental starting from the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector version 0.73 and higher. For a list of supported monitors, see Processor architecture.

Note

For instructions on how to migrate from the Smart Agent to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector, see Migrate from SignalFx Smart Agent to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector.

Benefits ๐Ÿ”—

The Smart Agent receiver lets you use Smart Agent monitors through the OpenTelemetry Collector. In most cases, you can move your existing Smart Agent monitor configuration to the configuration file of the Collector without changes.

For a list of monitor data sources, see Available host and application monitors.

Get started ๐Ÿ”—

By default, the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector includes the Smart Agent receiver with the signalfx-forwarder and processlist monitors when deploying in agent mode. See Collector deployment modes for more information.

For each Smart Agent monitor you want to add to the Collector, add a Smart Agent receiver. After youโ€™ve configured a Smart Agent monitor in the Collector, each Smart Agent receiver behaves like the corresponding Smart Agent monitor.

Sample configurations ๐Ÿ”—

The following example adds the Postgresql monitor to the Collector using the Smart Agent receiver:

receivers:
  smartagent/postgresql:
    type: postgresql
    host: mypostgresinstance
    port: 5432
    dimensionClients:
      - signalfx # Instructs the receiver to use this exporter for dimension updates

You can then add the receiver to any compatible pipeline. For example:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers:
        - smartagent/postgresql
      exporters:
        - signalfx

If you use a monitor that updates dimension properties or tags, for example postgresql, add the name of your SignalFx exporter in the dimensionClients field in Smart Agent receiver configuration block. If you donโ€™t set any exporter in the dimensionClients field, the receiver tries to use the pipeline to which itโ€™s connected. If you donโ€™t require dimension updates, you can use an empty array ([]) to deactivate it.

Caution

Donโ€™t remove the smartagent/signalfx-forwarder and smartagent/processlist receivers from the configuration. System processes and Smart Agent telemetry depend on both receiversโ€™s configurations.

Add additional metrics ๐Ÿ”—

To ingest additional metrics using Smart Agent monitors, add the extraMetrics field to the monitor configuration. For example:

receivers:
  smartagent/postgresql:
    type: postgresql
    host: mypostgresinstance
    port: 5432
    extraMetrics:
      - actual-name-0 # Add metrics to be ingested
      - actual-name-1

Settings ๐Ÿ”—

To configure Smart Agent monitors, see the documentation on each monitor type in Available host and application monitors.

Troubleshooting ๐Ÿ”—

If you are a Splunk Observability Cloud customer and are not able to see your data in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can get help in the following ways.

Available to Splunk Observability Cloud customers ๐Ÿ”—

Available to customers and free trial users ๐Ÿ”—

  • Ask a question and get answers through community support at Splunk Answers.

  • Join the Splunk #observability user group Slack channel to communicate with customers, partners, and Splunk employees worldwide. To join, see Chat groups in the Get Started with Splunk Community manual.

To learn about even more support options, see Splunk Customer Success.