SQL module

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This functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

The SQL module allows you to execute custom queries against an SQL database and store the results in Elasticsearch. It also enables developing various SQL metrics integrations, using sql query as input.

This module supports the databases that you can monitor with Metricbeat, including:

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft SQL
  • CockroachDB

To enable the module, run:

metricbeat module enable sql

After enabling the module, open modules.d/sql.yml and set the required fields:

driver
The driver can be any driver that has a Metricbeat module, such as mssql or postgres.
raw_data.enabled
Expects either true or false. By default false. Marking as true will generate event results in new field format.

Expects either sql_queries or sql_query.

sql_queries

Receives the list of queries to execute. query and response_format is repeated to get multiple query inputs.

query
Expects sql query.
response_format

Either variables or table:

variables
Expects a two-column table that looks like a key/value result. The left column is considered a key and the right column the value. This mode generates a single event on each fetch operation.
table
Expects any number of columns. This mode generates a single event for each row.
sql_query
The single query you want to run. (Backward Compatibility). Also provide corresponding sql_response_format: either variables or table

Example: capture Innodb-related metrics

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This sql.yml configuration shows how to capture Innodb-related metrics that result from the query SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE 'Innodb_system%' in a MySQL database:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["root:root@tcp(localhost:3306)/ps"]

  driver: "mysql"
  sql_query: "SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE 'Innodb_system%'"
  sql_response_format: variables

The SHOW GLOBAL STATUS query results in this table:

Variable_name Value

Innodb_system_rows_deleted

0

Innodb_system_rows_inserted

0

Innodb_system_rows_read

5062

Innodb_system_rows_updated

315

Results are grouped by type in the result event for convenient mapping in Elasticsearch. For example, strings values are grouped into sql.strings, numeric into sql.numeric, and so on.

The example shown earlier generates this event:

{
  "@timestamp": "2020-06-09T15:09:14.407Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "service": {
    "address": "172.18.0.2:3306",
    "type": "sql"
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 1272810
  },
  "sql": {
    "driver": "mysql",
    "query": "SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE 'Innodb_system%'",
    "metrics": {
      "numeric": {
        "innodb_system_rows_updated": 315,
        "innodb_system_rows_deleted": 0,
        "innodb_system_rows_inserted": 0,
        "innodb_system_rows_read": 5062
      }
    }
  },
  "metricset": {
    "name": "query",
    "period": 10000
  },
  "ecs": {
    "version": "1.5.0"
  },
  "host": {
    "name": "elastic"
  },
  "agent": {
    "name": "elastic",
    "type": "metricbeat",
    "version": "8.0.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "488431bd-bd3c-4442-ad51-0c50eb555787",
    "id": "670ef211-87f0-4f38-8beb-655c377f1629"
  }
}

Example: query PostgreSQL and generate a "table" result

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This sql.yml configuration shows how to query PostgreSQL and generate a "table" result. This configuration generates a single event for each row returned:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/stuff?sslmode=disable"]

  driver: "postgres"
  sql_query: "SELECT datid, datname, blks_read, blks_hit, tup_returned, tup_fetched, stats_reset FROM pg_stat_database"
  sql_response_format: table

The SELECT query results in this table:

datid datname blks_read blks_hit tup_returned tup_fetched stats_reset

69448

stuff

8652

205976

1484625

53218

2020-06-07 22:50:12

13408

postgres

0

0

0

0

13407

template0

0

0

0

0

Because the table contains three rows, three events are generated, one event for each row. For example, this event is created for the first row:

{
  "@timestamp": "2020-06-09T14:47:35.481Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "service": {
    "address": "localhost:5432",
    "type": "sql"
  },
  "ecs": {
    "version": "1.5.0"
  },
  "host": {
    "name": "elastic"
  },
  "agent": {
    "type": "metricbeat",
    "version": "8.0.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "1bffe66d-a1ae-4ed6-985a-fd48548a1971",
    "id": "670ef211-87f0-4f38-8beb-655c377f1629",
    "name": "elastic"
  },
  "sql": {
    "metrics": {
      "numeric": {
        "tup_fetched": 53350,
        "datid": 69448,
        "blks_read": 8652,
        "blks_hit": 206501,
        "tup_returned": 1.491873e+06
      },
      "string": {
        "stats_reset": "2020-06-07T20:50:12.632975Z",
        "datname": "stuff"
      }
    },
    "driver": "postgres",
    "query": "SELECT datid, datname, blks_read, blks_hit, tup_returned, tup_fetched, stats_reset FROM pg_stat_database"
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 14076705
  },
  "metricset": {
    "name": "query",
    "period": 10000
  }
}

Example: get the buffer catch hit ratio in Oracle

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This sql.yml configuration shows how to get the buffer cache hit ratio:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["oracle://sys:Oradoc_db1@172.17.0.3:1521/ORCLPDB1.localdomain?sysdba=1"]

  driver: "oracle"
  sql_query: 'SELECT name, physical_reads, db_block_gets, consistent_gets, 1 - (physical_reads / (db_block_gets + consistent_gets)) "Hit Ratio" FROM V$BUFFER_POOL_STATISTICS'
  sql_response_format: table

The example generates this event:

{
  "@timestamp": "2020-06-09T15:41:02.200Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "sql": {
    "metrics": {
      "numeric": {
        "hit ratio": 0.9742963357937117,
        "physical_reads": 17161,
        "db_block_gets": 122221,
        "consistent_gets": 545427
      },
      "string": {
        "name": "DEFAULT"
      }
    },
    "driver": "oracle",
    "query": "SELECT name, physical_reads, db_block_gets, consistent_gets, 1 - (physical_reads / (db_block_gets + consistent_gets)) \"Hit Ratio\" FROM V$BUFFER_POOL_STATISTICS"
  },
  "metricset": {
    "period": 10000,
    "name": "query"
  },
  "service": {
    "address": "172.17.0.3:1521",
    "type": "sql"
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 39233704
  },
  "ecs": {
    "version": "1.5.0"
  },
  "host": {
    "name": "elastic"
  },
  "agent": {
    "id": "670ef211-87f0-4f38-8beb-655c377f1629",
    "name": "elastic",
    "type": "metricbeat",
    "version": "8.0.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "49e00060-0fa4-4b34-80f1-446881f7a788"
  }
}

Example: get the buffer cache hit ratio for MSSQL

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This sql.yml configuration gets the buffer cache hit ratio:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["sqlserver://SA:password@localhost"]

  driver: "mssql"
  sql_query: 'SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_log_space_usage'
  sql_response_format: table

The example generates this event:

{
  "@timestamp": "2020-06-09T15:39:14.421Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "sql": {
    "driver": "mssql",
    "query": "SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_log_space_usage",
    "metrics": {
      "numeric": {
        "log_space_in_bytes_since_last_backup": 524288,
        "database_id": 1,
        "total_log_size_in_bytes": 2.08896e+06,
        "used_log_space_in_bytes": 954368,
        "used_log_space_in_percent": 45.686275482177734
      }
    }
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 40750570
  }
}

Example: launch two or more queries.

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To launch two or more queries, specify the full configuration for each query. For example:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/stuff?sslmode=disable"]
  driver: "postgres"
  raw_data.enabled: true

  sql_queries:
    - query: "SELECT datid, datname, blks_read, blks_hit, tup_returned, tup_fetched, stats_reset FROM pg_stat_database"
      response_format: table

    - query: "SELECT datname, datid FROM pg_stat_database;"
      response_format: variables

The example generates this event: The response event is generated in new format by enabling the flag raw_data.enabled.

{
  "@timestamp": "2022-05-13T12:47:32.071Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.3.0"
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 114468667
  },
  "metricset": {
    "name": "query",
    "period": 10000
  },
  "service": {
    "address": "localhost:55656",
    "type": "sql"
  },
  "sql": {
    "driver": "postgres",
    "query": "SELECT datid, datname, blks_read, blks_hit, tup_returned, tup_fetched, stats_reset FROM pg_stat_database",
    "metrics": {
      "blks_hit": 6360,
      "tup_returned": 2225,
      "tup_fetched": 1458,
      "datid": 13394,
      "datname": "template0",
      "blks_read": 33
    }
  },
  "ecs": {
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "host": {
    "name": "Muthu-mps"
  },
  "agent": {
    "type": "metricbeat",
    "version": "8.3.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "8decc9eb-5ea5-47d8-8a22-fac507a5521b",
    "id": "6bbf5058-afed-44c6-aa05-775ee14a2da4",
    "name": "Muthu-mps"
  }
}

The example generates this event: By disabling the flag raw_data.enabled, which is the old format.

{
  "@timestamp": "2022-05-13T13:09:19.599Z",
  "@metadata": {
    "beat": "metricbeat",
    "type": "_doc",
    "version": "8.3.0"
  },
  "event": {
    "dataset": "sql.query",
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 77509917
  },
"service": {
    "address": "localhost:55656",
    "type": "sql"
  },
  "metricset": {
    "name": "query",
    "period": 10000
  },

  "sql": {
    "driver": "postgres",
    "query": "SELECT datid, datname, blks_read, blks_hit, tup_returned, tup_fetched, stats_reset FROM pg_stat_database",
    "metrics": {
      "string": {
        "stats_reset": "2022-05-13T12:02:33.825483Z"
      },
      "numeric": {
        "blks_hit": 6360,
        "tup_returned": 2225,
        "tup_fetched": 1458,
        "datid": 0,
        "blks_read": 33
      }
    }
  },
  "ecs": {
    "version": "8.0.0"
  },
  "host": {
        "name": "Muthu-mps"
    },
  "agent": {
    "version": "8.3.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "bc09584b-62db-4b45-bfe9-6b7e8e982361",
    "id": "6bbf5058-afed-44c6-aa05-775ee14a2da4",
    "name": "Muthu-mps",
    "type": "metricbeat"
  }
}

Example: Merge multiple queries to single event.

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Multiple queries will create multiple events, one for each query. It may be preferrable to create a single event by combining the metrics together in a single event.

This feature can be enabled using the merge_results config.

However, such a merge is possible only if the table queries being merged, each produce a single row.

For example:

- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost?sslmode=disable"]

  driver: "postgres"
  raw_data.enabled: true
  merge_results: true
  sql_queries:
    - query: "SELECT blks_hit,blks_read FROM pg_stat_database limit 1;"
      response_format: table
    - query: "select checkpoints_timed,checkpoints_req from pg_stat_bgwriter;"
      response_format: table

This creates a combined event as below, where blks_hit, blks_read, checkpoints_timed and checkpoints_req are part of same event.

{
  "@timestamp": "2022-07-21T07:07:06.747Z",
  "agent": {
    "name": "Lalits-MBP-2",
    "type": "metricbeat",
    "version": "8.4.0",
    "ephemeral_id": "b0867287-e56a-492f-b421-0ac870c426f9",
    "id": "3fe7b378-6f9e-4ca3-9aa1-067c4a6866e5"
  },
  "metricset": {
    "period": 10000,
    "name": "query"
  },
  "service": {
    "type": "sql",
    "address": "localhost"
  },
  "sql": {
    "metrics": {
      "blks_read": 21,
      "checkpoints_req": 1,
      "checkpoints_timed": 66,
      "blks_hit": 7592
    },
    "driver": "postgres"
  },
  "event": {
    "module": "sql",
    "duration": 18883084,
    "dataset": "sql.query"
  }
}

Example configuration

The SQL module supports the standard configuration options that are described in Modules. Here is an example configuration:

metricbeat.modules:
- module: sql
  metricsets:
    - query
  period: 10s
  hosts: ["user=myuser password=mypassword dbname=mydb sslmode=disable"]

  driver: "postgres"
  sql_query: "select now()"
  sql_response_format: table

Metricsets

The following metricsets are available: