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External Labels

Last Updated: Jul. 06, 2023

Send Coralogix your metrics using external labels, maximizing query performance and adding an extra layer of granularity in your data indexing.

Feature

When you send us your data using Prometheus or another agent, you now have the option of using external labels with your metrics.

External labels mark label names that already exist in your data as a partition key. Using these labels, they differentiate metrics from different environments, allowing the creation of a separate index for each data source producing metrics. When you query your data from a particular environment, our system will only load the index associated with that environment, maximizing query performance.

Example

If using, for instance, external_labels=cluster , Coralogix will extract the cluster label from your ingested metrics and then put all metrics with a particular timeseries value cluster=cluster_eu in one index group and another timeseries value cluster=cluster_us in another index group.

Configuration

The following is an example configuration for one external label using the Prometheus remote_write URL.

remote_write:
- url:<https://ingress.coralogix.com/prometheus/v1?external_labels=cluster>
  name: '<customer_name>'
  remote_timeout: 120s
  bearer_token: '<Send_Your_Data_private_key>'

The following is an example configuration for two external labels using the Prometheus remote_write URL.

remote_write:
- url:<https://ingress.coralogix.com/prometheus/v1?external_labels=region&external_labels=cluster>
  name: '<customer_name>'
  remote_timeout: 120s
  bearer_token: '<Send_Your_Data_private_key>'

Notes:

  • External labels are attached to the URL.
  • The configuration requires that you input your Coralogix Send-Your-Data API key.

Best Practices

Follow these guidelines as best practices for using external labels:

  • Use external labels to refer to the name of a data source, rather than a particular value.

For example, if external_labels=cluster, label values found in the timeseries may be {cluster: prod} and {cluster: dev}. The Coralogix pipeline will partition data by the cluster value.

  • Refrain from using external labels with many values.

For every value of your external label, a new index is created. We suggest using a maximum of 20 values per label to ensure optimal query performance.

Additional Resources

DocsPrometheus

Support

Need help?

Our world-class customer success team is available 24/7 to walk you through your setup and answer any questions that may come up.

Feel free to reach out to us via our in-app chat or by sending us an email at [email protected].

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