MaxScale

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: maxscale

Overview

This collector monitors the activity and performance of MaxScale servers.

It sends HTTP requests to the MaxScale REST API.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

The collector can automatically detect MaxScale instances running on:

• localhost that are listening on port 8989
• within Docker containers

Note that the MaxScale REST API requires a username and password. While Netdata can automatically detect MaxScale instances and create data collection jobs, these jobs will fail unless you provide the necessary credentials.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per MaxScale instance

These metrics refer to the monitored MaxScale instance.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
maxscale.poll_events	reads, writes, accepts, errors, hangups	events/s
maxscale.current_sessions	sessions	sessions
maxscale.current_zombie_connections	zombie	connections
maxscale.threads_by_state	active, draining, dormant	threads
maxscale.current_fds	managed	fds
maxscale.qc_cache_efficiency	hits, misses	requests/s
maxscale.qc_cache_operations	inserts, evictions	operations/s
maxscale.uptime	uptime	seconds

Per server

These metrics refer to the MariaDB server.

Labels:

Label	Description
server	Server ID.
address	Server address.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
maxscale.server_state	master, slave, running, down, maintenance, draining, drained, relay_master, binlog_relay, synced	state
maxscale.server_current_connections	connections	connections

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

You can configure the maxscale collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for maxscale, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/maxscale.conf and add a job.

important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options

Group	Option	Description	Default	Required
Collection	update_every	Data collection interval (seconds).	1	no
	autodetection_retry	Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable.	0	no
Target	url	Target endpoint URL.	http://127.0.0.1:8989	yes
	timeout	HTTP request timeout (seconds).	1	no
HTTP Auth	username	Username for Basic HTTP authentication.	admin	no
	password	Password for Basic HTTP authentication.	mariadb	no
	bearer_token_file	Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for Authorization: Bearer).		no
TLS	tls_skip_verify	Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure).	no	no
	tls_ca	Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate.		no
	tls_cert	Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS).		no
	tls_key	Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS).		no
Proxy	proxy_url	HTTP proxy URL.		no
	proxy_username	Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
	proxy_password	Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
Request	method	HTTP method to use.	GET	no
	body	Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT).		no
	headers	Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value).		no
	not_follow_redirects	Do not follow HTTP redirects.	no	no
	force_http2	Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP).	no	no
Virtual Node	vnode	Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node.		no

via UI

Configure the maxscale collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the maxscale data-collection job to run and click the ⚙ (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type maxscale (or scroll the list) to locate the maxscale collector.
5. Click the + next to the maxscale collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/maxscale.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/maxscale.conf

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8989
    username: admin
    password: mariadb

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

MaxScale with enabled HTTPS and self-signed certificate.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8989
    username: admin
    password: mariadb
    tls_skip_verify: yes

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:8989
    username: admin
    password: mariadb

  - name: remote
    url: http://192.0.2.1:8989
    username: admin
    password: mariadb

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the maxscale collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

• Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m maxscale

  To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m maxscale -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the maxscale collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

• Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
• Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep maxscale

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep maxscale /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep maxscale