Datastore

Sensu stores the most recent event for each entity and check pair using either an etcd (default) or PostgreSQL database. You can access event data with the Sensu web UI Events page, sensuctl event commands, and the events API. For longer retention of event data, integrate Sensu with a time-series database like InfluxDB or a searchable index like ElasticSearch or Splunk.

Use default event storage

By default, Sensu uses its embedded etcd database to store configuration and event data. This embedded database allows you to get started with Sensu without deploying a complete, scalable architecture. Sensu’s default embedded etcd configuration listens for unencrypted communication on ports 2379 (client requests) and 2380 (peer communication).

Sensu can be configured to disable the embedded etcd database and use one or more external etcd nodes for configuration and event storage instead. To stand up an external etcd cluster, follow etcd’s clustering guide using the same store configuration. Do not configure external etcd in Sensu via backend command line flags or the backend configuration file (/etc/sensu/backend.yml).

As your deployment grows beyond the proof-of-concept stage, review Deployment architecture for Sensu for more information about deployment considerations and recommendations for a production-ready Sensu deployment.

Sensu requires at least etcd 3.3.2 and is tested against releases in the 3.3.x series. etcd version 3.4.0 is compatible with Sensu but may result in slower performance than the 3.3.x series.

Scale event storage

COMMERCIAL FEATURE: Access enterprise-scale event storage in the packaged Sensu Go distribution. For more information, see Get started with commercial features.

Sensu supports using an external PostgreSQL instance for event storage in place of etcd. PostgreSQL can handle significantly higher volumes of Sensu events, which allows you to scale Sensu beyond etcd’s 8-GB limit.

When configured with a PostgreSQL event store, Sensu connects to PostgreSQL to store and retrieve event data in place of etcd. Etcd continues to store Sensu entity and configuration data. You can access event data stored in PostgreSQL using the same Sensu web UI, API, and sensuctl processes as etcd-stored events.

PostgreSQL requirements

Sensu supports PostgreSQL 9.5 and later, including Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) when configured with the PostgreSQL engine. See the PostgreSQL docs to install and configure PostgreSQL.

Configure the PostgreSQL event store

At the time when you enable the PostgreSQL event store, event data cuts over from etcd to PostgreSQL. This results in a loss of recent event history. No restarts or Sensu backend configuration changes are required to enable the PostgreSQL event store.

When you successfully enable PostgreSQL as the Sensu Go event store, the Sensu backend log will include a message like this:

Mar 10 17:44:45 sensu-centos sensu-backend[1365]: {"component":"store-providers","level":"warning","msg":"switched event store to postgres","time":"2020-03-10T17:44:45Z"}

After you install and configure PostgreSQL, configure Sensu by creating a PostgresConfig resource like the following example. See Datastore specification for more information.

---
type: PostgresConfig
api_version: store/v1
metadata:
  name: my-postgres
spec:
  dsn: "postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname"
  max_conn_lifetime: 5m
  max_idle_conns: 2
  pool_size: 20

{
  "type": "PostgresConfig",
  "api_version": "store/v1",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "my-postgres"
  },
  "spec": {
    "dsn": "postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname",
    "max_conn_lifetime": "5m",
    "max_idle_conns": 2,
    "pool_size": 20
  }
}

Save your PostgresConfig resource definition to a file (in this example, postgres.yml or postgres.json). Then, use sensuctl configured as the admin user to activate the PostgreSQL event store.

sensuctl create --file postgres.yml

sensuctl create --file postgres.json

To update your Sensu PostgreSQL configuration, repeat the sensuctl create process. You can expect to see PostgreSQL status updates in the Sensu backend logs at the warn log level and PostgreSQL error messages in the Sensu backend logs at the error log level.

Disable the PostgreSQL event store

To disable the PostgreSQL event store, use sensuctl delete with your PostgresConfig resource definition file:

sensuctl delete --file postgres.yml

sensuctl delete --file postgres.json

The Sensu backend log will include a message to record that you successfully disabled PostgreSQL as the Sensu Go event store:

Mar 10 17:35:04 sensu-centos sensu-backend[1365]: {"component":"store-providers","level":"warning","msg":"switched event store to etcd","time":"2020-03-10T17:35:04Z"}

When you disable the PostgreSQL event store, event data cuts over from PostgreSQL to etcd, which results in a loss of recent event history. No restarts or Sensu backend configuration changes are required to disable the PostgreSQL event store.

Datastore specification

Top-level attributes

type: PostgresConfig

{
  "type": "PostgresConfig"
}

api_version: store/v1

{
  "api_version": "store/v1"
}

metadata:
  name: my-postgres
  created_by: admin

{
  "metadata": {
    "name": "my-postgres",
    "created_by": "admin"
  }
}

spec:
  dsn: 'postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname'
  max_conn_lifetime: 5m
  max_idle_conns: 2
  pool_size: 20

{
  "spec": {
    "dsn": "postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname",
    "max_conn_lifetime": "5m",
    "max_idle_conns": 2,
    "pool_size": 20
  }
}

Metadata attributes

name: my-postgres

{
  "name": "my-postgres"
}

created_by: admin

{
  "created_by": "admin"
}

Spec attributes

dsn: 'postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname'

{
  "dsn": "postgresql://user:secret@host:port/dbname"
}

max_conn_lifetime: 5m

{
  "max_conn_lifetime": "5m"
}

max_idle_conns: 2

{
  "max_idle_conns": 2
}

pool_size: 20

{
  "pool_size": 20
}