PostgreSQL OpenTelemetry Assets

Stack 9.1.0 Serverless Observability Serverless Security

The PostreSQL OpenTelemetry integration allows you to monitor PostgreSQL servers and to collect telemetry data to track database health and performance.

The integration package has been tested with PostgreSQL OpenTelemetry Receiver v0.130.0 and PostgreSQL server version 16.4.

PostgreSQL gathers and aggregates information about server activity using its built-in statistics collector which exposes the data through predefined views. For example pg_stat_database and pg_stat_statements. For a complete and up-to-date list of the statistics views and metrics collected, refer to the PostgreSQL Receiver documentation. For detailed explanations of what each statistics view means, check the official documentation for the statistics collector and pg_stat_statements.

The integration provides assets in Kibana that visually represent the collected metrics and events, helping you monitor and explore database activity and performance.

You need Elasticsearch for storing and searching your data and Kibana for visualizing and managing it. You can use our hosted Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud, which is recommended, or self-manage the Elastic Stack on your own hardware.

Some metrics require the pg_stat_statements module. The module tracks the execution statistics for all the SQL statements. To enable it, add the module to the shared_preload_libraries parameter in the postgres.conf file and then restart the server for the settings to take effect.

Additionally, certain metrics and events must be explicitly enabled in the configuration. Check the sample collector configuration in the next section, and refer to the receiver documentation for a complete list of supported metrics and events.

Install and configure the upstream OTel Collector to export metrics to Elasticsearch, as shown in the following example:

postgresql:
    endpoint: localhost:5432
    transport: tcp
    username: <database_user>
    password: <database_password>
    metrics:
      postgresql.database.locks:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.tup_updated:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.tup_returned:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.tup_fetched:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.tup_inserted:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.tup_deleted:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.blks_hit:
        enabled: true
      postgresql.blks_read:
        enabled: true
    events:
      db.server.top_query:
        enabled: true

exporters:
  debug:
    verbosity: detailed
  elasticsearch/otel:
    endpoint: https://localhost:9200
    user: <userid>
    password: <pwd>
    mapping:
      mode: otel
    metrics_dynamic_index:
      enabled: true

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [postgresql]
      exporters: [debug, elasticsearch/otel]
    logs:
      receivers: [postgresql]
      exporters: [debug, elasticsearch/otel]
		

• Metrics are ingested into the metrics-* data view in Elasticsearch.
• Events (logs) are ingested into the logs-* data view in Elasticsearch.

For the full list of settings exposed for the receiver, refer to the configuration section.

To verify that the PostgreSQL OpenTelemetry integration is working:

1. Check Collector Logs Ensure the OpenTelemetry Collector is running and the postgresqlreceiver is enabled. You should see logs confirming metric collection from your PostgreSQL instance.

2. Check Dashboards Open Kibana → Dashboards and confirm that the PostgreSQL OpenTelemetry Metrics dashboard populates with the collected data.

Refer to the OpenTelemetry PostgreSQL receiver's documentation for the complete list of metrics and events collected.

This integration includes one or more Kibana dashboards that visualizes the data collected by the integration. The screenshots below illustrate how the ingested data is displayed.

×