Observability means insight into the state of a system. It comes from the system's metrics. The Lobster Data Platform exports these metrics to your monitoring platform. This guide describes how to connect Datadog.
Datadog is a monitoring platform for metrics and system health. The export uses OpenTelemetry (OTLP). OpenTelemetry is a vendor-neutral standard for metrics.
NOTE This initial release exports metrics and health checks. These include JVM memory, CPU usage, connection pools, and thread counts. Logs and traces follow in later releases.
Prerequisites
To connect Datadog, you need the following:
A Datadog account with an API key and an application key.
The correct regional endpoint: EU or US.
An administrator role in your Lobster Data Platform.
Set up Datadog in the user interface
Sign in to the web client as an administrator.
Click Administration > Monitoring.
Click the plus icon at the bottom right. The New monitoring configuration dialog opens.
Enter a Configuration name.
Under Monitoring system, select
DATADOG.Fill in the remaining fields. The table below lists the values.
Click Apply.
The metrics appear in Datadog within a few seconds.
Datadog configuration fields
The New monitoring configuration dialog contains these fields:
Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
Configuration name | A unique name for the configuration. | Yes |
Monitoring system | The target platform. Select | Yes |
Service name | The name of the service. Appears as a filter attribute in Datadog. For example | No |
System environment | The environment. For example | No |
Export interval (s) | The export interval in seconds. Default: | No |
Connection timeout (s) | The timeout for establishing the connection is set in seconds. Default: | No |
Read timeout (s) | The read timeout in seconds. Default: | No |
API endpoint | The regional Datadog endpoint. EU region: US region: | Yes |
API key | Your Datadog API key. Find it in Datadog under Organization Settings > API Keys. | Yes |
Datadog specific fields | ||
Application key | Your Datadog application key. Find it in Datadog under Organization Settings > Application Keys. | Yes |
Host tag | A label for the host. For example | Yes |
Manage configurations
Edit: Change a configuration, then save. The connection restarts automatically.
Delete: Remove a configuration. The export to that platform stops.
NOTE All changes take effect immediately. No application restart is required.
WARNING Keep your API key and application key confidential. Do not share these keys.
Other monitoring platforms
You connect other platforms similarly. These include New Relic, Grafana Cloud, and Prometheus. For a general guide and examples, see the article Monitoring configuration.