xk6-output-prometheus-remote

⚠️ Beta version

k6 extension for Prometheus remote-write output.

Distinguish from Prometheus remote write client extension :)

According to Prometheus API Stability Guarantees remote write is an experimental feature, thus it is unstable and is subject to change. There are many options for remote-write compatible agents, the official list can be found here. The exact details of how metrics will be processed or stored depends on the underlying agent used.

Key points to know:

• remote write format does not contain explicit definition of any metric types while metadata definition is still in flux and can have different implementation depending on the remote-write compatible agent
• remote read is a separate interface and it is much less defined. For example, remote read may not work without precise queries; see here and here for details
• some remote-write compatible agents may support additional formats for remote write, like JSON, but it is not part of official Prometheus remote write specification and therefore absent here

Usage

To build k6 binary with the Prometheus remote write output extension use:

xk6 build --with github.com/grafana/xk6-output-prometheus-remote@latest 

Then run new k6 binary with:

K6_PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_URL=http://localhost:9090/api/v1/write ./k6 run script.js -o output-prometheus-remote

Add TLS and HTTP basic authentication:

K6_PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_URL=https://localhost:9090/api/v1/write K6_PROMETHEUS_INSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY=false K6_CA_CERT_FILE=example/tls.crt K6_PROMETHEUS_USER=foo K6_PROMETHEUS_PASSWORD=bar ./k6 run script.js -o output-prometheus-remote

Different remote storage agents are supported with mapping option. The default is Prometheus itself but there is a simpler raw mapping that can be used as a starting point for other remote agents:

K6_PROMETHEUS_MAPPING=raw K6_PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_URL=http://localhost:9090/api/v1/write ./k6 run script.js -o output-prometheus-remote

Note: Prometheus remote client relies on a snappy library for serialization which can panic on encode operation.

On sample rate

k6 processes its outputs once per second and that is also a default flush period in this extension. The number of k6 builtin metrics is 26 and they are collected at the rate of 50ms. In practice it means that there will be around 1000-1500 samples on average per each flush period in case of raw mapping. If custom metrics are configured, that estimate will have to be adjusted.

Depending on exact setup, it may be necessary to configure Prometheus and / or remote-write agent to handle the load. For example, see queue_config parameter of Prometheus.

If remote endpoint responds too slowly or the k6 test run generates too many metrics, extension may start discarding samples in order to continue to adhere to the flush period.

Prometheus as remote-write agent

To enable remote write in Prometheus 2.x use --enable-feature=remote-write-receiver option. See docker-compose samples in example/. Options for remote write storage can be found here.

Docker Compose

This repo includes a docker-compose.yml file that starts Prometheus, Grafana, and a custom build of k6 having the xk6-output-prometheus-remote extension.

This is just a quick setup to show the usage. For a real use case, you will want to deploy outside of docker.

Clone the repo to get started and follow these steps:

1. Start the docker compose environment.

   docker-compose up -d

   Some users have encountered failures for the k6 build portion. A workaround may be to disable the "Use Docker Compose V2" checkbox in the General section of Docker Desktop settings.

   # Output
   Creating xk6-output-prometheus-remote_grafana_1     ... done
   Creating xk6-output-prometheus-remote_prometheus_1  ... done
   Creating xk6-output-prometheus-remote_k6_1          ... done

2. Use the k6 Docker image to run the k6 script and send metrics to the Prometheus container started on the previous step. You must set the testid tag with a unique identifier to segment the metrics into discrete test runs for the Grafana dashboards.

   docker-compose run --rm k6 run -<example/test.js --tag testid=<SOME-ID>

   For convenience, the docker-run.sh can be used to simply:

   ./docker-run.sh example/test.js

3. Visit http://localhost:3000/ to view results in Grafana.