How I did it - "Visualizing Metrics with F5 Telemetry Streaming and Datadog"

In some recent installments of the “How I Did it” series, we’ve taken a look at how F5 Telemetry Streaming, (TS) integrates with third-party analytics providers like Splunk and Elastic. In this article we continue our analytics vendor journey with the latest supported vendor, Datadog.

Datadog is an analytics and monitoring platform offered in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The platform provides a centralized visibility and monitoring of applications and infrastructure assets. While Datadog typically relies upon its various agents to capture logs and transmit back to the platform, there is an option for sending telemetry over HTTP. This is where F5’s TS comes into play.

For the remainder of this article, I'll provide a brief overview of the services required to integrate the BIG-IP with Datadog. Rather than including the step-by-step instructions, I've included a video walkthrough of the configuration process. After all, seeing is believing!

Application Services 3 Extension (AS3)

There are several resources, (logging profiles, log publishers, iRules, etc.) that must be configured on the BIG-IP to enable remote logging. I utilized AS3 to deploy and manage these resources. I used Postman to apply a single REST API declaration to the AS3 endpoint.

Telemetry Streaming (TS)

F5's Telemetry Streaming, (TS) service enables the BIG-IP to stream telemetry data to a variety of third-party analytics providers. Aside from the aforementioned resources, configuring TS to stream to a consumer, (Datadog in this instance), is simply a REST call away. Just as I did for AS3, I utilized Postman to post a single declaration to the BIG-IP.

Datadog

Preparing my Datadog environment to receive telemetry from BIG-IPs via telemetry streaming is extremely simple. I will need to generate an API key which will in turn be used by a telemetry streaming extension to authenticate and access the Datadog platform. Additionally, the TS consumer provides for additional options, (Datadog region, compression settings, etc.) to be configured on the TS side.

Dashboard

Once my Datadog environment starts to ingest telemetry data from my BIG-IP, I’ll visualize the data using a custom dashboard. The dashboard, (community-supported and may not be suitable for framing) report various relevant BIG-IP performance metrics and information.

F5 BIG-IP Performance Metrics

Check it Out

Rather than walk you through the entire configuration, how about a movie? Click on the link (image) below for a brief walkthrough demo integrating F5's BIG-IP with Datadog using F5 Telemetry Streaming.

Try it Out

Liked what you saw? If that's the case, (as I hope it was) try it out for yourself. Checkout F5's CloudDocs for guidance on configuring your BIG-IP(s) with the F5 Automation Toolchain.The various configuration files, (including the above sample dashboards) used in the demo are available on the GitHub solution repository Enjoy!