Data forwarding from edge hosts

To send data from an edge host to an AxoRouter, create a data forwarding rule.

• Sources are hosts that are sending data to a data aggregator, like AxoRouter.
• Edges are source hosts that are running a collector agent managed by Axoflow Console, or have an Axolet agent reporting metrics from the host.

Data forwarding rules are high-level policies that determine how data should be forwarded from a set of edge hosts to an AxoRouter’s OpenTelemetry connector. You can use dynamic host labels to specify the edge hosts that the forwarding rule applies to.

To see every data forwarding rule configured in Axoflow Console, select Sources > Forwarding Rules from the main menu.

Data forwarding rules have the following main elements:

• the edge selector, which determines the list of edge hosts that will create a data forwarding rule based on that rule.

  You can use any labels and metadata of the edge hosts in the edge selectors, for example, the hostname, or any custom labels. For example, using the label.product = windows selector will create an edge connector only on Windows hosts.

• the Router connector to send the data to. This must be an OpenTelemetry connector of an AxoRouter.

Selecting a data forwarding rule shows the details of the rule, including the list of Matched edges.

Create data forwarding rule

To create a new data forwarding rule, complete the following steps.

1. Select Sources > Forwarding Rules > Create New Rule.

   

2. Enter a name for the collection rule into the Rule Name field.

   

3. (Optional) Enter a description for the rule.

4. Set the Edge Selector for the rule. The selector determines which edge hosts will have data forwarding configured based on this rule.

   

   • Only edge hosts will match the rule.
   • If you leave the Edge Selector field empty, the rule will match every edge host.
   • To select only a specific host, set the name field to the name of the host as selector.
   • If you set multiple fields in the selector, the collection rule will apply only to edge hosts that match all elements of the selector. (There in an AND relationship between the fields.) For example, label.location = us-east-1 AND label.product = windows

5. Select the OpenTelemetry connector of an AxoRouter where you want to send the data.

6. Select Create to create and immediately apply the data forwarding rule to the matching edge hosts. Alternatively, select Create as draft to create the rule in a disabled state. You can enable the rule later on the Data Sources > Forwarding Rules page.

Modify forwarding rule

To modify an existing data forwarding rule, complete the following steps.

1. Find the data forwarding rule you want to modify:

   • Select Sources > Forwarding Rules from the main menu, then select the rule you want to modify.
   • Alternatively, find the edge host whose data forwarding you want to modify on the Topology page, then select Forwarding Rules. Find the rule you want to modify, click on its name to display its details, then select Edit.

2. Modify the configuration of the data forwarding rule as needed.

   CAUTION:

   The changes are applied immediately after you click Update. Double-check your changes to avoid losing data.

3. Select Update.

Add edge host to existing forwarding rule

To add an edge host to an existing data forwarding rule, you have two options, depending on the Edge Selector of the data forwarding rule:

• Modify the Edge Selector field of the rule to include the new edge host.
• Modify the labels of the edge host so it matches the edge selector of the rule.