otelcol.processor.memory_limiter.md

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title: otelcol.​processor.​memory_limiter

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otelcol.processor.memory_limiter

otelcol.processor.memory_limiter is used to prevent out of memory situations on a telemetry pipeline by performing periodic checks of memory usage. If usage exceeds the defined limits, data is dropped and garbage collections are triggered to reduce it.

The memory_limiter component uses both soft and hard limits, where the hard limit is always equal or larger than the soft limit. When memory usage goes above the soft limit, the processor component drops data and returns errors to the preceding components in the pipeline. When usage exceeds the hard limit, the processor forces a garbage collection in order to try and free memory. When usage is below the soft limit, no data is dropped and no forced garbage collection is performed.

NOTE: otelcol.processor.memory_limiter is a wrapper over the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector memorylimiter processor. Bug reports or feature requests will be redirected to the upstream repository, if necessary.

Multiple otelcol.processor.memory_limiter components can be specified by giving them different labels.

Usage

otelcol.processor.memory_limiter "LABEL" {
  check_interval = "1s"
  
  limit = "50MiB" // alternatively, set `limit_percentage` and `spike_limit_percentage`

  output {
    metrics = [...]
    logs    = [...]
    traces  = [...]
  }
}

Arguments

otelcol.processor.memory_limiter supports the following arguments:

Name	Type	Description	Default	Required
check_interval	duration	How often to check memory usage.		yes
limit	string	Maximum amount of memory targeted to be allocated by the process heap.	"0MiB"	no
spike_limit	string	Maximum spike expected between the measurements of memory usage.	20% of limit	no
limit_percentage	int	Maximum amount of total available memory targeted to be allocated by the process heap.	0	no
spike_limit_percentage	int	Maximum spike expected between the measurements of memory usage.	0	no

The arguments must define either limit or the limit_percentage, spike_limit_percentage pair, but not both.

The configuration options limit and limit_percentage define the hard limits. The soft limits are then calculated as the hard limit minus the spike_limit or spike_limit_percentage values respectively. The recommended value for spike limits is about 20% of the corresponding hard limit.

The recommended check_interval value is 1 second. If the traffic through the component is spiky in nature, it is recommended to either decrease the interval or increase the spike limit to avoid going over the hard limit.

The limit and spike_limit values must be larger than 1 MiB.

Blocks

The following blocks are supported inside the definition of otelcol.processor.memory_limiter:

Hierarchy	Block	Description	Required
output	output	Configures where to send received telemetry data.	yes

output block

{{< docs/shared lookup="flow/reference/components/output-block.md" source="agent" >}}

Exported fields

The following fields are exported and can be referenced by other components:

Name	Type	Description
input	otelcol.Consumer	A value that other components can use to send telemetry data to.

input accepts otelcol.Consumer data for any telemetry signal (metrics, logs, or traces).

Component health

otelcol.processor.memory_limiter is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid configuration.

Debug information

otelcol.processor.memory_limiter does not expose any component-specific debug information.