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Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

Squid is a popular open-source proxy server that is used to improve web performance and provide content caching for web clients. The Squid integration uses the Grafana agent to collect metrics for monitoring a Squid instance, including aspects such as cache hits & miss service time, cache hit ratios, client and server requests, server object swaps, and DNS lookup service time. The integration also supports Squid logs being scraped by the agent using Promtail. An accompanying dashboard is provided to visualize these metrics and logs.

This integration supports Squid 5+.

This integration includes 5 useful alerts and 1 pre-built dashboard to help monitor and visualize Squid metrics and logs.

Before you begin

This integration monitors a Squid proxy server instance.

In order to scrape these metrics, you must have a running and reachable Squid instance.

Install Squid integration for Grafana Cloud

1. In your Grafana Cloud stack, click Connections in the left-hand menu.
2. Find Squid and click its tile to open the integration.
3. Review the prerequisites in the Configuration Details tab and set up Grafana Agent to send Squid metrics and logs to your Grafana Cloud instance.
4. Click Install to add this integration’s pre-built dashboard and alerts to your Grafana Cloud instance, and you can start monitoring your Squid setup.

Configuration snippets for Grafana Alloy

Simple mode

These snippets are configured to scrape a single Squid instance running locally with default ports.

First, manually copy and append the following snippets into your alloy configuration file.

Logs snippets

darwin

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

linux

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

windows

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

Advanced mode

The following snippets provide examples to guide you through the configuration process.

To instruct Grafana Alloy to scrape your Squid instances, manually copy and append the snippets to your alloy configuration file, then follow subsequent instructions.

Advanced integrations snippets

alloy Copy

prometheus.exporter.squid "integrations_squid" {
	address = "<squid_hostname>:<squid_port>"
}

discovery.relabel "integrations_squid" {
	targets = prometheus.exporter.squid.integrations_squid.targets

	rule {
		target_label = "instance"
		replacement  = constants.hostname
	}

	rule {
		target_label = "job"
		replacement  = "integrations/squid"
	}
}

prometheus.scrape "integrations_squid" {
	targets    = discovery.relabel.integrations_squid.output
	forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.metrics_service.receiver]
	job_name   = "integrations/squid"
}

This integrations uses the prometheus.exporter.squid component to generate metrics from a Squid instance.

For the full array of configuration options, refer to the prometheus.exporter.squid component reference documentation.

This exporter must be linked with a discovery.relabel component to apply the necessary relabelings.

For each Squid instance to be monitored you must create a pair of these components.

Configure the following properties within each discovery.relabel component:

• instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.

You can then scrape them by including each discovery.relabel under targets within the prometheus.scrape component.

Advanced logs snippets

darwin

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Squid instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

linux

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Squid instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

windows

alloy Copy

local.file_match "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	path_targets = [{
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/cache.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}, {
		__address__ = "localhost",
		__path__    = "/var/log/squid/access.log",
		instance    = constants.hostname,
		job         = "integrations/squid",
	}]
}

loki.source.file "logs_integrations_integrations_squid" {
	targets    = local.file_match.logs_integrations_integrations_squid.targets
	forward_to = [loki.write.grafana_cloud_loki.receiver]
}

To monitor your Squid instance logs, you will use a combination of the following components:

• local.file_match defines where to find the log file to be scraped. Change the following properties according to your environment:

  • __address__: The Squid instance address
  • __path__: The path to the log file.
  • instance label: constants.hostname sets the instance label to your Grafana Alloy server hostname. If that is not suitable, change it to a value uniquely identifies this Squid instance. Make sure this label value is the same for all telemetry data collected for this instance.

• loki.source.file sends logs to Loki.

Grafana Agent static configuration (deprecated)

The following section shows configuration for running Grafana Agent in static mode which is deprecated. You should use Grafana Alloy for all new deployments.

Instructions for Grafana Agent static

Dashboards

The Squid integration installs the following dashboards in your Grafana Cloud instance to help monitor your system.

• Squid overview

Squid overview dashboard (client)

Squid overview dashboard (server)

Alerts

The Squid integration includes the following useful alerts:

Metrics

The most important metrics provided by the Squid integration, which are used on the pre-built dashboard and Prometheus alerts, are as follows:

• squid_Cache_Hits_50
• squid_Cache_Hits_75
• squid_Cache_Hits_95
• squid_Cache_Misses_50
• squid_Cache_Misses_75
• squid_Cache_Misses_95
• squid_DNS_Lookups_50
• squid_DNS_Lookups_75
• squid_DNS_Lookups_95
• squid_HTTP_Requests_All_50
• squid_HTTP_Requests_All_75
• squid_HTTP_Requests_All_95
• squid_client_http_errors_total
• squid_client_http_hit_kbytes_out_bytes_total
• squid_client_http_hits_total
• squid_client_http_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
• squid_client_http_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
• squid_client_http_requests_total
• squid_server_ftp_errors_total
• squid_server_ftp_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
• squid_server_ftp_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
• squid_server_ftp_requests_total
• squid_server_http_errors_total
• squid_server_http_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
• squid_server_http_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
• squid_server_http_requests_total
• squid_server_other_errors_total
• squid_server_other_kbytes_in_kbytes_total
• squid_server_other_kbytes_out_kbytes_total
• squid_server_other_requests_total
• squid_swap_ins_total
• squid_swap_outs_total
• up

Changelog

md Copy

# 0.0.3 - September 2023

* New Filter Metrics option for configuring the Grafana Agent, which saves on metrics cost by dropping any metric not used by this integration. Beware that anything custom built using metrics that are not on the snippet will stop working.
* New hostname relabel option, which applies the instance name you write on the text box to the Grafana Agent configuration snippets, making it easier and less error prone to configure this mandatory label.

# 0.0.2 - August 2023

* Add regex filter for logs datasource

# 0.0.1 - July 2023

* Initial Release

Cost

By connecting your Squid instance to Grafana Cloud, you might incur charges. To view information on the number of active series that your Grafana Cloud account uses for metrics included in each Cloud tier, see Active series and dpm usage and Cloud tier pricing.