Telemetry Collector

Overview

Telemetry Collector is a data collection component that works in conjunction with Sensor Collector to securely transmit data to Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance. At its core, it contains an embedded version of Telgraf, which makes it highly customizable for a variety of telemetry data sources.

To understand the importance of telemetry in Provider Connectivity Assurance, see Telemetry 101.

Provider Connectivity Assurance comes with two “out-of-the-box” Telemetry Collectors for IOS-XE and IOS-XR routers, as described in this Solution Guide. There is also an “out-of-the-box” Telemetry Collector for Mobility Core performance monitoring.

For other telemetry sources, CX or Partners can be hired to build custom telemetry ingestion pipelines using the Telemetry Collector and Sensor Collector.

Solution Architecture

For a visual overview of the components involved, see Telemetry Ingestion Solution Architecture.

Capacity Planning and Compute Requirements

See Capacity Planning and Compute Requirements.

Modes of Operation

A Telemetry Collector typically collects data and forwards it to a Sensor Collector. The Sensor Collector then securely transmits the data to Provider Connectivity Assurance.

In rare use cases, a customer may require transmission of data from a device directly to a Kafka bus. For this use case, we implemented a special feature, as described in Telemetry Collector Output to Kafka. This use case is rare and is not the typical operating mode for Telemetry Collector. In the solution, the primary role of Telemetry Collector is to deliver data to Provider Connectivity Assurance.

Generate an Authentication Token

Generate an authentication token to be used by the Telemetry Collector to authenticate itself on the first connection to Provider Connectivity Assurance.

To generate an authentication token:

1. From the Telemetry Collector Inventory screen, select the specific Telemetry Collector.

   The right sidebar appears.

2. In Summary > Telemetry container setup, click Generate auth token.

Download a Telemetry Collector Report

Generate and download a technical report from the Telemetry Collector for troubleshooting.

To download a Telemetry Collector report:

1. From the Telemetry Collector Inventory screen, select the specific Telemetry Collector.

   The right sidebar appears.

2. Click the ellipsis (…), then choose Generate report file to start the report generation.

3. In Summary > Generated report file, click Download.