go-kit/kit

[metrics/cloudwatch] Feature request: ability to publish a sample of metrics for histograms

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#980 opened on May 7, 2020

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enhancementhelp wanted

Description

The cloudwatch metrics exporter currently has support for publishing histograms as a set of metrics of the histogram quantiles (e.g. p50, p90, p95, p99).

What I would like to do, is have the ability to instead publish a random sample of the recorded histogram values and let CloudWatch do the bucketing. This is because I have multiple instances that I would like to publish the same metric for without labeling them with a label unique to the instance. If there are less than 150 observations (the max for an individual PutMetricsData request to AWS), they would all be sent.

I pushed some changes up to demonstrate what I mean: https://github.com/go-kit/kit/compare/master...jszwedko:metrics/cloudwatch/add-ability-to-publish-histogram-values?expand=1 . If you all are amenable to this change, I can continue implementing it and open a PR.

Thanks!

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
observabilitycloud
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Go programmingAWS CloudWatch knowledgego kit metrics libraryhistogram concepts
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
Examine the linked branch at https://github.com/go kit/kit/compare/master...jszwedko:metrics/cloudwatch/add ability to publish histogram values?expand=1 to see the proposed implementation. Focus on the cloudwatch metrics exporter in the repository (path: metrics/cloudwatch). Understand how histograms are currently published as quantiles and how the suggested change allows publishing raw samples. Review the AWS CloudWatch PutMetricsData API limits (max 150 values per request) and consider how to handle cases with more observations. Check existing tests and documentation for the cloudwatch package to ensure new functionality aligns with the project's patterns.