docker_log: Include/exclude containers by image name/container labels · influxdata/telegraf#7750

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feature requesthelp wantedsize/l

Description

Currently the only way for docker_log select what containers to read logs from is via the container name and state. Could the docker_log plugin be amended to make it able to select containers by image name or container labels?

Our use-case is that we have a large number of microservices running the same image(though different versions), and I would like to always read the logs of every one of them (regardless of version), but not other services we have running. It would particularly be good to be able to add more microservices running this image in the future without having to add the container name for each of them to telegraf.conf, or add services whose logs aren't supposed to be collected without worrying that they'll get slurped too.

I imagine the configuration would be:

[[inputs.docker_log]] ... container_image_include = ["my-image-name"] container_image_exclude = []

Filtering by lables would also be OK. I see the Docker Engine API supports this directly (at least the "include" part), albeit then without globs.

container_label_include = ["com.company.collect_logs=true"] container_label_exclude = []

I see this was mentioned at https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/6456#issuecomment-550023271

Contributor guide

Tech stack: godocker
Domain: backendobservability
Issue type: feature
Difficulty: 3
Estimated time: 1-2 days
Activity status: stale
Clarity: clear
Prerequisites: Go programmingTelegraf plugin architectureDocker API basics
Newbie friendliness: 50
Research direction: The issue requests adding container image include/exclude and container label include/exclude options to the docker log input plugin. The plugin is located in plugins/inputs/docker log/. The Docker API already supports filtering by label, so the implementation should extend the existing container filter logic. Refer to the Docker API documentation and the existing container name filtering code in the plugin. Also see the comment in issue #6456 for prior discussion.