Sources | Wavefront

Learn about sources and how to manage them.

A source is a unique application, host, container, or instance that emits metrics. The source is explicitly set in the source field of a Wavefront data format metric. For AWS integrations, the source is extracted from AWS service properties or dimensions.

Wavefront Query Language supports filtering by source and filtering by source tags.

To view and manage sources, select Browse > Sources.

While every Wavefront user can view sources, you must have Source Tag Management permission to manage sources. If you don’t have the permission, the UI menu selections, buttons, and links you use to perform management tasks are not visible.

Source Browser

You can view and manage sources from the source browser. It is possible to hide sources. While hidden sources are removed from autocomplete, they can still be used in a query when data values are present.

To browse and manage source

Select Browse > Sources.
Use the options on the left to narrow down your search.

Add and Edit Source Descriptions

Source descriptions are a great way to add details, such as the role, availability zone, or running applications, to a source.

To add or edit a source description:

Select Browse > Sources.
Select a source.
Click Add a Description.

All users can now view the description.

Obsolete, Recent Metrics, and Metrics Stopped Sources

The Sources browser includes a Status option that lets you select sources by status.

Obsolete—Sources that didn't emit metrics for more than 4 weeks.
Recent Metrics—Sources with metrics received in the last 2 days.
Metrics Stopped—Sources with no metrics received in the last 2 days.

We support ~status metrics that map to what you see in the UI:

~status.error maps to Obsolete
~status.new and ~status.ok map to Recent Metrics
~status.stopped maps to Metrics Stopped

Hide and Unhide Sources

With more and more companies using dynamic services such as AWS, it’s typical to have sources constantly being spun up and shut down. When applying source filters to the Metrics browser or a ts() expression, this can lead to several sources being included in the autocomplete dropdown even when they are no longer reporting data. After 4 weeks of inactivity we remove those sources from the autocomplete dropdown, but you can also manually hide them from the UI or API.

Note: While hidden sources are removed from the autocomplete dropdown, those sources can still be used in a ts() query when data values are present.

To hide one or more sources:

Select Browse > Sources.
Select one or more sources and click Hide.

To view hidden sources

Select Browse > Sources.
Use the toggle in the top right of the Sources browser.

Managing Source Tags

See Organizing with Tags.