configuration: multiple configs

[glensc]

please add support for multiple configuration files

so i could use unmodified snmp.yml for the oid/metrics configuration

and have secondary file for configuring authentication:
https://github.com/prometheus/snmp_exporter#snmpv2

or perhaps allow authentication configured from commandline like haproxy exporter does?

[brian-brazil]

You can put multiple modules inside the one config file.

[RichiH]

Supporting different auth tokens would be appreciated from our side as well.

As this is stored in our CMDB and available via SD, this should align with Prometheus patterns. I don't care if the actual community is stored in snmp_exporter and accessed via a group parameter sent from Prometheus or stored in Prometheus config. Having a default that's used when nothing special is requested would also be useful but not essential.

[brian-brazil]

The Prometheus pattern for auth is one per scrape_config, so the snmp_exporter way of working aligns with that (indeed the snmp_exporter is a little more flexible).

[glensc]

@brian-brazil your suggestion is counter suggestion. i wanted to put my config to separate file so that i can update the snmp.yml from this repo without manually merging changes.

[brian-brazil]

That's not something that we'll be supporting. Merging multiple configs would likely only cause confusion.

[glensc]

perhaps move the walk and metrics themselves as separate files? or add @include directive?

default:
  version: 2
  auth:
    community: public
  walk:
    - 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3
    - 1.3.6.1.2.1.2
    - 1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1
  metrics:
    - @include: linux-ifdescr.xml

[RichiH]

If you really think you need multiple configs, you can run multiple exporters. Richard Sent by mobile; excuse my brevity.

[glensc]

@RichiH please read the issue initial description WHY. i wish to avoid merging configs manually in the future when i plan to update the software. currently i had to modify the snmp.xml to add auth credentials, there may come more options that need to configure. and walk and metrics definitions are complex, could easily break them, which can be avoided if i just define my customizations in other place than stock provided snmp.xml file.

[RichiH]

Then you need to generate your configuration. Richard Sent by mobile; excuse my brevity.

[glensc]

closing, seems upstream does not want any improvements and better maintainability of complex config.

[RichiH]

@glensc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1McJJIiJfHgoecVrVNXx4ABJmI5M21e-6O9IgMNbVnvw might be of interest to you

[RichiH]

One consideration: Should we make the order deterministic, follow the order on CLI, or not do anything special at all?

I think deterministic makes sense. While we hard fail on day 1, that might not always be the case (however unlikely). The other reason is that when we expose this in the UI and if we expose this as _info metrics, it's easier to compare long-term and between installations when it's sorted.