Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Running the Collector

The radar-collector supports multiple operational modes:

First-Run Activation

When the collector starts with the default config path (radar-collector.yml) and that file does not exist, it automatically enters a browser-based activation flow (unless a stored credential already exists from a previous activation). This connects the collector to your Radar account without manual configuration.

# First run - auto-activates if default config file is missing and no stored credential
./radar-collector

# Explicit activation
./radar-collector connect

# Activation without browser (prints URL to terminal)
./radar-collector connect --no-browser

After activation, the collector stores its credential locally and begins collecting. On subsequent runs, the stored credential is reused automatically.

Continuous Mode (Production)

Standard production mode - continuously collects metrics and submits to server.

# Default configuration file (radar-collector.yml)
./radar-collector

# Custom configuration
./radar-collector --config /etc/radar/production.yml

# With debug logging
RUST_LOG=debug ./radar-collector

Behavior:

  • Collects from all configured deployments at specified intervals
  • Automatically submits data to Radar server via gRPC
  • Runs continuously until stopped with SIGTERM/SIGINT
  • Gracefully completes current collection before shutdown
  • If remote config is enabled (default), deployments can be managed from the Radar server

Use when:

  • Running in production environments
  • Deployed as systemd service or Kubernetes pod
  • Continuous monitoring is required

Offline Mode

Collect data to local files for manual inspection before submission.

Collect to File

# Auto-generated filename (includes hostname, version, timestamp)
./radar-collector --once --output-file
# Creates: radar-collection-hostname-v0.1.0-20251014-120000.json

# Custom path
./radar-collector --once --output-file /var/lib/radar/collection.json

Redaction

Redaction is controlled by collector.redact in your config file (default: true).

When enabled, the collector redacts:

  • Passwords and API keys (***REDACTED***)
  • Hostnames (deterministic hashing)
  • IP addresses (192.xxx.xxx.xxx)
  • Port numbers (masked as numeric 0)

To disable, set in your config:

collector:
  redact: false

When disabled, data is written/submitted as collected.

Submit Collected Data

# Submit previously collected file
./radar-collector submit --file radar-collection-hostname-v0.1.0-20251014-120000.json

# With custom server config
./radar-collector --config production.yml submit --file collection.json

Use when:

  • Air-gapped environments requiring manual file transfer
  • Security reviews needed before cloud submission
  • Compliance workflows require approval process
  • Local debugging and analysis

Test Mode

Test single deployment without affecting production monitoring.

# Collect and submit once
./radar-collector test --deployment redis-prod

# Collect without submitting (dry run)
./radar-collector test --deployment redis-prod --dry-run

# With debug output
RUST_LOG=debug ./radar-collector test --deployment software-cluster

Behavior:

  • Collects from specified deployment once
  • Shows collected data (in dry-run mode)
  • Exits after single collection
  • Does not affect other deployments

Use when:

  • Testing new deployment configuration
  • Verifying connectivity before production
  • Debugging collection issues
  • Validating data format

Validation Mode

Validate configuration and test connectivity without collecting data.

# Validate all deployments
./radar-collector --validate

# Validate specific deployment
./radar-collector validate --deployment redis-prod

Use when:

  • First-time configuration setup
  • Troubleshooting connection issues
  • Verifying credentials
  • Pre-deployment checks

Additional Options

Logging Levels

Control log verbosity with RUST_LOG:

# Info (default) - standard operational messages
RUST_LOG=info ./radar-collector

# Debug - detailed operational information
RUST_LOG=debug ./radar-collector

# Trace - very verbose, includes all data
RUST_LOG=trace ./radar-collector

Graceful Shutdown

The radar-collector handles SIGTERM and SIGINT signals gracefully:

  1. Receives shutdown signal
  2. Stops scheduling new collections
  3. Completes current collection in progress
  4. Exits cleanly
# Send graceful shutdown signal
kill -TERM <pid>

# Or use Ctrl+C
^C

Running in Production

For production deployments, see: