Honeycomb

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Honeycomb is a tool for code performance analysis and troubleshooting. With Honeycomb as the Nobl9 data source, you can create single-query SLOs based on Honeycomb metrics.

Scope of support

• Honeycomb metrics: Single-query ratio SLOs
  • Nobl9 agent minimum version: 0.91.0-beta
• Release channel: Beta, Stable
• Connection method: Agent, Direct
• Replay and SLI Analyzer: Historical data limit is 6 days 23 hours 45 minutes
• Event logs: Full coverage
• Test metric: Supported
  • Nobl9 agent minimum version: 0.114.0-beta
• Query parameters retrieval: Supported
  • Query interval: 1 min
  • Query delay: 5 min
  • Jitter: 15 sec
  • Timeout: 10 sec
  • Nobl9 agent minimum version: 0.91.0-beta
• Timestamp cache persistence: Supported

Prerequisites

The minimum required agent version is 0.91.0-beta.

Authentication

1. A Honeycomb account.
2. A Honeycomb API Key.
   It's a 22-character string containing letters Aa-Zz and numbers 0-9.

Adding Honeycomb as a data source

Currently, the Honeycomb data source is available in the Beta channel only.

To ensure data transmission between Nobl9 and Honeycomb, it may be necessary to list Nobl9 IP addresses as trusted.

---

IP addresses to include in your allowlist for secure access

app.nobl9.com:

• 18.159.114.21
• 18.158.132.186
• 3.64.154.26

us1.nobl9.com:

• 34.121.54.120
• 34.123.193.191
• 34.134.71.10
• 35.192.105.150
• 35.225.248.37
• 35.226.78.175
• 104.198.44.161

You can add the Honeycomb data source using the direct or agent connection methods.

Direct connection method

Nobl9 Web

1. Navigate to Integrations > Sources.
2. Click .
3. Click your required Source tile.
4. Choose Direct.

5. Enter your Honeycomb API Key.

6. Select a Project (mandatory).
   Projects provide the structure for organizing Nobl9 resources and managing access permissions.
   If a project is not specified, Nobl9 assigns the default project value automatically.
7. Enter a Display Name (optional).
   Spaces are allowed.
8. Enter a Name (mandatory).
   The name is mandatory and can only contain lowercase, alphanumeric characters, and dashes (for example, my-project-1). Nobl9 duplicates the display name here, transforming it into the supported format, but you can edit the result.
9. Enter a Description (optional).
   Provide extra details, such as the purpose and responsible personnel.
   Up to 1050 characters.
10. Specify the Query delay to set a customized delay for queries when pulling the data from the data source.

    • The default value in Honeycomb integration for Query delay is 5 minutes.

    Changing the query delay

    Changing the query delay can affect your SLI data.
    Learn more about query delay and its impact.
11. Configure how Nobl9 uses your data source’s historical data for Replay and SLI Analyzer.
    These features allow you to backfill SLOs or analyze SLIs for assisted SLO creation.
1. Maximum period for historical data retrieval (optional).

   • Defines the furthest point in the past from which data can be retrieved.
   • To activate Replay and SLI Analyzer for your data source, set this value to a positive whole number.
   • The maximum period is capped by your data source's specific limitations. Find the maximum value for your data source.
2. Default period for historical data retrieval (optional).

   • Sets the automatic backfill window for new SLOs using this data source.
   • Enter 0 or a positive whole number (default: 0). You can change this value for individual SLOs during creation.
   • Setting a non-zero value results in automatic replay of newly created SLOs based on this data source, so they report past performance upon creation, rather than waiting for new data to accumulate.
12. Click Add Data Source.

YAML

1. Create a YAML definition to set up a direct connection with Honeycomb. For this, refer to the following example:

YAML definition for the direct connection method

apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: Direct
metadata:
  name: honeycomb
  displayName: Honeycomb Direct
  project: default
  annotations:
    area: latency
    env: prod
    region: us
    team: sales
spec:
  description: Example Honeycomb Direct
  releaseChannel: beta
  honeycomb:
    apiKey: "[secret]"
  historicalDataRetrieval:
    maxDuration:
      value: 7
      unit: Day
    defaultDuration:
      value: 3
      unit: Day
  queryDelay:
    value: 6
    unit: Minute

Field	Type	Description
queryDelay.unit Mandatory	enum	Specifies the unit for the query delay. Possible values: Second | Minute. • Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
queryDelay.value Mandatory	numeric	Specifies the value for the query delay. • Must be a number less than 1440 minutes (24 hours). • Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
logCollectionEnabled Optional	boolean	Optional. Defaults to false. Set to true if you'd like your direct to collect event logs. Contact us to activate it.
releaseChannel Mandatory	enum	Specifies the release channel. Accepted values: beta | stable.
Source-specific fields
honeycomb.apiKey Mandatory	string	See authentication section above for more details.
Replay-related fields
historicalDataRetrieval Optional	n/a	Optional structure related to configuration related to Replay. ❗ Use only with supported sources. • If omitted, Nobl9 uses the default values of value: 0 and unit: Day for maxDuration and defaultDuration.
maxDuration.value Optional	numeric	Specifies the maximum duration for historical data retrieval. Must be integer ≥ 0. See Replay documentation for values of max duration per data source.
maxDuration.unit Optional	enum	Specifies the unit for the maximum duration of historical data retrieval. Accepted values: Minute | Hour | Day.
defaultDuration.value Optional	numeric	Specifies the default duration for historical data retrieval. Must be integer ≥ 0 and ≤ maxDuration.
defaultDuration.unit Optional	enum	Specifies the unit for the default duration of historical data retrieval. Accepted values: Minute | Hour | Day.

2. Apply your YAML definition using the sloctl apply command.

Agent connection method

Nobl9 Web

1. Navigate to Integrations > Sources.
2. Click .
3. Click your required Source tile.
4. Choose Agent.

5. Select a Project (mandatory).
   Projects provide the structure for organizing Nobl9 resources and managing access permissions.
   If a project is not specified, Nobl9 assigns the default project value automatically.
6. Enter a Display Name (optional).
   Spaces are allowed.
7. Enter a Name (mandatory).
   The name is mandatory and can only contain lowercase, alphanumeric characters, and dashes (for example, my-project-1). Nobl9 duplicates the display name here, transforming it into the supported format, but you can edit the result.
8. Enter a Description (optional).
   Provide extra details, such as the purpose and responsible personnel.
   Up to 1050 characters.
9. Specify the Query delay to set a customized delay for queries when pulling the data from the data source.

   • The default value in Honeycomb integration for Query delay is 5 minutes.

   Changing the query delay

   Changing the query delay can affect your SLI data.
   Learn more about query delay and its impact.
10. Configure how Nobl9 uses your data source’s historical data for Replay and SLI Analyzer.
    These features allow you to backfill SLOs or analyze SLIs for assisted SLO creation.
1. Maximum period for historical data retrieval (optional).

   • Defines the furthest point in the past from which data can be retrieved.
   • To activate Replay and SLI Analyzer for your data source, set this value to a positive whole number.
   • The maximum period is capped by your data source's specific limitations. Find the maximum value for your data source.
2. Default period for historical data retrieval (optional).

   • Sets the automatic backfill window for new SLOs using this data source.
   • Enter 0 or a positive whole number (default: 0). You can change this value for individual SLOs during creation.
   • Setting a non-zero value results in automatic replay of newly created SLOs based on this data source, so they report past performance upon creation, rather than waiting for new data to accumulate.
11. Click Add Data Source.
Deploy your agent in a Kubernetes cluster or Docker container.

YAML

1. Create a YAML definition to set up an agent connection with Honeycomb. For this, refer to the following example:

Query delay

Nobl9 integration with Honeycomb supports the HONEYCOMB_QUERY_DELAY environment variable.

YAML definition for the agent connection method

apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: Agent
metadata:
  name: honeycomb
  displayName: Honeycomb Agent
  project: default
  annotations:
    area: latency
    env: prod
    region: us
    team: sales
spec:
  description: Example Honeycomb Agent
  releaseChannel: beta
  honeycomb: {}
  historicalDataRetrieval:
    maxDuration:
      value: 7
      unit: Day
    defaultDuration:
      value: 3
      unit: Day
  queryDelay:
    value: 6
    unit: Minute

Field	Type	Description
queryDelay.unit Mandatory	enum	Specifies the unit for the query delay. Possible values: Second | Minute. • Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
queryDelay.value Mandatory	numeric	Specifies the value for the query delay. • Must be a number less than 1440 minutes (24 hours). • Check query delay documentation for default unit of query delay for each source.
releaseChannel Mandatory	enum	Specifies the release channel. Accepted values: beta | stable.
Replay-related fields
historicalDataRetrieval Optional	n/a	Optional structure related to configuration related to Replay. ❗ Use only with supported sources. • If omitted, Nobl9 uses the default values of value: 0 and unit: Day for maxDuration and defaultDuration.
maxDuration.value Optional	numeric	Specifies the maximum duration for historical data retrieval. Must be integer ≥ 0. See Replay documentation for values of max duration per data source.
maxDuration.unit Optional	enum	Specifies the unit for the maximum duration of historical data retrieval. Accepted values: Minute | Hour | Day.
defaultDuration.value Optional	numeric	Specifies the default duration for historical data retrieval. Must be integer ≥ 0 and ≤ maxDuration.
defaultDuration.unit Optional	enum	Specifies the unit for the default duration of historical data retrieval. Accepted values: Minute | Hour | Day.

Deploy your agent in a Kubernetes cluster or Docker container.

Limitations

Data source instances

• We recommend configuring no more than one data source per Honeycomb environment to avoid hitting rate limits.

Replay
To prevent potential data loss risks caused by rate limit collisions when approaching the 7-day limit and ensure data integrity:

• Replay durations are capped at 6d 23h 45m (10–15 minutes less than the full seven days).
  This limit relates to the first day of the Replay period.

• Run no more than one Replay at a time for the Honeycomb data source.

SLI per organization
You can add up to 1000 SLIs per Honeycomb environment, using the single-query ratio metric.

SLI per organization limit

The 1000 SLI per environment limit is based on the following:

• 1-minute query interval
• 10 requests per minute rate limit for the Honeycomb query data API

This limit assumes that Nobl9 is the only user of the Honeycomb query data API for SLI calculations. API calls from any other source consume Honeycomb quota and affect the SLI limit.

Useful links

Check out these related guides and references:

Create SLOs with HoneycombCreating SLOsFind API KeysHoneycomb documentationDataset Best PracticesHoneycomb documentation