Cloudwatch plugin needs some throttling

[goller]

I'm getting API throttling from AWS when I'm using cloudwatch plugin. It would be nice to have some throttling. AWS has guidelines here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/DeveloperGuide/cloudwatch_limits.html

[sparrc]

can this not be controlled by using the interval config option?

[goller]

Sadly, no:
https:/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/plugins/inputs/cloudwatch/cloudwatch.go#L142
https:/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/plugins/inputs/cloudwatch/cloudwatch.go#L221

If I'm reading this correctly, this will create 64 concurrent requests to AWS. Additionally, there is no delay in executing subsequent requests.

[catufunwa]

Hey! I'm still getting throttling from AWS even with version 1.0.0-beta3, is there a config I need to add to enable this?

[sparrc]

there isn't, it should be doing it automatically, but we might want to add a config option for how many requests per second to limit it to

[tmonk42]

Considering that the API rate limit for GetMetricStatistics can be raised (ie: I might want that throttle higher) and I might have other tools querying metrics against the account (ie: I might want that throttle lower), feels correct that the requests per second cap should be a config option.

Relatedly, if I define multiple inputs.cloudwatch sections, is the throttle global for all of Telegraf or per input/namespace?

[sparrc]

@tmonk42 it's per input