dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql by cristiangreco · Pull Request #4978 · grafana/alloy

cristiangreco · 2025-12-02T15:06:31Z

PR Description

This PR introduces a change for excluding "own queries" in mysql: we add a new setup_actors collector that checks (and optionally updates) settings for the currently connected user. By default it just checks that enabled=NO and logs out if that's not the case. Optionally, the component can auto-update this setting itself. This behaviour is disabled by default, though: it follows the same pattern of setup_consumers where two boolean settings are required to enable the auto-update. Additionally, auto-update requires INSERT and UPDATE permissions (docs on the website).

Which issue(s) this PR fixes

Relates to https://github.com/grafana/grafana-dbo11y-app/issues/1307

Notes to the Reviewer

PR Checklist

CHANGELOG.md updated
Documentation added
Tests updated
Config converters updated

internal/component/database_observability/postgres/collector/query_samples.go

github-actions · 2025-12-02T16:12:35Z

💻 Deploy preview available (dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql and postgres):

https://deploy-preview-alloy-4978-zb444pucvq-vp.a.run.app/docs/alloy/latest/

fridgepoet · 2025-12-03T11:06:45Z

Neat!
This other PR #4991 is similar, but in Postgres, right? I am wondering if the collector names should reflect the outcome rather than the underlying settings names.
If in both cases we're not tracking alloy's queries, should the collectors be named after their purpose?

cristiangreco · 2025-12-03T11:47:06Z

Neat! This other PR #4991 is similar, but in Postgres, right?

Yes, more details in the ticket

I am wondering if the collector names should reflect the outcome rather than the underlying settings names. If in both cases we're not tracking alloy's queries, should the collectors be named after their purpose?

Yeah I see the issue, I'm not sure what a good name could be though. I guess we might have more of these kind of "check-adjust-report" functionality in the future, and maybe they shouldn't be collectors (or maybe it's ok, if they also report data?).

fridgepoet · 2025-12-03T12:53:33Z

Agreed, calling this a "collector" is also a little disorienting.
At least for Postgres #4991 exclude_current_user is somewhat self-explanatory.
Mostly raised my comment just to highlight how "user-friendly" we are being for this. I don't know if users will know of the top of their head what "setup_actors" is and even I will likely not remember forever.

Also I linked #4991 to question if the two collectors should have the same name if they share the same end goal?

(Maybe something like exclude_own_queries or exclude_self_queries?)

cristiangreco · 2025-12-03T14:08:18Z

I don't know if users will know of the top of their head what "setup_actors" is and even I will likely not remember forever.
Also I linked #4991 to question if the two collectors should have the same name if they share the same end goal?

Don't think should have the same name, they do different things, and trying to make things too homogeneous across different engines is counter-productive imo. TBH there's a risk we might be overthinking this: as long as our docs explain what the collector is used for, it's not that much important trying to find an alternative to the name "collector" (at this stage, at least).

fridgepoet · 2025-12-03T16:07:39Z

internal/component/database_observability/mysql/collector/setup_actors.go

+
+	var enabled, history string
+	err = c.dbConnection.QueryRowContext(ctx, selectQuery, user).Scan(&enabled, &history)
+	if err == sql.ErrNoRows {


this could be an errors.Is()

matthewnolf · 2025-12-03T16:07:52Z

docs/sources/reference/components/database_observability/database_observability.mysql.md

+| `schema_details`  | Collect schemas and tables from `information_schema`.        | yes                |
+| `query_samples`   | Collect query samples.                                       | yes                |
+| `setup_consumers` | Collect enabled `performance_schema.setup_consumers`.        | yes                |
+| `setup_actors`    | Check and update `performance_schema.setup_actors` settings. | yes                |


It doesn't look like it is enabled by default?

It's in component.go:

collector.SetupActorsCollector: true

matthewnolf · 2025-12-03T16:14:09Z

internal/component/database_observability/mysql/collector/setup_actors.go

+
+func (c *SetupActors) checkSetupActors(ctx context.Context) error {
+	var user string
+	err := c.dbConnection.QueryRowContext(ctx, selectUserQuery).Scan(&user)


Can this be done on startup? Is there a need to get the current user every run?

Good call, I can move this operation to before entering the loop.

As an edge case, you could change the user in the DSN string and reload the Alloy config - but that should restart the component and all collectors, so should be ok.

github-actions · 2025-12-03T17:41:15Z

💻 Deploy preview deleted (dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql).

docs/sources/reference/components/database_observability/database_observability.mysql.md

This PR introduces strategies for excluding "own queries" in mysql and postgres: - postgres: here we just need to drop samples (and wait events) for the currently connected user when scraping `pg_stat_activity`. This new behaviour is enabled by default, as it's deemed safe/recommended. No changes to be done on `pg_stat_statements` as that is achieved through user permissions update (docs on the website). - mysql: here we add a new `setup_actors` collector that checks (and optionally updates) settings for the currently connected user. By default it just checks that `enabled=NO` and logs out if that's not the case. Optionally, the component can auto-update this setting itself. This behaviour is disabled by default, though: it follows the same pattern of `setup_consumers` where two boolean settings are required to enable the auto-update. Additionally, auto-update requires `INSERT` and `UPDATE` permissions (docs on the website).

…ase_observability.mysql.md Co-authored-by: Clayton Cornell <131809008+clayton-cornell@users.noreply.github.com>

dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql and postgres This PR introduces a change for excluding "own queries" in mysql: we add a new `setup_actors` collector that checks (and optionally updates) settings for the currently connected user. By default it just checks that `enabled=NO` and logs out if that's not the case. Optionally, the component can auto-update this setting itself. This behaviour is disabled by default, though: it follows the same pattern of `setup_consumers` where two boolean settings are required to enable the auto-update. Additionally, auto-update requires `INSERT` and `UPDATE` permissions (docs on the website).

semgrep-code-grafana bot reviewed Dec 2, 2025

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internal/component/database_observability/postgres/collector/query_samples.go Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

cristiangreco force-pushed the cristian/dbo11y-disable-own-queries-tracking branch 2 times, most recently from cbaeaeb to 0221c8d Compare December 2, 2025 19:07

cristiangreco marked this pull request as ready for review December 2, 2025 19:16

cristiangreco requested review from a team and clayton-cornell as code owners December 2, 2025 19:16

cristiangreco changed the title ~~dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql and postgres~~ dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql Dec 3, 2025

fridgepoet approved these changes Dec 3, 2025

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matthewnolf approved these changes Dec 3, 2025

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cristiangreco requested review from fridgepoet and matthewnolf December 3, 2025 17:41

clayton-cornell reviewed Dec 3, 2025

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docs/sources/reference/components/database_observability/database_observability.mysql.md Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

cristiangreco added 6 commits December 4, 2025 08:33

revert pg changes

6fef832

review feedback

2aa1551

move query before loop

fcfba00

improve test cases

e6aaef4

fix unused

b6c0cc1

cristiangreco force-pushed the cristian/dbo11y-disable-own-queries-tracking branch from f18eac9 to b6c0cc1 Compare December 4, 2025 07:33

Update docs/sources/reference/components/database_observability/datab…

735ba1f

…ase_observability.mysql.md Co-authored-by: Clayton Cornell <131809008+clayton-cornell@users.noreply.github.com>

matthewnolf approved these changes Dec 4, 2025

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cristiangreco merged commit 1d34414 into main Dec 4, 2025
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cristiangreco deleted the cristian/dbo11y-disable-own-queries-tracking branch December 4, 2025 09:37

github-actions bot added the frozen-due-to-age label Dec 19, 2025

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dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql#4978

dbo11y: stop tracking alloy's own queries in mysql#4978
cristiangreco merged 7 commits intomainfrom
cristian/dbo11y-disable-own-queries-tracking

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