Container Discovery Management

Datadog Agent auto-discovers all containers available by default. To restrict its discovery perimeter and limit data collection to a subset of containers only, include or exclude them through a dedicated configuration.

Note: The kubernetes.containers.running, kubernetes.pods.running, docker.containers.running, .stopped, .running.total, and .stopped.total metrics are not affected by these settings and always count all containers.

If running the Agent as a binary on a host, configure your Autodiscovery perimeter with the Agent tab instructions. If running the Agent as a container, configure your Autodiscovery perimeter with the Containerized Agent tab instructions.

Exclude containers

Exclude containers from the Agent Autodiscovery perimeter with an exclude rule based on their name, image, or kube_namespace to collect NO DATA from these containers. If a container matches an exclude rule, it is not included unless it first matches an include rule.

Note: Exclude rules support regexes, which are defined as a list of space-separated strings.

Note: To exclude every container, you can use name:.*, image:.*, or kube_namespace:.*. Configuring .* without a name:, image:, or kube_namespace: prefix does not work.

    In Agent v7.20+, to remove a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, and thus exclude the logs and metrics, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

    As an example, the following configuration instructs the Agent to ignore some containers from Docker Cloud:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "image:dockercloud/network-daemon image:dockercloud/cleanup image:dockercloud/logrotate image:dockercloud/events image:dockercloud/ntpd"

    You can use a regex to ignore them all: DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "image:dockercloud/.*"

    In Agent <= v7.19+, to remove a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_AC_EXCLUDE = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

    As before, the following configuration instructs the Agent to ignore some containers from Docker Cloud:

    DD_AC_EXCLUDE = "image:dockercloud/network-daemon image:dockercloud/cleanup image:dockercloud/logrotate image:dockercloud/events image:dockercloud/ntpd"

    Note: DD_AC_EXCLUDE is deprecated for Agent >= v7.20+.

    In Agent v7.20+, to remove a given Docker container with the name <NAME> from Autodiscovery, and thus exclude the logs and metrics, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "name:<NAME>"

    For instance, use this excluding rule to exclude the Agent container itself:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "name:dd-agent"

    In Agent <= v7.19+, to remove a given Docker container with the name <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_AC_EXCLUDE = "name:<NAME>"

    For instance, use this excluding rule to exclude the Agent container itself:

    DD_AC_EXCLUDE = "name:dd-agent"

    In Agent v7.20+, you can also use exclusion rules to exclude only logs or only metrics. For instance, to exclude logs from a container with the image <IMAGE_NAME>, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE_LOGS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

    Similarly, to exclude metrics:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE_METRICS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

    On Kubernetes, to remove all containers of pods inside namespace <NAMESPACE> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "kube_namespace:<NAMESPACE>"

    To remove a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

    container_exclude: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

    To remove a given Docker container with the name <NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

    container_exclude: [name:<NAME>]

    In Agent v7.20+, you can also use exclusion rules to exclude only logs or only metrics. For instance, to exclude logs from a container with the image <IMAGE_NAME>, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

    container_exclude_logs: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

    Similarly, to exclude metrics with Agent v7.20+:

    container_exclude_metrics: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

    On Kubernetes, to remove all containers of pods inside namespace <NAMESPACE> from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

    container_exclude: [kube_namespace:<NAMESPACE>]

    Note: If you are using Kubernetes, the container <NAME> is the one in your manifest .spec.containers[0].name.

    Include containers

    Include containers from the Agent Autodiscovery perimeter with an include rule based on their name or image to collect data ONLY from those containers. If a container matches an include rule, it’s always included in the Autodiscovery perimeter.

    Note: Include rules support regexes, and are defined as a list of space-separated strings.

      In Agent v7.20+, to include a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

      In Agent <= v7.19+, to include a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_AC_INCLUDE = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

      Note: DD_AC_INCLUDE is deprecated for Agent >= v7.20+.

      In Agent v7.20+, to include a given Docker container with the name <NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE = "name:<NAME>"

      For example, if you only want to monitor ubuntu or debian images, and exclude the rest, specify:

      DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE = "image:.*"
DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE = "image:ubuntu image:debian"

      In Agent <= v7.19+, to include a given Docker container with the name <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_AC_INCLUDE = "name:<NAME>"

      As before, if you only want to monitor ubuntu or debian images, and exclude the rest, specify:

      DD_AC_EXCLUDE = "image:.*"
DD_AC_INCLUDE = "image:ubuntu image:debian"

      In Agent v7.20+, you can also use inclusion rules to include only logs or only metrics. For instance, to include logs from a container with the image <IMAGE_NAME>, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE_LOGS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

      Similarly, to include metrics:

      DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE_METRICS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME>"

      On Kubernetes, to include all containers of pods inside namespace from Autodiscovery, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE = "kube_namespace:<NAMESPACE>"

      To include a given Docker container with the image <IMAGE_NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

      container_include: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

      To include a given Docker container with the name <NAME> from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

      container_include: [name:<NAME>]

      In Agent v7.20+, you can also use inclusion rules to include only logs or only metrics. For instance, to include logs from a container with the image <IMAGE_NAME>, add the following environment variable to the Datadog Agent:

      container_include_logs: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

      Similarly, to include metrics:

      container_include_metrics: [image:<IMAGE_NAME>]

      On Kubernetes, to include all containers of pods inside namespace from Autodiscovery, add the following configuration block in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file:

      container_include: [kube_namespace:<NAMESPACE>]

      Note: If you are using Kubernetes, the container <NAME> is the one in your manifest .spec.containers[0].name.

      Inclusion and exclusion behavior

      Inclusion always takes precedence, whether the rule is global or only applies to metrics or logs.

      You cannot mix cross-category include/exclude rules. For instance, if you want to include a container with the image name <IMAGE_NAME_1> and exclude only metrics from a container with the image name <IMAGE_NAME_2>, use the following:

        DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE_METRICS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>"
DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE_LOGS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>"
DD_CONTAINER_EXCLUDE_METRICS = "image:<IMAGE_NAME_2>"

        That is, setting DD_CONTAINER_INCLUDE = "image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>" is not sufficient.

        container_include_metrics: [image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>]
container_include_logs: [image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>]
container_exclude_metrics: [image:<IMAGE_NAME_2>]

        That is, setting container_include: [image:<IMAGE_NAME_1>] is not sufficient.

        There is no interaction between the global lists and the selective (logs and metrics) lists. In other words, you cannot exclude a container globally and then include it with container_include_logs and container_include_metrics.

        Pause containers

        Datadog Agent excludes Kubernetes and OpenShift pause containers by default. They are still counted in the container count like excluded containers.

        To disable this behavior and include pause containers in the Autodiscovery perimeter, set the parameter exclude_pause_container to false in the Agent datadog.yaml configuration file or through the Agent environment variable DD_EXCLUDE_PAUSE_CONTAINER="false"

        Further Reading

        Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

        Create and load an Autodiscovery Integration TemplateDOCUMENTATION more more