Use one of the logs templates to create a log pipeline.
- Archive Logs
- Dual Ship Logs
- Generate Log-based Metrics
- Log Enrichment
- Log Volume Control
- Sensitive Data Redaction
- Split Logs
See Set Up Pipelines for more information on setting up a source, processors, and destinations.
Metric Tag Governance is in Preview. Fill out the
form to request access.
Use the Metric Tag Governance template to create a metrics pipeline.
See Set Up Pipelines for more information on setting up a source, processors and destination.
Metrics data
Metrics sent to Observability Pipelines include the following:
name: The metric name.kind: There are two kinds of metrics:absolute metrics: Represents the current value of a measurement at the time it is reported.incremental metrics: Represents the change in a measurement since the last reported value, which the system aggregates over time.
value: The metric type:countergaugedistributionhistogram
timestamp: The date and time the metric is created.tags: Includes tags such as host.
The counter metric type is the only incremental metric. gauge, distribution, and histogram metric types are absolute metrics.
An example of a metric:
{
"name":"datadog.agent.retry_queue_duration.bytes_per_sec",
"tags":{
"agent":"core",
"domain":"https://7-72-3-app.agent.datadoghq.com",
"host":"COMP-YGVQDJG75L",
"source_type_name":"System",
"env:prod"
},
"timestamp":"2025-11-28T13:03:09Z",
"kind":"absolute",
"gauge":{"value":454.1372767857143}
}
Metric types
The available metric types:
| Metric type | Description | Example |
|---|
| COUNTER | The total number of event occurrences in one time interval. Can be reset to zero, but cannot be decreased. | You want to count the number of logs with status:error. |
| GAUGE | A snapshot of a value at the time it is reported. | You want to track the latest CPU utilization for each host. |
| HISTOGRAM | Statistical aggregations (avg, min, max, count, median, percentiles) computed per host by the Datadog Agent in one time interval, then sent to Datadog. | You want per-host request latency aggregations from each web server. |
| DISTRIBUTION | Raw values sent to Datadog so percentile aggregations are computed server-side, globally across every host reporting the metric in one time interval. | You want the global p95 latency of an API endpoint, calculated across every host serving it. |
See Metric Types for more information.
