---
title: Socket Destination
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: Docs > Observability Pipelines > Destinations > Socket Destination
---

# Socket Destination

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# Important note for users on the following Datadog sites: app.ddog-gov.com

{% alert level="danger" %}
This product is not supported for your selected [Datadog site](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/site). ().
{% /alert %}

{% /callout %}
Available for:
{% icon name="icon-logs" /%}
 Logs 
Use Observability Pipelines' Socket destination to send logs to a socket endpoint.

## Setup{% #setup %}

Set up the Socket destination and its environment variables when you [set up a pipeline](https://app.datadoghq.com/observability-pipelines). The following information is configured in the pipelines UI.

### Set up the destination{% #set-up-the-destination %}

{% alert level="danger" %}
Only enter the identifier for the socket address and, if appliable, the key pass. Do not enter the actual values.
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1. Enter the identifier for your address. If you leave it blank, the default is used.
1. In the **Mode** dropdown menu, select the socket type to use.
1. In the **Encoding** dropdown menu, select either `JSON` or `Raw message` as the output format.

#### Optional settings{% #optional-settings %}

##### Enable TLS{% #enable-tls %}

If you enabled **TCP** mode, you can toggle the switch to **Enable TLS**. The following certificate and key files are required for TLS:

- Enter the identifier for your socket key pass. If you leave it blank, the default is used.

- `Server Certificate Path`: The path to the certificate file that has been signed by your Certificate Authority (CA) root file in DER or PEM (X.509).

- `CA Certificate Path`: The path to the certificate file that is your Certificate Authority (CA) root file in DER or PEM (X.509).

- `Private Key Path`: The path to the `.key` private key file that belongs to your Server Certificate Path in DER or PEM (PKCS#8) format.

#### Buffering{% #buffering %}

Toggle the switch to enable **Buffering Options**. Enable a configurable buffer on your destination to ensure intermittent latency or an outage at the destination doesn't create immediate backpressure, and allow events to continue to be ingested from your source. Disk buffers can also increase pipeline durability by writing data to disk, ensuring buffered data persists through a Worker restart. See [Destination buffers](https://docs.datadoghq.com/observability_pipelines/scaling_and_performance/buffering_and_backpressure/#destination-buffers) for more information.

- If left unconfigured, your destination uses a memory buffer with a capacity of 500 events.
- To configure a buffer on your destination:
  1. Select the buffer type you want to set (**Memory** or **Disk**).
  1. Enter the buffer size and select the unit.
     1. Maximum memory buffer size is 128 GB.
     1. Maximum disk buffer size is 500 GB.
  1. In the **Behavior on full buffer** dropdown menu, select whether you want to **block** events or **drop new events** when the buffer is full.

### Set secrets{% #set-secrets %}

These are the defaults used for secret identifiers and environment variables.

**Note**: If you enter secret identifiers and then choose to use environment variables, the environment variable is the identifier entered and prepended with `DD_OP`. For example, if you entered `PASSWORD_1` for a password identifier, the environment variable for that password is `DD_OP_PASSWORD_1`.

{% tab title="Secrets Management" %}

- Socket address identifier:
  - References the address to which the Observability Pipelines Worker sends processed logs.
  - The default identifier is `DESTINATION_SOCKET_ADDRESS`.
- Socket TLS passphrase identifier (when TLS is enabled):
  - The default identifier is `DESTINATION_SOCKET_KEY_PASS`.

{% /tab %}

{% tab title="Environment Variables" %}

- Socket address:
  - The address to which the Observability Pipelines Worker sends processed logs.
  - The default environment variable is `DD_OP_DESTINATION_SOCKET_ADDRESS`.
- TLS passphrase:
  - The default environment variable is `DD_OP_DESTINATION_SOCKET_KEY_PASS`.

{% /tab %}

### How the destination works{% #how-the-destination-works %}

#### Event batching{% #event-batching %}

The Socket destination does not batch events.