What are Sinks?
Sinks are the final component in Vector’s data pipeline. They receive processed events from sources and transforms, then write them to external systems. Each sink is optimized for its specific destination, handling authentication, batching, compression, and retries automatically.Available Sinks
Cloud Storage
AWS S3
Store observability events in AWS S3 object storage with automatic partitioning and compression.
Azure Blob
Write data to Azure Blob Storage with flexible encoding options.
GCS
Send events to Google Cloud Storage buckets.
Observability Platforms
Datadog
Publish logs, metrics, and traces to Datadog’s observability platform.
Elasticsearch
Index observability events in Elasticsearch with bulk operations and data streams.
Splunk HEC
Send events to Splunk via HTTP Event Collector.
New Relic
Forward logs and metrics to New Relic’s telemetry platform.
Message Queues & Streaming
Kafka
Publish observability events to Apache Kafka topics with high throughput.
AWS Kinesis
Stream data to AWS Kinesis Data Streams or Firehose.
Pulsar
Send events to Apache Pulsar topics.
NATS
Publish messages to NATS messaging system.
Redis
Write events to Redis using lists or pub/sub.
MQTT
Publish messages to MQTT brokers.
AMQP
Send events to AMQP 0.9.1 brokers like RabbitMQ.
Metrics & Monitoring
Prometheus Exporter
Expose metrics on a Prometheus-compatible endpoint for scraping.
InfluxDB
Write metrics to InfluxDB time-series database.
StatsD
Send metrics to StatsD-compatible services.
AWS CloudWatch Metrics
Publish metrics to AWS CloudWatch.
Logs & Analytics
AWS CloudWatch Logs
Send log events to AWS CloudWatch Logs.
Loki
Ship logs to Grafana Loki for log aggregation.
Azure Monitor Logs
Forward logs to Azure Monitor.
Honeycomb
Send structured events to Honeycomb for observability.
Databases
ClickHouse
Write events to ClickHouse columnar database.
PostgreSQL
Insert logs into PostgreSQL tables.
Databend
Send data to Databend cloud data warehouse.
GreptimeDB
Write metrics and logs to GreptimeDB.
HTTP & Generic
HTTP
Send events to any HTTP endpoint with custom encoding.
WebSocket
Stream events over WebSocket connections.
WebHDFS
Write files to Hadoop HDFS via WebHDFS API.
Development & Debugging
Console
Print events to stdout for debugging.
Blackhole
Discard events (useful for testing and benchmarking).
File
Write events to local files.
Other Platforms
Axiom
Send logs and events to Axiom.
AppSignal
Forward metrics to AppSignal.
GCP Chronicle
Send security telemetry to Google Chronicle.
OpenTelemetry
Export traces and metrics in OpenTelemetry format.
Vector
Send events to another Vector instance.
Common Features
All Vector sinks share common capabilities:Batching
Sinks automatically batch events to optimize throughput and reduce overhead. Configure batch size and timeout to balance latency and efficiency.Compression
Most sinks support compression (gzip, zstd, snappy) to reduce network bandwidth and storage costs.Retries
Automatic retry logic with exponential backoff handles transient failures gracefully.Acknowledgements
End-to-end acknowledgements ensure data delivery guarantees when configured.Health Checks
Built-in health checks verify sink connectivity at startup.TLS/SSL
Secure connections with TLS support, including custom CA certificates and client authentication.Configuration Example
Here’s a basic sink configuration pattern:Choosing a Sink
When selecting a sink, consider:- Data Type: Does the sink support your data type (logs, metrics, traces)?
- Performance: What throughput and latency do you need?
- Cost: Consider egress charges, storage costs, and API pricing
- Integration: Does it integrate with your existing tools?
- Reliability: What delivery guarantees do you need?
Next Steps
Elasticsearch Sink
Learn how to configure the Elasticsearch sink
S3 Sink
Store data in AWS S3 with automatic partitioning
Kafka Sink
Publish events to Kafka topics
Datadog Sink
Send observability data to Datadog