Document the pros and cons of increasing the metric_buffer_limit

bitcharmer · Oct 18, 2019 · bc8e357 · bc8e357
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diff --git a/docs/CONFIGURATION.md b/docs/CONFIGURATION.md
@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ The agent table configures Telegraf and the defaults used across all plugins.
   This controls the size of writes that Telegraf sends to output plugins.
 
 - **metric_buffer_limit**:
-  Maximum number of unwritten metrics per output.
+  Maximum number of unwritten metrics per output.  Increasing this value
+  allows for longer periods of output downtime without dropping metrics at the
+  cost of higher maximum memory usage.
 
 - **collection_jitter**:
   Collection jitter is used to jitter the collection by a random [interval][].

diff --git a/internal/config/config.go b/internal/config/config.go
@@ -257,7 +257,9 @@ var agentConfig = `
   ## This controls the size of writes that Telegraf sends to output plugins.
   metric_batch_size = 1000
 
-  ## Maximum number of unwritten metrics per output.
+  ## Maximum number of unwritten metrics per output.  Increasing this value
+  ## allows for longer periods of output downtime without dropping metrics at the
+  ## cost of higher maximum memory usage.
   metric_buffer_limit = 10000
 
   ## Collection jitter is used to jitter the collection by a random amount.