service · inferred from evidence
DogStatsD
A metrics collection service or component referenced in the context of Datadog.
- Datadog on ECS: one agent per EC2 host as a daemon service, Fargate is a separate setup
ECS on EC2: run one Datadog agent container per EC2 host as a daemon service task definition. ECS on Fargate is a different integration with its own docs page. Not the full reference manual.
- Datadog custom metrics billing: tag cardinality is the cost trap
Datadog bills custom metrics per unique metric name plus tag combination. The count scales with your most granular tag, so a high-cardinality tag like user id multiplies the bill. The docs counting examples prove it. Not the full reference
- APM trace agent connection refused: point the tracer at the agent with DD_AGENT_HOST
Tracers ship to the Datadog agent on the same host by default. Connection refused means the tracer cannot reach it: wrong DD_AGENT_HOST in containers, agent APM not enabled, or a firewall in between.
- DogStatsD dropping metrics under load: socket buffer and sampling
DogStatsD runs over UDP, so a saturated socket buffer drops packets silently. Spotty custom metrics under load mean the buffer, not Datadog.