--- title: Docker container metrics reference source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/opentelemetry/integrations/docker-monitoring/metrics-reference --- This page provides a comprehensive reference for all Docker container metrics collected by the OpenTelemetry [dockerstatsreceiver](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/receiver/dockerstatsreceiver). Use this reference to understand what data is available, create custom queries, and set up effective alerts for your containerized applications. ## Complete metrics reference [#metrics-reference] The OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib's [dockerstatsreceiver](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/receiver/dockerstatsreceiver) collects the following metrics from the Docker Stats API: **Metrics** | Metric | Description | Type | | ------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----- | | `container.blockio.io_merged_recursive` | Number of bios/requests merged into requests belonging to this cgroup and its descendant cgroups | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_queued_recursive` | Number of requests queued up for this cgroup and its descendant cgroups | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_service_bytes_recursive` | Number of bytes transferred to/from the disk by the group and descendant groups | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_service_time_recursive` | Total amount of time in nanoseconds between request dispatch and request completion for the IOs done by this cgroup and descendant cgroups | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_serviced_recursive` | Number of IOs (bio) issued to the disk by the group and descendant groups | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_time_recursive` | Disk time allocated to cgroup (and descendant cgroups) per device in milliseconds | Sum | | `container.blockio.io_wait_time_recursive` | Total amount of time the IOs for this cgroup (and descendant cgroups) spent waiting in the scheduler queues for service | Sum | | `container.cpu.usage.kernelmode` | CPU kernel mode usage | Sum | | `container.cpu.usage.percpu` | Per-core CPU usage by the container (disabled by default) | Sum | | `container.cpu.usage.system` | System CPU usage | Sum | | `container.cpu.usage.total` | Total CPU time consumed by the container | Sum | | `container.cpu.usage.usermode` | CPU user mode usage | Sum | | `container.cpu.percent` | Percent of CPU used by the container (deprecated, use container.cpu.utilization instead) | Gauge | | `container.cpu.utilization` | Percent of CPU used by the container | Gauge | | `container.cpu.throttling_data.periods` | Number of periods with throttling active | Sum | | `container.cpu.throttling_data.throttled_periods` | Number of periods when the container hit its throttling limit | Sum | | `container.cpu.throttling_data.throttled_time` | Aggregate time the container was throttled | Sum | | `container.cpu.limit` | CPU limit set for the container | Gauge | | `container.cpu.logical.count` | Number of cores available to the container | Gauge | | `container.cpu.shares` | CPU shares allocated to the container | Gauge | | `container.cpu.cores.used` | Number of CPU cores used by the container | Sum | | `container.memory.usage.limit` | Memory usage limit | Sum | | `container.memory.usage.max` | Maximum memory usage | Sum | | `container.memory.usage.total` | Memory usage of the container. This excludes the cache | Sum | | `container.memory.percent` | Percentage of memory used | Gauge | | `container.memory.active_anon` | Amount of memory used in anonymous mappings such as brk(), sbrk(), and mmap(MAP_ANONYMOUS) that are actively used | Sum | | `container.memory.active_file` | Amount of cache memory used by files that are actively used | Sum | | `container.memory.anon` | Amount of memory used in anonymous mappings (pages not backed by files) | Sum | | `container.memory.cache` | The amount of memory used by the processes of this control group that can be associated with a block on a block device | Sum | | `container.memory.dirty` | Bytes that are waiting to get written back to the disk, from this cgroup | Sum | | `container.memory.fails` | Number of times memory limit was hit | Sum | | `container.memory.file` | Amount of memory used by files (file cache) | Sum | | `container.memory.hierarchical_memory_limit` | The max amount of physical memory that the cgroup can use | Sum | | `container.memory.hierarchical_memsw_limit` | The max amount of RAM + swap that the cgroup can use | Sum | | `container.memory.inactive_anon` | Amount of memory used in anonymous mappings such as brk(), sbrk(), and mmap(MAP_ANONYMOUS) that are not actively used | Sum | | `container.memory.inactive_file` | Amount of cache memory used by files that are not actively used | Sum | | `container.memory.mapped_file` | Indicates the amount of memory mapped by the processes in the control group | Sum | | `container.memory.pgfault` | Indicate the number of times that a process of the cgroup triggered a page fault | Sum | | `container.memory.pgmajfault` | Indicate the number of times that a process of the cgroup triggered a major fault | Sum | | `container.memory.pgpgin` | Number of pages read from disk by the cgroup | Sum | | `container.memory.pgpgout` | Number of pages written to disk by the cgroup | Sum | | `container.memory.rss` | The amount of memory that doesn't correspond to anything on disk: stacks, heaps, and anonymous memory maps | Sum | | `container.memory.rss_huge` | Number of bytes of anonymous transparent hugepages in this cgroup | Sum | | `container.memory.unevictable` | The amount of memory that cannot be reclaimed | Sum | | `container.memory.writeback` | Number of bytes of file/anon cache that are queued for syncing to disk in this cgroup | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.rx_bytes` | Bytes received by the container via its network interface | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.rx_dropped` | Number of received packets dropped by the container | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.rx_errors` | Received errors by the container | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.rx_packets` | Packets received by the container via its network interface | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.tx_bytes` | Bytes sent by the container via its network interface | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.tx_dropped` | Number of sent packets dropped by the container | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.tx_errors` | Transmission errors by the container | Sum | | `container.network.io.usage.tx_packets` | Packets sent by the container via its network interface | Sum | | `container.pids.count` | Number of PIDs in the container's cgroup | Sum | | `container.pids.limit` | Maximum number of PIDs in the container's cgroup | Sum | | `container.restarts` | Number of times the container has been restarted | Sum | | `container.uptime` | Time elapsed since container started | Gauge | **Attributes** | Attribute | Description | Values | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `collector.name` | Custom attribute for collector identification (if configured in your collector) | String | | `container.hostname` | The hostname of the container | String | | `container.id` | The full container ID | String (64-character hex) | | `container.image.name` | Name of the container image | String | | `container.name` | Container name | String | | `container.runtime` | Container runtime | `docker` | | `deployment.environment` | Deployment environment identifier (if configured in your collector) | String | | `description` | Description of the metric | String | | `device_major` | Device major number (for block I/O metrics) | Integer | | `device_minor` | Device minor number (for block I/O metrics) | Integer | | `entity.guid` | New Relic entity GUID for the container | String | | `entity.name` | New Relic entity name (typically the container name) | String | | `entity.type` | New Relic entity type | `CONTAINER` | | `instrumentation.provider` | Instrumentation provider identifier | `opentelemetry` | | `interface` | Network interface name (for network metrics) | String | | `newrelic.source` | Source of the metric in New Relic | `api.metrics.otlp` | | `nr.entity_type` | New Relic entity type for entity correlation | `CONTAINER` | | `operation` | Type of block I/O operation | `read`, `write` | | `otel.library.name` | OpenTelemetry library/receiver name | `github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/dockerstatsreceiver` | | `otel.library.version` | OpenTelemetry library version | String (e.g., `0.142.0`) | | `service.name` | Service name configured in the collector | String | | `telemetry.sdk.name` | Telemetry SDK identifier | `opentelemetry` | | `unit` | Unit of measurement for the metric | String (e.g., `{cpus}`, `By`, `1`) | For more details, see the [Docker Stats receiver documentation](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/blob/main/receiver/dockerstatsreceiver/documentation.md) ## Next steps [#next-steps] Now that you understand Docker metrics: - [Set up monitoring](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/opentelemetry/integrations/docker-monitoring/self-hosted) - Configure Docker monitoring if you haven't already - **Create dashboards**: Build [custom visualizations](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/query-your-data/explore-query-data/dashboards/introduction-dashboards/) using the metrics in this reference