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NetFoundry Data Connector overview

nf-data-connector streams events from an OpenZiti controller over WebSocket and fans them out to multiple output targets. Events are enriched with human-readable names (services, identities, edge routers) via the OpenZiti management API, with an in-memory cache to minimize lookups.

nf-data-connector architecture

Use the data connector when you need to:

  • Mirror controller events into your existing observability stack (Elasticsearch, Datadog, S3, syslog, webhooks)
  • React to network activity in real time via rule-based alert webhooks
  • Tail the controller's event firehose interactively from a terminal (built-in TUI)

What's included

The connector ships with these capabilities:

  • WebSocket source with HA host rotation, exponential-backoff reconnect, and a heartbeat watchdog.
  • Pluggable subscribers: stdout, webhook, Elasticsearch, Datadog, S3, syslog, and TUI — enable what you need in YAML.
  • Name enrichment of identity, service, and edge router IDs into readable names, cached with TTL eviction.
  • Trigger engine that matches events against declarative rules and fires alert webhooks when conditions hold.
  • Multiple delivery formats: ships as a .deb package (amd64/arm64) and a multi-arch Docker image.

Start here

Pick the install path that fits your environment:

  • Debian/Ubuntu — apt install, runs as a hardened systemd service
  • Docker — multi-arch container at quay.io/netfoundry/nf-data-connector

Then configure the connector with the Configuration reference.