Dnsmasq

Dnsmasq is a lightweight DNS forwarder and DHCP server widely used in home networks, containers, and embedded systems. Monitoring it helps you track query rates, cache efficiency, and active DHCP leases.

Pattern: dnsmasq_exporter → Prometheus scrape → xScaler remote_write

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Prerequisites

• Dnsmasq running with --local-service and the statistics socket enabled (--no-daemon or a systemd unit)
• dnsmasq_exporter binary available (GitHub)
• xScaler remote_write credentials (Bearer token + tenant ID)

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Option A — Prometheus Exporter

1. Start dnsmasq_exporter

dnsmasq_exporter \
  --dnsmasq.address=localhost:53 \
  --listen-address=0.0.0.0:9153

For systems using the dnsmasq stats socket (e.g. /var/run/dnsmasq/dnsmasq.pid), ensure --enable-dbus or the HTTP stats port (--port=5380) is active.

2. Verify the exporter

curl http://localhost:9153/metrics | grep dnsmasq

3. Configure Prometheus remote_write

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: dnsmasq
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:9153"]

remote_write:
  - url: https://euw1-01.m.xscalerlabs.com/api/v1/push
    authorization:
      credentials: <token>
    headers:
      X-Scope-OrgID: <tenant-id>

---

Option B — Grafana Alloy

prometheus.scrape "dnsmasq" {
  targets = [{ "__address__" = "localhost:9153" }]
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.xscaler.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "xscaler" {
  endpoint {
    url = "https://euw1-01.m.xscalerlabs.com/api/v1/push"
    authorization {
      type        = "Bearer"
      credentials = "<token>"
    }
    headers = { "X-Scope-OrgID" = "<tenant-id>" }
  }
}

---

Option C — OpenTelemetry Collector

receivers:
  prometheus:
    config:
      scrape_configs:
        - job_name: dnsmasq
          static_configs:
            - targets: ["localhost:9153"]

processors:
  memory_limiter:
    check_interval: 1s
    limit_mib: 256
  batch:
    timeout: 10s

exporters:
  otlphttp/xscaler:
    endpoint: https://euw1-01.m.xscalerlabs.com
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer <token>"
      X-Scope-OrgID: "<tenant-id>"
    compression: gzip

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [prometheus]
      processors: [memory_limiter, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/xscaler]

---

Logs

Collect dnsmasq query and DHCP log via systemd journal. Add the following to your Alloy config:

loki.source.journal "dnsmasq_journal" {
  forward_to    = [loki.write.xscaler.receiver]
  relabel_rules = loki.relabel.dnsmasq_journal.rules
  labels = {
    job      = "integrations/dnsmasq",
    instance = constants.hostname,
  }
}

loki.relabel "dnsmasq_journal" {
  forward_to = []
  rule {
    source_labels = ["__journal__systemd_unit"]
    target_label  = "unit"
  }
}

loki.write "xscaler" {
  endpoint {
    url = "https://euw1-01.l.xscalerlabs.com/api/v1/logs/push"

    http_client_config {
      authorization {
        type        = "Bearer"
        credentials = env("XSCALER_TOKEN")
      }
    }

    headers = { "X-Scope-OrgID" = env("XSCALER_TENANT_ID") }
  }
}

Key metrics

Metric	Description
dnsmasq_queries_total	Total number of DNS queries received
dnsmasq_cache_hits	Number of DNS queries answered from cache
dnsmasq_cache_misses	Number of DNS queries that missed the cache
dnsmasq_leases_count	Number of active DHCP leases
dnsmasq_cache_size	Configured maximum cache size (entries)