# Doca Collectx Deployment > Use this skill to deploy and operate a CollectX (clx) based DOCA telemetry collector on a host or… Use this skill to deploy and operate a CollectX (clx) based DOCA telemetry collector on a host or BlueField — wiring providers / counters into the collector, running the collection daemon, and shaping its exporters (Prometheus pull, Fluent Bit push, NetFlow, file / IPC) so the metrics actually leave the box. Trigger even when the user never says CollectX or clx — implicit phrasings: {collector emits nothing downstream}, {add a provider to the clx collector}, {turn on the Prometheus endpoint}, {ship counters to Fluent Bit from the DPU}, {daemon starts but no schema rows appear}. This skill owns the CollectX collection mechanism plus the operator's own doca-telemetry / doca-telemetry-exporter usage; it ROUTES the productized DOCA Telemetry Service (DTS) to public docs (AGENTS.md Non-goal #7), the reader API to doca-telemetry, and the publisher API to doca-telemetry-exporter. Refuse to invent clx symbols, provider names, schema fields, flags, or config paths — describe the class and route to the live source. - Page: https://ss33.ai/skills/nvidia/doca-collectx-deployment-43430706998 - Publisher: nvidia - Category: [Software Development](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/software-development-t44z8z) › [DevOps & cloud](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/software-development-t44z8z/devops-and-cloud-unkt50) - License: Apache-2.0 - Source: https://github.com/nvidia/skills/blob/4fc9cf6cec785070e0bf5bb4aa6c992f71b1c97e/skills/doca-collectx-deployment/SKILL.md ## Skill SKILL.md: https://ss33.ai/api/v1/ss33/download/nvidia/doca-collectx-deployment-43430706998 # DOCA CollectX telemetry deployment ## Examples - **"Stand up a CollectX collector that exports Prometheus."** — collector runtime and exporters, not the reader/publisher library APIs and not the productized DTS container. - **"Collector is up but no provider rows appear."** — gate provider support before rewriting the config. ## Instructions Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for collector bring-up and recover. Open the capabilities companion for the four-surface split and export-backend classes. Do not open every companion file. **Where to start:** This skill is the bundle's home for *operating a CollectX (clx) based telemetry collector* — the collection framework that gathers provider counters into a schema and ships them out through one or more exporters. It is a deployment / operation skill, parallel to [`doca-bare-metal-deployment`](../doca-bare-metal-deployment/SKILL.md) and [`doca-container-deployment`](../doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md): it owns the *runtime shape* of a telemetry collector on the operator's host or BlueField, not the library APIs the operator's own program calls. If the user wants to stand up, wire, or debug a collector and its exporters, open the tasks companion and start at `## configure`. If the question is *what surfaces does the collector even have and where is the scope boundary*, start at the capabilities companion. If the user has not installed DOCA yet, route to [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md) first. ## The scope boundary (read this before anything else) > **Routing means handing the request over, not answering it first.** > For anything the boundary below assigns to another skill, name the > owner and stop. Naming the owner and then supplying the API calls, > the instrumentation steps, or a code sketch anyway is the failure > mode to avoid — a partial answer here is still an answer, and it > defeats the routing it just performed. Do not walk the out-of-scope > work, not even as a summary, an illustrative snippet, or a caveat. CollectX (clx) is NVIDIA's telemetry **collection** framework. It underpins the **DOCA Telemetry Service (DTS)** — and DTS *as-deployed* (the productized, NGC-shipped / kubelet-started service container) is **out of scope** for this bundle per [`AGENTS.md` Non-goal #7](../../AGENTS.md#non-goals-questions-the-agent-should-recognize-and-refuse-politely). This skill therefore draws a hard line and the agent MUST state it up front: - **In scope here:** the CollectX *collection mechanism* as a class (providers / counters → schema → collector daemon → exporters), and the operator deploying / running / debugging a collector that they own, plus the operator's own usage of the two in-bundle telemetry **libraries** when those feed or consume the collector. - **Routed to the DOCA telemetry libraries:** the hardware-counter **reader** API is owned by [`doca-telemetry`](../libs/doca-telemetry/SKILL.md); the application-side **publisher** API (emit counters / events from a DOCA program) is owned by [`doca-telemetry-exporter`](../libs/doca-telemetry-exporter/SKILL.md). This skill does not re-document either API surface. - **Routed to public docs (Non-goal #7):** the productized **DTS container** — its packaged config schema, its built-in provider set, its kubelet manifest, its NGC image — is externally productized. Route every "operate the DTS service" question to the [`doca-public-knowledge-map` externally-productized routing row](../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md#externally-productized-doca-software--not-in-this-bundle-but-here-is-where-to-route) and the public DTS guide it points at. The agent must NOT synthesize DTS config file names, provider knob names, or paths from memory. The load-bearing first-touch failure this skill exists to prevent is **collapsing these four surfaces into "DOCA telemetry"**: the clx collection mechanism, the `doca-telemetry` reader library, the `doca-telemetry-exporter` publisher library, and the productized DTS container are four different things with four different owners. The agent surfaces the decomposition BEFORE any config-level guidance. ## Audience This skill serves **external operators standing up or running a CollectX-based telemetry collector** on a host or BlueField they administer — people who already have: - a DOCA install on the side they are collecting from (host x86 or BlueField Arm), verified per `doca-setup ## test`, - a goal of *getting counters off the box* through a collector + exporter, not of writing the reader / publisher library code (that is the two `libs/` skills above), and - access to the public DOCA Telemetry and DTS guides on `docs.nvidia.com` as the authoritative source for any concrete provider name, schema field, flag, or config path. It is **not** for: - developers writing the hardware-counter reader API (route to [`doca-telemetry`](../libs/doca-telemetry/SKILL.md)) or the publisher API (route to [`doca-telemetry-exporter`](../libs/doca-telemetry-exporter/SKILL.md)), - operators deploying / configuring the **productized DTS container** as a turnkey service — that is externally productized (Non-goal #7); route to the public DTS guide, - fresh-no-install users — those belong on `doca-setup ## no-install`. The skill teaches the agent the *procedure and the scope boundary*; it does not invent clx symbol names, provider names, schema field names, exporter flag names, or config paths from memory — those come from the live install and the public docs via [`doca-public-knowledge-map`](../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md). ## When to load this skill Load this skill when the user is doing hands-on **deployment or operation of a CollectX-based telemetry collector** and the question is about the collector runtime shape, not a library API. Concretely: - Standing up a collector that gathers provider counters into a schema and ships them out — and deciding which export backend (Prometheus pull, Fluent Bit push, NetFlow, file / IPC) fits the downstream consumer. - Wiring a provider / counter family into the collector and confirming the device actually exposes it before the config commits (the gate-before-commit rule, shared with [`doca-telemetry-utils`](../tools/doca-telemetry-utils/SKILL.md)). - Turning on / shaping an exporter so the metrics actually leave the box, and confirming the downstream consumer receives them end-to-end (not just "the daemon is running"). - Diagnosing a collector that starts but produces no schema rows, or ships nothing downstream, or whose exporter endpoint is silent — walking the layered ladder rather than guessing. - Recognising when the user is actually asking about the productized DTS container (route to public docs, Non-goal #7), the reader library (route to `doca-telemetry`), or the publisher library (route to `doca-telemetry-exporter`) instead of the collection mechanism this skill owns. Do **not** load this skill for: the hardware-counter reader API (use [`doca-telemetry`](../libs/doca-telemetry/SKILL.md)); the publisher API (use [`doca-telemetry-exporter`](../libs/doca-telemetry-exporter/SKILL.md)); operating the productized DTS container (route via [`doca-public-knowledge-map`](../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md) Non-goal #7); installing DOCA or preparing the env (use [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md)); or any hardware-state change (use [`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md)). ## What this skill provides This is a **thin loader**. The substantive material lives in two companion files: - the capabilities companion — the collector deployment contract as a class: the four-surface decomposition (clx collection mechanism vs reader library vs publisher library vs productized DTS), the collection pipeline shape (providers / counters → schema → collector daemon → exporters), the export-backend surface (Prometheus pull, Fluent Bit push, NetFlow, file / IPC) at class level, the version overlay on [`doca-version`](../doca-version/SKILL.md), the error taxonomy (collector won't start → no provider rows → schema mismatch → exporter silent → downstream skew → transport), the observability surface, and the safety policy (gate provider support before commit; collector is read-only against the device; route any mutating step to [`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md); do not invent clx names / paths). - the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the deployment verbs: `configure`, `build` (routing stub), `modify`, `run`, `test`, `debug`, plus a `Deferred task verbs` block that routes out-of-scope questions (the two libraries, the productized DTS container, env prep, hardware-state change) to their owners. The skill assumes a host or BlueField where DOCA is already installed and healthy (per `doca-setup ## test`) and the operator can run the collector and reach its exporter sinks. It does not cover installing DOCA — that path goes through [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md) — and it does not cover the reader / publisher library APIs or the productized DTS container. ## Loading order 1. Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope (operating a CollectX-based collector and its exporters — NOT the reader / publisher library APIs, NOT the productized DTS container). 2. **For the four-surface decomposition, the collection pipeline shape, the export-backend class surface, the version overlay, the error taxonomy, the observability surface, and the safety policy, see the capabilities companion.** 3. **For step-by-step workflows — `configure`, `build` (routing stub), `modify`, `run`, `test`, `debug`, and the `Deferred task verbs` block — see the tasks companion.** Both companion files cross-link to each other, [`doca-version`](../doca-version/SKILL.md) for the canonical version-handling rules, and [`doca-public-knowledge-map`](../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md) whenever the right answer is "read the live config / public docs" rather than collector-specific guidance. ## Related skills - [`doca-telemetry`](../libs/doca-telemetry/SKILL.md) — hardware-counter reader API. - [`doca-telemetry-exporter`](../libs/doca-telemetry-exporter/SKILL.md) — application-side publisher API. - [`doca-telemetry-utils`](../tools/doca-telemetry-utils/SKILL.md) — schema / Data ID / support probe CLI. - [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md) — install and env preconditions. - [`doca-version`](../doca-version/SKILL.md) — four-way version match. - [`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md) — any mutating hardware step. - [`doca-bare-metal-deployment`](../doca-bare-metal-deployment/SKILL.md) — collector launch on bare metal. - [`doca-container-deployment`](../doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md) — collector launch as a container. - [`doca-public-knowledge-map`](../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md) — public telemetry / DTS routing.