---
title: Telegraf Documentation
description: Telegraf plugin for sending metrics to Socket Writer
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1/output-plugins/socket_writer/
estimated_tokens: 1339
product: Telegraf
version: v1
---

-   Telegraf v1.3.0+

# Socket Writer Output Plugin

This plugin writes metrics to a network service e.g. via UDP or TCP in one of the supported [data formats](/telegraf/v1/data_formats/output).

**Introduced in:** Telegraf v1.3.0 **Tags:** applications, network **OS support:** all

## Global configuration options

Plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings for tasks such as modifying metrics, tags, and fields, creating aliases, and configuring plugin ordering. See [CONFIGURATION.md](/telegraf/v1/configuration/#plugins) for more details.

## Configuration

```toml
# Generic socket writer capable of handling multiple socket types.
[[outputs.socket_writer]]
  ## URL to connect to
  # address = "tcp://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "tcp://example.com:http"
  # address = "tcp4://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "tcp6://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "tcp6://[2001:db8::1]:8094"
  # address = "udp://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "udp4://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "udp6://127.0.0.1:8094"
  # address = "unix:///tmp/telegraf.sock"
  # address = "unixgram:///tmp/telegraf.sock"
  # address = "vsock://cid:port"

  ## Optional TLS Config
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

  ## Period between keep alive probes.
  ## Only applies to TCP sockets.
  ## 0 disables keep alive probes.
  ## Defaults to the OS configuration.
  # keep_alive_period = "5m"

  ## Content encoding for message payloads, can be set to "gzip" or to
  ## "identity" to apply no encoding.
  ##
  # content_encoding = "identity"

  ## Data format to generate.
  ## Each data format has its own unique set of configuration options, read
  ## more about them here:
  ## https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_OUTPUT.md
  # data_format = "influx"
```

#### Related

-   [Configure plugins](/telegraf/v1/configure_plugins/)
-   [Socket Writer Plugin Source](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/v1.38.4/plugins/outputs/socket_writer/README.md)