Need Help : Processing a metric timestamp value to unix time epoch nanoseconds

[rk3094]

Hi,

I am new to vector and VRL. I have a metric that I am trying to sent to GCP cloud monitoring sink. There is a requirement from the consumer service to accept metric timestamp in unix epoch time format of nanoseconds. Here is a json of the metric that I have:
{"name":"some_service.metric_name_sample","tags":{"key1":"val1","key2":"val2"},"timestamp":"2023-07-19T16:56:42.792764503Z","kind":"absolute","gauge":{"value":1.0}}
I need to convert the timestamp field to unix epoch time format in nanoseconds. I tried to do this using a transform of "remap" type in vector remap language using to_unix_timestamp method. But it is not having any effect on the json. Here is the code in config.toml:

[transforms.change_timestamp_format]
type = "remap"
inputs = ["new_metrics"]
source = '''
.tags.new_time = to_unix_timestamp!(.timestamp, unit: "nanoseconds")
'''

Expectation is to get a new key value pair in the json blob inside tags as "new_time": "1689765925"
Can somebody please help me with this?

[jszwedko]

Can you share the full config? That looks roughly like what I would have suggested.

[rk3094]

Vector version info:
INFO vector: Vector has started. debug="false" version="0.31.0" arch="x86_64" revision="0f13b22 2023-07-06 13:52:34.591204470"

[jszwedko]

What is the output you are seeing?

[rk3094]

I am seeing the same output:
{"name":"some_service.metric_name_sample","tags":{"key1":"val1","key2":"val2"},"timestamp":"2023-07-19T16:56:42.792764503Z","kind":"absolute","gauge":{"value":1.0}}

There is no new_time key in the output

[jszwedko]

Try adding to_string() around the to_unix_timestamp!(.timestamp, unit: "nanoseconds"). I'm thinking maybe tag values need to be strings.

[rk3094]

Thank you so much @jszwedko . That solved the problem :)