Handling Log Read Position in Vector Agent Compared to Fluentd Forwarder

[hamedsa-78]

In a Fluentd forwarder (which is equivalent to Vector agent), we define the pos_file in its source section. This ensures that when the pod is restarted, it reads logs from the last saved position. In this case, we do not need any buffer since the logs are stored on the host node, and we have mounted that path onto the pod. Defining the position is sufficient.

What about Vector? How does the Vector agent handle this process? (My question is not related to buffering, as buffering occurs in the aggregator.) I found the following in the official Vector documentation:

Docs Home > Reference > Configuration > Sources > File

Read Position

By default, Vector will read from the beginning of newly discovered files. You can change this behavior by setting the read_from option to "end".
Previously discovered files will be checkpointed, and the read position will resume from the last checkpoint. To disable this behavior, you can set the ignore_checkpoints option to true. This will cause Vector to disregard existing checkpoints when determining the starting read position of a file.

Should I configure anything else in the Vector Helm chart to handle this, or does checkpointing work the same as pos_file in Fluentd for our purposes?