windows_exporter/docs/runbooks/windowsscrapequeuetimeout.md

title

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WindowsScrapeQueueTimeout

Meaning

windows_exporter_scrape_queue_timeout == 1 for ten minutes. Scrapes run one at a time; a scrape whose timeout ends while it waits for an earlier scrape to finish runs no collector and reports this metric as 1. On such a scrape windows_exporter_collector_success is 0 for every collector.

Impact

The affected scrapes return no collector metrics, so the host has gaps in all of its series and WindowsCollectorFailed can fire for every collector at once. The exporter itself is reachable.

Diagnosis

1. Confirm the queue timeout and find the scrape that holds the slot:

   windows_exporter_scrape_queue_timeout{job="windows_exporter"} == 1
   windows_exporter_collector_timeout{job="windows_exporter"} == 1
   scrape_duration_seconds{job="windows_exporter"}
   

2. Check whether more than one Prometheus server or job scrapes the same exporter, or whether a job scrapes it more often than its scrape duration allows. Compare scrape_duration_seconds with the scrape_interval.

3. Identify the slow collector with windows_exporter_collector_duration_seconds and follow WindowsCollectorTimeout for it.

Mitigation

Scrape each exporter from one job, or give the jobs a scrape_interval longer than a full scrape takes. Shorten the slow collector or raise the scrape_timeout so a scrape finishes before the next one starts. Confirm windows_exporter_scrape_queue_timeout stays 0 and collector success returns to 1.