ZAPP overview

Overview of the ZAPP Listener, ZAPP Aggregator, and plugin-based pipeline model.
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ZAPP collects telemetry from infrastructure systems and forwards it through a configurable pipeline. Many deployments include one or more ZAPP Listeners and one ZAPP Aggregator.

ZAPP telemetry topology showing infrastructure sources feeding multiple listener pipelines, a central aggregator, and client and operator endpoints.

ZAPP Listeners collect or receive telemetry near the source. A ZAPP Aggregator receives telemetry from multiple listeners and exposes one client-facing endpoint.

ZAPP Listener

A ZAPP Listener runs a configured telemetry pipeline. Depending on the pipeline, the listener can receive telemetry packets, discover sensors, collect Redfish telemetry, process payloads, and forward telemetry to the ZAPP Aggregator or directly to downstream consumers.

ZAPP Aggregator

The ZAPP Aggregator receives telemetry from listeners. It exposes separate interfaces for listener connections, UDP telemetry ingest, subscriber gRPC clients, and HTTP monitoring endpoints.

The ZAPP Aggregator is the central point for:

  • Receiving listener sensor manifests
  • Receiving telemetry payloads from listeners
  • Exposing telemetry to gRPC clients
  • Serving the manifest web UI from /manifest and JSON from /manifest.json

Plugins

Plugins extend the ZAPP pipeline with additional component types. Use plugins when your deployment needs to support a site-specific telemetry source, protocol, processor, or output that is not covered by the built-in components.

Current ZAPP builds compile plugin component packages into the listener binary. Enable plugin functionality by configuring the component types that the listener registers at startup.