Unable to activate real-time metrics to OpenCensus

#5099 implemented a way to record real-time metrics. Cool! Now I’d like to activate it, as it’s disabled by default. I’m not successful in enabling this, however.

Tried with a NettyServerBuilder for example, but the setStatsRecordRealTimeMetrics method is protected.

I don’t see any other way to set the private attribute recordRealTimeMetrics in the AbstractServerImplBuilder class from the sources.

The work-around I’m using now is ugly in bypassing the protected attribute (Kotlin, but you get my point).

val serverBuilder = NettyServerBuilder.forPort(1234)
val setStatsRecordRealTimeMetricsMethod = NettyServerBuilder::class.java
    .getDeclaredMethod("setStatsRecordRealTimeMetrics", Boolean::class.java)
setStatsRecordRealTimeMetricsMethod.setAccessible(true)
setStatsRecordRealTimeMetricsMethod.invoke(serverBuilder, true)

after which it starts to work, except from the method name not being exported (but that’s #5593).

What version of gRPC are you using?

1.20.0

What did you expect to see?

A public function on the Builder to call setStatsRecordRealTimeMetrics(true).

[ejona86]

We discussed it further, and this is the approach we’re entertaining most strongly:

1. Add a CensusInterceptor in io.grpc.census. This can have whatever configuration is necessary when being created
2. Add a disableImplicitCensus() somewhere in io.grpc.census. If you don’t call this, then the two census interceptors would both be used. It must not be used from library code. We’d probably want a getter for code using CensusInterceptor directly to react
3. (Maybe) Have a setting on the Channel and Server to disable the implicit census interceptor

@gertvdijk, @mattnworb, would that work for you?

[mattnworb]

with the issue linked above complete (there is now a grpc-census), is there any way to enable recordRealTimeMetrics in a ServerBuilder?