All input options - except for the carbon input - use the metrics 2.0 format. See the schema repository for more details.

see fakemetrics, tsdb-gw, carbon

useful for traditional graphite plaintext protocol. Does not support pickle format.

** Important: this input requires a carbon storage-schemas.conf file. Metrictank uses this file to determine the raw interval of the metrics, but it ignores all retention durations as well as intervals after the first, raw one since metrictank already has its own config mechanism for retention and aggregation. **

note: it does not implement carbon2.0

mdm = MetricData Messagepack-encoded MetricData schema definition
This is a kafka input wherein each point is sent as a unique kafka message. This is the recommended input option if you want a queue.