Snapshot Recordings

Snapshot Recordings let you capture a point-in-time sample of live telemetry flowing through a Bindplane pipeline and save it for later use. Unlike a one-time Snapshot — which shows the most recent telemetry collected by a collector — a recording persists so you can replay the same data set repeatedly across multiple sessions.

Use cases include:

• Debugging pipeline behavior — Reproduce an issue by replaying a saved data set without waiting for the same telemetry to arrive again.

• Testing processor configurations — Iterate on processors in Live Preview against a consistent, known input rather than live data that may vary between sessions.

• Capturing a baseline — Save a representative sample of production telemetry to use as a regression reference when you refine your pipeline.

Snapshot Recordings are a Bindplane Enterprise feature. Confirm your license tier at bindplane.com/solutions.

Prerequisites

• A Bindplane instance on an Enterprise license

• At least one collector connected to Bindplane and running a managed configuration

• The collector must be actively sending telemetry (logs, metrics, or traces) through the pipeline at the time you start the recording

How to Start a Recording

1. Navigate to a Configuration page that has active collectors.

2. Click into any processor node in your pipeline to open the full-screen pipeline editor.

3. In the left-hand Snapshots panel, click the Record button.

4. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the recording and choose the duration (for example, 30 seconds or 1 minute).

5. Click Start Recording.

Bindplane begins capturing telemetry flowing through that pipeline component for the duration you selected. A progress indicator shows how much of the recording window remains. When the timer expires, the recording is saved automatically.

Choose a recording duration long enough to capture a representative sample. For high-volume pipelines, even 15–30 seconds is usually sufficient. For low-volume sources such as hourly metrics, use a longer window or wait until the metric interval fires before starting the recording.

Viewing and Replaying a Recording

1. Open the full-screen pipeline editor for the configuration that contains the recording.

2. In the left-hand Snapshots panel, click the Recordings tab.

3. Select a recording from the list to load it into the snapshot console. The recording name, capture date, and approximate record count are shown for each entry.

4. Browse the captured telemetry exactly as you would a live snapshot — expand individual rows, inspect attributes, and filter by signal type (logs, metrics, or traces).

5. To use the recording as input for Live Preview, click Use as Live Preview Input. Any processors you add or modify will run against the recorded data set in real time.

Replaying a recording does not resend data to your destinations. It only feeds the saved data through the pipeline editor so you can observe and adjust processor behavior.

Deleting a Recording

1. Open the Recordings tab in the Snapshots panel.

2. Hover over the recording you want to remove and click the Delete (trash) icon.

3. Confirm the deletion in the prompt that appears.

Deleted recordings cannot be recovered.

Use Cases in Depth

Debugging Pipeline Behavior

When unexpected transformations occur in production, use a recording to freeze the problem state:

1. Start a recording as soon as you observe the issue.

2. Once captured, open the recording and inspect the raw telemetry to confirm the incoming data looks as expected.

3. Step through processor nodes in Live Preview using the recording as input to identify where the transformation diverges from the intended result.

Testing Processor Configurations

Consistent input data is essential for reliable processor testing. Without recordings, the telemetry flowing through a pipeline changes from moment to moment, making it difficult to compare the effect of two different processor configurations.

With a recording:

1. Capture a representative sample once.

2. Apply Processor A and note the output.

3. Switch to Processor B and replay the same recording to compare the output side by side.

Capturing a Baseline

Before making significant changes to a pipeline:

1. Record a sample from the current (known-good) configuration.

2. Save the recording with a descriptive name, such as baseline-2026-05-15.

3. After your changes are rolled out, open the recording and compare expected vs. actual output to confirm no regressions were introduced.

Relationship to Other Snapshot Features

Feature	Purpose
Snapshots	View the most recent telemetry collected by a connected collector (ephemeral, not saved)
Snapshot Recordings	Capture and persist a telemetry sample for replay across sessions
Live Preview	Apply processors to snapshot or recording data in real time before committing changes

Limitations

• Recordings are scoped to a single pipeline component (the node selected when the recording was started).

• Only telemetry flowing through the collector at the time of recording is captured; historical data is not available.

• Recording storage is subject to the retention and storage limits configured for your Bindplane instance.

• The collector must remain connected to Bindplane for the full duration of the recording; a disconnection during recording will result in a partial or empty capture.