> AI agents: this is one page from PostHog's docs. Full index of Markdown docs for LLMs: https://posthog.com/llms.txt

# Linking IBM Instana Observability as a source

Canonical URL: https://posthog.com/docs/data-pipelines/sources/instana

> **Cloud region:** This page uses US Cloud hosts. For an EU Cloud project, use `https://eu.posthog.com` instead of `https://us.posthog.com` or `https://app.posthog.com` (app host for links).

## On this page

- [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
- [Adding a data source](#adding-a-data-source)
- [Sync modes](#sync-modes)
- [Configuration](#configuration)
- [Supported tables](#supported-tables)
- [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)

**Beta release**

This source is currently in **beta**. It works end to end, but you may still hit rough edges. [Let us know](https://us.posthog.com/#panel=support%3Asupport%3Adata_warehouse%3A%3Atrue) if you do.

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/texture_tan_9608fcca70)

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/texture_tan_dark_a92b0e022d)

Let AI connect your sources for you

Skip the manual setup — run this in your project and the wizard auto-detects your databases and APIs and connects them to PostHog.

`npx @posthog/wizard warehouse`

![PostHog Wizard hedgehog](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/wizard_3f8bb7a240.png)

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/wizard_3f8bb7a240.png)Let AI connect your sources for you

The IBM Instana Observability connector syncs your events (incidents, issues, and changes), application and service catalogs, monitoring configuration, and infrastructure inventory into the PostHog Data Warehouse, so you can track reliability trends alongside your product data.

## Prerequisites

You need an Instana account (SaaS or self-hosted) with permission to create an API token. The token's permission scopes control which tables can be synced, so grant read access for the data you want to import.

## Adding a data source

1.  In PostHog, go to the [Sources tab](https://app.posthog.com/data-management/sources) of the data pipeline section.
2.  Click **\+ New source** and click **Link** next to this source.
3.  Enter your credentials (see [Configuration](#configuration) below) and click **Next**.
4.  Select the tables you want to sync, choose a sync method and frequency, then click **Import**.

Once the syncs are complete, you can start querying this data in PostHog.

When linking Instana, you'll need:

-   **Base URL** – the address you use to open the Instana UI, e.g. `https://unit-tenant.instana.io`, or your self-hosted domain.
-   **API token** – create one under **Settings → Team Settings → API Tokens** in Instana.

## Sync modes

Each table can be synced in one of several modes, depending on what the source supports:

-   **Webhook** (when available) – the source pushes changes to PostHog in real time. Fastest freshness, lowest ongoing cost, and the only mode that reliably captures updates and deletes.
-   **Incremental** – only new or updated rows are synced on each run, using a cursor field (such as an `updated_at` timestamp). Cheaper than a full refresh, but deletes aren't captured.
-   **Append only** – new rows are appended using a cursor field; existing rows are never updated. Ideal for immutable, append-only tables like event logs.
-   **Full refresh** – the whole table is reloaded on every sync. Use it when a table has no reliable cursor or when you need deletions reflected.

See [sync methods](https://posthog.com/docs/data-pipelines/sources.md#sync-methods) for a full explanation of how each mode works and how to choose between them.

The `events` table supports incremental sync using the event `start` timestamp (epoch milliseconds) and only reaches back 30 days on the initial sync, matching Instana's event retention. The other tables are configuration and topology catalogs without an updated-since filter, so they sync as full refresh.

## Configuration

| Option | Type | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Base URL` | text | Yes |
| `API token` | password | Yes |

## Supported tables

| Table | Description | Sync method | Incremental field | Primary key |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `events` | Only syncs the last 30 days on initial sync | Incremental, Full refresh | start | — |
| `applications` | Application perspectives defined in Instana's application monitoring. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `services` | Services discovered by Instana's application monitoring. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `endpoints` | Service endpoints (HTTP paths, RPC methods, queues) discovered by Instana. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `websites` | Websites configured for Instana end-user (website) monitoring. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `synthetic_tests` | Synthetic monitoring tests configured in Instana. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `alerting_channels` | Alert channels (integrations) configured in Instana's alerting settings. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `alert_configs` | Alerting configurations that route triggered events to alert channels. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `infrastructure_snapshots` | Snapshot summaries of infrastructure entities currently monitored by Instana agents. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `built_in_event_specifications` | Built-in event specifications: the rules Instana ships to detect issues and incidents. Join `events.eventSpecificationId` to `id` to name events. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `custom_event_specifications` | Custom event specifications: user-defined rules that raise Instana events. Join `events.eventSpecificationId` to `id` to name events. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `releases` | Release markers that record deployments, used to correlate changes with events and metrics. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `slo_configs` | Service level objective (SLO) configurations. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `slo_reports` | Current attainment and error budget for each SLO over its configured time window. Rebuilt on every sync. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `synthetic_test_ci_cds` | Synthetic test runs triggered on demand, for example from a CI/CD pipeline. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `synthetic_locations` | Points of presence (PoPs) that run synthetic tests. Resolves the location IDs on synthetic tests and runs. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `synthetic_datacenters` | Data centers that host Instana-managed synthetic locations. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `mobile_apps` | Mobile apps configured in Instana's mobile app monitoring. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `application_metrics` | Daily metrics. Only syncs the last 7 full days on initial sync | Incremental, Full refresh | timestamp | — |
| `service_metrics` | Daily metrics. Only syncs the last 7 full days on initial sync | Incremental, Full refresh | timestamp | — |
| `endpoint_metrics` | Daily metrics. Only syncs the last 7 full days on initial sync | Incremental, Full refresh | timestamp | — |
| `apdex_configs` | Apdex configurations that define the user-satisfaction threshold for an application, service, website or mobile app. | Full refresh | — | — |
| `apdex_reports` | Apdex scores for each Apdex configuration over the trailing 7 days. Rebuilt on every sync. | Full refresh | — | — |

## Troubleshooting

-   If you see an authentication error, your API token is invalid or has been revoked. Create a new token under **Settings → Team Settings → API Tokens**, then reconnect.
-   If you see a permissions error, the token is missing the permission scopes needed to sync a table. Grant the required scopes on the token, then reconnect.
-   Instana rate-limits API usage to 5,000 calls per hour. Syncs back off and retry automatically, but very frequent sync schedules across many tables can exhaust the budget.

If your sync is failing or data looks wrong, see the [Data warehouse troubleshooting guide](https://posthog.com/docs/data-warehouse/troubleshooting.md). If that doesn't help, [contact support](https://us.posthog.com/#panel=support%3Asupport%3Adata_warehouse%3A%3Atrue) – we're happy to help.