- It provides fast full-text search out of the box for [log fields](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/keyconcepts/#data-model)
with high cardinality (e.g. high number of unique values) such as `trace_id`, `user_id` and `ip`.
- It supports multitenancy - see [these docs](#multitenancy).
- It supports out-of-order logs' ingestion aka backfilling.
- It supports live tailing for newly ingested logs. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/querying/#live-tailing).
- It supports selecting surrounding logs in front and after the selected logs. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/logsql/#stream_context-pipe).
- It provides web UI for querying logs - see [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/querying/#web-ui).
- It provides [Grafana plugin for querying logs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/victorialogs-datasource/).
* No need in tuning for VictoriaLogs - it uses reasonable defaults for command-line flags, which are automatically adjusted for the available CPU and RAM resources.
* No need in tuning for Operating System - VictoriaLogs is optimized for default OS settings.
The only option is increasing the limit on [the number of open files in the OS](https://medium.com/@muhammadtriwibowo/set-permanently-ulimit-n-open-files-in-ubuntu-4d61064429a).
* The recommended filesystem is `ext4`, the recommended persistent storage is [persistent HDD-based disk on GCP](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#pdspecs),
since it is protected from hardware failures via internal replication and it can be [resized on the fly](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/add-persistent-disk#resize_pd).
If you plan to store more than 1TB of data on `ext4` partition or plan extending it to more than 16TB,
then the following options are recommended to pass to `mkfs.ext4`:
It is safe upgrading VictoriaLogs to new versions unless [release notes](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/changelog/) say otherwise.
It is safe to skip multiple versions during the upgrade unless [release notes](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/changelog/) say otherwise.
It is recommended to perform regular upgrades to the latest version, since it may contain important bug fixes, performance optimizations or new features.
By default VictoriaLogs stores log entries with timestamps in the time range `[now-7d, now]`, while dropping logs outside the given time range.
E.g. it uses the retention of 7 days. The retention can be configured with `-retentionPeriod` command-line flag.
This flag accepts values starting from `1d` (one day) up to `100y` (100 years). See [these docs](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#time-durations)
for the supported duration formats.
For example, the following command starts VictoriaLogs with the retention of 8 weeks:
The `vl_rows_dropped_total` [metric](#monitoring) is incremented each time an ingested log entry is dropped because of timestamp outside the retention.
becomes bigger than the given threshold at `-retention.maxDiskSpaceUsageBytes` command-line flag. For example, the following command starts VictoriaLogs,
which drops old per-day partitions if the total [storage](#storage) size becomes bigger than `100GiB`:
VictoriaLogs stores all its data in a single directory - `victoria-logs-data`. The path to the directory can be changed via `-storageDataPath` command-line flag.
For example, the following command starts VictoriaLogs, which stores the data at `/var/lib/victoria-logs`:
Sometimes it is necessary to trigger compactions for old partitions. In this case forced compaction may be initiated on the specified per-day partition
by sending request to `/internal/force_merge?partition_prefix=YYYYMMDD`,
where `YYYYMMDD` is per-day partition name. For example, `http://victoria-logs:9428/internal/force_merge?partition_prefix=20240921` would initiate forced
merge for September 21, 2024 partition. The call to `/internal/force_merge` returns immediately, while the corresponding forced merge continues running in background.
Forced merges may require additional CPU, disk IO and storage space resources. It is unnecessary to run forced merge under normal conditions,
since VictoriaLogs automatically performs optimal merges in background when new data is ingested into it.
### High Availability (HA) Setup with VictoriaLogs Single-Node Instances
This schema outlines how to configure a High Availability (HA) setup using VictoriaLogs Single-Node instances. The setup consists of the following components:
- **Log Collector**: The log collector should support multiplexing incoming data to multiple outputs (destinations). Popular log collectors like [Fluent Bit](https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/concepts/data-pipeline/router), [Logstash](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/output-plugins.html), [Fluentd](https://docs.fluentd.org/output/copy), and [Vector](https://vector.dev/docs/setup/configuration/sinks/) already offer this capability. Refer to their documentation for configuration details.
- **VictoriaLogs Single-Node Instances**: Use two or more instances to achieve HA.
- **[vmauth](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth/#load-balancing) or Load Balancer**: Used for reading data from one of the replicas to ensure balanced and redundant access.
VictoriaLogs supports multitenancy. A tenant is identified by `(AccountID, ProjectID)` pair, where `AccountID` and `ProjectID` are arbitrary 32-bit unsigned integers.
VictoriaLogs doesn't perform per-tenant authorization. Use [vmauth](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth/) or similar tools for per-tenant authorization.
Here is a [benchmark suite](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/master/deployment/logs-benchmark) for comparing data ingestion performance
The number of cache misses before putting the block into cache. Higher values may reduce indexdb/dataBlocks cache size at the cost of higher CPU and disk read usage (default 2)
Default value for _msg field if the ingested log entry doesn't contain it; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/keyconcepts/#message-field (default "missing _msg field; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/keyconcepts/#message-field")
Whether to enable reading flags from environment variables in addition to the command line. Command line flag values have priority over values from environment vars. Flags are read only from the command line if this flag isn't set. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#environment-variables for more details
Whether to disable fadvise() syscall when reading large data files. The fadvise() syscall prevents from eviction of recently accessed data from OS page cache during background merges and backups. In some rare cases it is better to disable the syscall if it uses too much CPU
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -flagsAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -flagsAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -flagsAuthKey=http://host/path or -flagsAuthKey=https://host/path
authKey, which must be passed in query string to /internal/force_merge pages. It overrides -httpAuth.*
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -forceMergeAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -forceMergeAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -forceMergeAuthKey=http://host/path or -forceMergeAuthKey=https://host/path
Whether to use pread() instead of mmap() for reading data files. By default, mmap() is used for 64-bit arches and pread() is used for 32-bit arches, since they cannot read data files bigger than 2^32 bytes in memory. mmap() is usually faster for reading small data chunks than pread()
Log entries with timestamps bigger than now+futureRetention are rejected during data ingestion; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/#retention
The following optional suffixes are supported: s (second), h (hour), d (day), w (week), y (year). If suffix isn't set, then the duration is counted in months (default 2d)
Incoming connections to -httpListenAddr are closed after the configured timeout. This may help evenly spreading load among a cluster of services behind TCP-level load balancer. Zero value disables closing of incoming connections (default 2m0s)
Timeout for incoming idle http connections (default 1m0s)
-http.maxGracefulShutdownDuration duration
The maximum duration for a graceful shutdown of the HTTP server. A highly loaded server may require increased value for a graceful shutdown (default 7s)
-http.pathPrefix string
An optional prefix to add to all the paths handled by http server. For example, if '-http.pathPrefix=/foo/bar' is set, then all the http requests will be handled on '/foo/bar/*' paths. This may be useful for proxied requests. See https://www.robustperception.io/using-external-urls-and-proxies-with-prometheus
-http.shutdownDelay duration
Optional delay before http server shutdown. During this delay, the server returns non-OK responses from /health page, so load balancers can route new requests to other servers
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -httpAuth.password=file:///abs/path/to/file or -httpAuth.password=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -httpAuth.password=http://host/path or -httpAuth.password=https://host/path
TCP address to listen for incoming http requests. See also -httpListenAddr.useProxyProtocol
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-httpListenAddr.useProxyProtocol array
Whether to use proxy protocol for connections accepted at the given -httpListenAddr . See https://www.haproxy.org/download/1.8/doc/proxy-protocol.txt . With enabled proxy protocol http server cannot serve regular /metrics endpoint. Use -pushmetrics.url for metrics pushing
Supports array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
The interval for guaranteed saving of in-memory data to disk. The saved data survives unclean shutdowns such as OOM crash, hardware reset, SIGKILL, etc. Bigger intervals may help increase the lifetime of flash storage with limited write cycles (e.g. Raspberry PI). Smaller intervals increase disk IO load. Minimum supported value is 1s (default 5s)
The maximum size of a single line, which can be read by /insert/* handlers
Supports the following optional suffixes for size values: KB, MB, GB, TB, KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB (default 262144)
-insert.maxQueueDuration duration
The maximum duration to wait in the queue when -maxConcurrentInserts concurrent insert requests are executed (default 1m0s)
-internStringCacheExpireDuration duration
The expiry duration for caches for interned strings. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringMaxLen and -internStringDisableCache (default 6m0s)
-internStringDisableCache
Whether to disable caches for interned strings. This may reduce memory usage at the cost of higher CPU usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringCacheExpireDuration and -internStringMaxLen
The maximum length for strings to intern. A lower limit may save memory at the cost of higher CPU usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringDisableCache and -internStringCacheExpireDuration (default 500)
Journal fields to ignore. See the list of allowed fields at https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.journal-fields.html.
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-journald.includeEntryMetadata
Include journal entry fields, which with double underscores.
-journald.streamFields array
Journal fields to be used as stream fields. See the list of allowed fields at https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.journal-fields.html.
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-journald.tenantID string
TenantID for logs ingested via the Journald endpoint. (default "0:0")
-journald.timeField string
Journal field to be used as time field. See the list of allowed fields at https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.journal-fields.html. (default "__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP")
Whether to log all the ingested log entries; this can be useful for debugging of data ingestion; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/ ; see also -logNewStreams
Whether to log creation of new streams; this can be useful for debugging of high cardinality issues with log streams; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/keyconcepts/#stream-fields ; see also -logIngestedRows
Per-second limit on the number of ERROR messages. If more than the given number of errors are emitted per second, the remaining errors are suppressed. Zero values disable the rate limit
-loggerFormat string
Format for logs. Possible values: default, json (default "default")
-loggerJSONFields string
Allows renaming fields in JSON formatted logs. Example: "ts:timestamp,msg:message" renames "ts" to "timestamp" and "msg" to "message". Supported fields: ts, level, caller, msg
-loggerLevel string
Minimum level of errors to log. Possible values: INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL, PANIC (default "INFO")
The maximum length of a single logged argument. Longer arguments are replaced with 'arg_start..arg_end', where 'arg_start' and 'arg_end' is prefix and suffix of the arg with the length not exceeding -loggerMaxArgLen / 2 (default 5000)
Output for the logs. Supported values: stderr, stdout (default "stderr")
-loggerTimezone string
Timezone to use for timestamps in logs. Timezone must be a valid IANA Time Zone. For example: America/New_York, Europe/Berlin, Etc/GMT+3 or Local (default "UTC")
-loggerWarnsPerSecondLimit int
Per-second limit on the number of WARN messages. If more than the given number of warns are emitted per second, then the remaining warns are suppressed. Zero values disable the rate limit
The maximum number of concurrent insert requests. Set higher value when clients send data over slow networks. Default value depends on the number of available CPU cores. It should work fine in most cases since it minimizes resource usage. See also -insert.maxQueueDuration (default 32)
Allowed size of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. This option overrides -memory.allowedPercent if set to a non-zero value. Too low a value may increase the cache miss rate usually resulting in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high a value may evict too much data from the OS page cache resulting in higher disk IO usage
Allowed percent of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. See also -memory.allowedBytes. Too low a value may increase cache miss rate usually resulting in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high a value may evict too much data from the OS page cache which will result in higher disk IO usage (default 60)
Whether to expose TYPE and HELP metadata at the /metrics page, which is exposed at -httpListenAddr . The metadata may be needed when the /metrics page is consumed by systems, which require this information. For example, Managed Prometheus in Google Cloud - https://cloud.google.com/stackdriver/docs/managed-prometheus/troubleshooting#missing-metric-type
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -metricsAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -metricsAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -metricsAuthKey=http://host/path or -metricsAuthKey=https://host/path
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -pprofAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -pprofAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -pprofAuthKey=http://host/path or -pprofAuthKey=https://host/path
-pushmetrics.disableCompression
Whether to disable request body compression when pushing metrics to every -pushmetrics.url
Optional labels to add to metrics pushed to every -pushmetrics.url . For example, -pushmetrics.extraLabel='instance="foo"' adds instance="foo" label to all the metrics pushed to every -pushmetrics.url
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-pushmetrics.header array
Optional HTTP request header to send to every -pushmetrics.url . For example, -pushmetrics.header='Authorization: Basic foobar' adds 'Authorization: Basic foobar' header to every request to every -pushmetrics.url
Optional URL to push metrics exposed at /metrics page. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#push-metrics . By default, metrics exposed at /metrics page aren't pushed to any remote storage
The maximum disk space usage at -storageDataPath before older per-day partitions are automatically dropped; see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/#retention-by-disk-space-usage ; see also -retentionPeriod
Supports the following optional suffixes for size values: KB, MB, GB, TB, KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB (default 0)
Log entries with timestamps older than now-retentionPeriod are automatically deleted; log entries with timestamps outside the retention are also rejected during data ingestion; the minimum supported retention is 1d (one day); see https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/#retention ; see also -retention.maxDiskSpaceUsageBytes
The following optional suffixes are supported: s (second), h (hour), d (day), w (week), y (year). If suffix isn't set, then the duration is counted in months (default 7d)
The maximum number of concurrent search requests. It shouldn't be high, since a single request can saturate all the CPU cores, while many concurrently executed requests may require high amounts of memory. See also -search.maxQueueDuration (default 16)
The maximum time the search request waits for execution when -search.maxConcurrentRequests limit is reached; see also -search.maxQueryDuration (default 10s)
Compression method for syslog messages received at the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp. Supported values: none, gzip, deflate. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#compression
Compression method for syslog messages received at the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.udp. Supported values: none, gzip, deflate. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#compression
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-syslog.listenAddr.tcp array
Comma-separated list of TCP addresses to listen to for Syslog messages. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-syslog.listenAddr.udp array
Comma-separated list of UDP address to listen to for Syslog messages. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-syslog.tenantID.tcp array
TenantID for logs ingested via the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-syslog.tenantID.udp array
TenantID for logs ingested via the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.udp. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-syslog.timezone string
Timezone to use when parsing timestamps in RFC3164 syslog messages. Timezone must be a valid IANA Time Zone. For example: America/New_York, Europe/Berlin, Etc/GMT+3 . See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/ (default "Local")
Whether to enable TLS for receiving syslog messages at the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp. The corresponding -syslog.tlsCertFile and -syslog.tlsKeyFile must be set if -syslog.tls is set. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#security
Path to file with TLS certificate for the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp if the corresponding -syslog.tls is set. Prefer ECDSA certs instead of RSA certs as RSA certs are slower. The provided certificate file is automatically re-read every second, so it can be dynamically updated. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#security
Optional list of TLS cipher suites for -syslog.listenAddr.tcp if -syslog.tls is set. See the list of supported cipher suites at https://pkg.go.dev/crypto/tls#pkg-constants . See also https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#security
Path to file with TLS key for the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp if the corresponding -syslog.tls is set. The provided key file is automatically re-read every second, so it can be dynamically updated. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#security
The minimum TLS version to use for -syslog.listenAddr.tcp if -syslog.tls is set. Supported values: TLS10, TLS11, TLS12, TLS13. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#security (default "TLS13")
-syslog.useLocalTimestamp.tcp array
Whether to use local timestamp instead of the original timestamp for the ingested syslog messages at the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.tcp. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#log-timestamps
Supports array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Empty values are set to false.
-syslog.useLocalTimestamp.udp array
Whether to use local timestamp instead of the original timestamp for the ingested syslog messages at the corresponding -syslog.listenAddr.udp. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victorialogs/data-ingestion/syslog/#log-timestamps
Supports array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Whether to enable TLS for incoming HTTP requests at the given -httpListenAddr (aka https). -tlsCertFile and -tlsKeyFile must be set if -tls is set. See also -mtls
Supports array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Empty values are set to false.
-tlsCertFile array
Path to file with TLS certificate for the corresponding -httpListenAddr if -tls is set. Prefer ECDSA certs instead of RSA certs as RSA certs are slower. The provided certificate file is automatically re-read every second, so it can be dynamically updated. See also -tlsAutocertHosts
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
Optional list of TLS cipher suites for incoming requests over HTTPS if -tls is set. See the list of supported cipher suites at https://pkg.go.dev/crypto/tls#pkg-constants
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-tlsKeyFile array
Path to file with TLS key for the corresponding -httpListenAddr if -tls is set. The provided key file is automatically re-read every second, so it can be dynamically updated. See also -tlsAutocertHosts
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
-tlsMinVersion array
Optional minimum TLS version to use for the corresponding -httpListenAddr if -tls is set. Supported values: TLS10, TLS11, TLS12, TLS13
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Value can contain comma inside single-quoted or double-quoted string, {}, [] and () braces.
