* Supports [Prometheus querying API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/), so it can be used as Prometheus drop-in replacement in Grafana.
Additionally, VictoriaMetrics extends PromQL with opt-in [useful features](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/ExtendedPromQL).
* High performance and good scalability for both [inserts](https://medium.com/@valyala/high-cardinality-tsdb-benchmarks-victoriametrics-vs-timescaledb-vs-influxdb-13e6ee64dd6b)
and [selects](https://medium.com/@valyala/when-size-matters-benchmarking-victoriametrics-vs-timescale-and-influxdb-6035811952d4).
[Outperforms InfluxDB and TimescaleDB by up to 20x](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
* [Uses 10x less RAM than InfluxDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/insert-benchmarks-with-inch-influxdb-vs-victoriametrics-e31a41ae2893) when working with millions of unique time series (aka high cardinality).
* High data compression, so [up to 70x more data points](https://medium.com/@valyala/when-size-matters-benchmarking-victoriametrics-vs-timescale-and-influxdb-6035811952d4)
may be crammed into a limited storage comparing to TimescaleDB.
* Optimized for storage with high-latency IO and low iops (HDD and network storage in AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc). See [graphs from these benchmarks](https://medium.com/@valyala/high-cardinality-tsdb-benchmarks-victoriametrics-vs-timescaledb-vs-influxdb-13e6ee64dd6b).
* A single-node VictoriaMetrics may substitute moderately sized clusters built with competing solutions such as Thanos, Uber M3, Cortex, InfluxDB or TimescaleDB.
See [vertical scalability benchmarks](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
* Easy operation:
* VictoriaMetrics consists of a single executable without external dependencies.
* All the configuration is done via explicit command-line flags with reasonable defaults.
* All the data is stored in a single directory pointed by `-storageDataPath` flag.
* Easy backups from [instant snapshots](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282).
* Storage is protected from corruption on unclean shutdown (i.e. hardware reset or `kill -9`) thanks to [the storage architecture](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282).
* Supports metrics' ingestion and backfilling via the following protocols:
VictoriaMetrics is able to create [instant snapshots](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282)
for all the data stored under `-storageDataPath` directory.
Navigate to `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/snapshot/create` in order to create an instant snapshot.
The page will return the following JSON response:
```
{"status":"ok","snapshot":"<snapshot-name>"}
```
Snapshots are created under `<-storageDataPath>/snapshots` directory, where `<-storageDataPath>`
is the command-line flag value. Snapshots can be archived to backup storage via `rsync -L`, `scp -r`
or any similar tool that follows symlinks during copying.
The `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/snapshot/list` page contains the list of available snapshots.
Navigate to `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/snapshot/delete?snapshot=<snapshot-name>` in order
to delete `<snapshot-name>` snapshot.
Navigate to `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/snapshot/delete_all` in order to delete all the snapshots.
### How to delete time series?
Send a request to `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series?match[]=<timeseries_selector_for_delete>`,
where `<timeseries_selector_for_delete>` may contain any [time series selector](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#time-series-selectors)
for metrics to delete. After that all the time series matching the given selector are deleted. Storage space for
the deleted time series isn't freed instantly - it is freed during subsequent merges of data files.
### How to export time series?
Send a request to `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v1/export?match[]=<timeseries_selector_for_export>`,
where `<timeseries_selector_for_export>` may contain any [time series selector](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#time-series-selectors)
for metrics to export. The response would contain all the data for the selected time series in [JSON streaming format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON_streaming#Line-delimited_JSON).
Each JSON line would contain data for a single time series. An example output:
at `http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/federate?match[]=<timeseries_selector_for_federation>`.
Optional `start` and `end` args may be added to the request in order to scrape the last point for each selected time series on the `[start ... end]` interval.
`start` and `end` may contain either unix timestamp in seconds or [RFC3339](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt) values. By default the last point
on the interval `[now - max_lookback ... now]` is scraped for each time series. Default value for `max_lookback` is `5m` (5 minutes), but can be overridden.
For instance, `/federate?match[]=up&max_lookback=1h` would return last points on the `[now - 1h ... now]` interval. This may be useful for time series federation
with scrape intervals exceeding `5m`.
### Capacity planning
Rough estimation of the required resources:
* RAM size: less than 1KB per active time series. So, ~1GB of RAM is required for 1M active time series.
Time series is considered active if new data points have been added to it recently or if it has been recently queried.
VictoriaMetrics stores various caches in RAM. Memory size for these caches may be limited with `-memory.allowedPercent` flag.
* CPU cores: a CPU core per 300K inserted data points per second. So, ~4 CPU cores are required for processing
the insert stream of 1M data points per second.
If you see lower numbers per CPU core, then it is likely active time series info doesn't fit caches,
so you need more RAM for lowering CPU usage.
* Storage size: less than a byte per data point on average. So, ~260GB is required for storing a month-long insert stream
of 100K data points per second.
The actual storage size heavily depends on data randomness (entropy). Higher randomness means higher storage size requirements.
### High availability
1) Install multiple VictoriaMetrics instances in distinct datacenters.
2) Add addresses of these instances to `remote_write` section in Prometheus config:
4) Now Prometheus should write data into all the configured `remote_write` urls in parallel.
5) Set up [Promxy](https://github.com/jacksontj/promxy) in front of all the VictoriaMetrics replicas.
6) Set up Prometheus datasource in Grafana that points to Promxy.
### Multiple retentions
Just start multiple VictoriaMetrics instances with distinct values for the following flags:
*`-retentionPeriod`
*`-storageDataPath`, so the data for each retention period is saved in a separate directory
*`-httpListenAddr`, so clients may reach VictoriaMetrics instance with proper retention
### Scalability and cluster version
Though single-node VictoriaMetrics cannot scale to multiple nodes, it is optimized for resource usage - storage size / bandwidth / IOPS, RAM, CPU.
This means that a single-node VictoriaMetrics may scale vertically and substitute moderately sized cluster built with competing solutions
such as Thanos, Uber M3, InfluxDB or TimescaleDB.
So try single-node VictoriaMetrics at first and then [switch to cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster) if you still need
horizontally scalable long-term remote storage for really large Prometheus deployments.
[Contact us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) for paid support.
### Security
Do not forget protecting sensitive endpoints in VictoriaMetrics when exposing it to untrusted networks such as internet.
Consider setting the following command-line flags:
*`-tls`, `-tlsCertFile` and `-tlsKeyFile` for switching from HTTP to HTTPS.
*`-httpAuth.username` and `-httpAuth.password` for protecting all the HTTP endpoints
with [HTTP Basic Authentication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication).
*`-deleteAuthKey` for protecting `/api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series` endpoint. See [how to delete time series](#how-to-delete-time-series).
*`-snapshotAuthKey` for protecting `/snapshot*` endpoints. See [how to work with snapshots](#how-to-work-with-snapshots).
Explicitly set internal network interface for TCP and UDP ports for data ingestion with Graphite and OpenTSDB formats.
For example, substitute `-graphiteListenAddr=:2003` with `-graphiteListenAddr=<internal_iface_ip>:2003`.
### Tuning
* There is no need in VictoriaMetrics tuning, since it uses reasonable defaults for command-line flags,
which are automatically adjusted for the available CPU and RAM resources.
* There is no need in Operating System tuning, since VictoriaMetrics is optimized for default OS settings.
The only option is increasing the limit on [the number open files in the OS](https://medium.com/@muhammadtriwibowo/set-permanently-ulimit-n-open-files-in-ubuntu-4d61064429a),
so Prometheus instances could establish more connections to VictoriaMetrics.
### Monitoring
VictoriaMetrics exports internal metrics in Prometheus format on the `/metrics` page.
Add this page to Prometheus' scrape config in order to collect VictoriaMetrics metrics.
There is [an official Grafana dashboard for single-node VictoriaMetrics](https://grafana.com/dashboards/10229).
### Troubleshooting
* If VictoriaMetrics works slowly and eats more than a CPU core per 100K ingested data points per second,
then it is likely you have too many active time series for the current amount of RAM.
It is recommended increasing the amount of RAM on the node with VictoriaMetrics in order to improve
ingestion performance.
Another option is to increase `-memory.allowedPercent` command-line flag value. Be careful with this
option, since too big value for `-memory.allowedPercent` may result in high I/O usage.
