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name: main name: main
on: on:
- push push:
- pull_request paths-ignore:
- 'docs/**'
- '**.md'
pull_request:
paths-ignore:
- 'docs/**'
- '**.md'
jobs: jobs:
build: build:
name: Build name: Build

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name: wiki
on:
push:
paths:
- 'docs/*.md'
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@master
- name: publish
shell: bash
env:
TOKEN: ${{secrets.CI_TOKEN}}
run: |
cd doc
git clone https://vika:${TOKEN}github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics.wiki.git wiki
find ./ -name '*.md' -exec cp -prv '{}' 'wiki' ';'
cd wiki
git config --local user.email "info@victoriametrics.com"
git config --local user.name "Vika"
git add "*.md"
git commit -m "update wiki pages"
remote_repo="https://vika:${TOKEN}@github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics.wiki.git"
git push "${remote_repo}"
cd ..
rm -rf wiki

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/tmp
/tags /tags
/pkg /pkg
*.pprof *.pprof

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* [Open-sourcing VictoriaMetrics](https://medium.com/@valyala/open-sourcing-victoriametrics-f31e34485c2b)
* [How we created VictoriaMetrics](https://medium.com/devopslinks/victoriametrics-creating-the-best-remote-storage-for-prometheus-5d92d66787ac)
* [VictoriaMetrics vs TimescaleDB vs InfluxDB benchmarks on 40K unique time series](https://medium.com/@valyala/when-size-matters-benchmarking-victoriametrics-vs-timescale-and-influxdb-6035811952d4)
* [VictoriaMetrics vs TimescaleDB vs InfluxDB benchmarks on 400K, 4M and 40M unique time series](https://medium.com/@valyala/high-cardinality-tsdb-benchmarks-victoriametrics-vs-timescaledb-vs-influxdb-13e6ee64dd6b)
* [Insert benchmarks for VictoriaMetrics vs InfluxDB on high-cardinality data](https://medium.com/@valyala/insert-benchmarks-with-inch-influxdb-vs-victoriametrics-e31a41ae2893)
* [Measuring vertical scalability for time series databases in Google Cloud](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae)
* [How VictoriaMetrics creates instant snapshots](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282)
* [Prometheus Subqueries in VictoriaMetrics](https://medium.com/@valyala/prometheus-subqueries-in-victoriametrics-9b1492b720b3)
* [Why irate from Prometheus doesn't capture spikes](https://medium.com/@valyala/why-irate-from-prometheus-doesnt-capture-spikes-45f9896d7832)
* [Why mmap'ed files in Go may hurt performance](https://medium.com/@valyala/mmap-in-go-considered-harmful-d92a25cb161d)
* [WAL Usage Looks Broken in Modern TSDBs](https://medium.com/@valyala/wal-usage-looks-broken-in-modern-time-series-databases-b62a627ab704)
* [Analyzing Prometheus data with external tools](https://medium.com/@valyala/analyzing-prometheus-data-with-external-tools-5f3e5e147639)
* [Stripping dependency bloat in VictoriaMetrics Docker image](https://medium.com/@valyala/stripping-dependency-bloat-in-victoriametrics-docker-image-983fb5912b0d)
* [PromQL tutorial for beginners](https://medium.com/@valyala/promql-tutorial-for-beginners-9ab455142085)
* [Achieving better compression for time series data than Gorilla](https://medium.com/@valyala/victoriametrics-achieving-better-compression-for-time-series-data-than-gorilla-317bc1f95932)
* [Comparing Thanos to VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://medium.com/@valyala/comparing-thanos-to-victoriametrics-cluster-b193bea1683)
* [Speeding up backups for big time series databases](https://medium.com/@valyala/speeding-up-backups-for-big-time-series-databases-533c1a927883)
* [Evaluation performance and correctness: VictoriaMetrics response](https://medium.com/@valyala/evaluating-performance-and-correctness-victoriametrics-response-e27315627e87)
* [Improving histogram usability for Prometheus and Grafana](https://medium.com/@valyala/improving-histogram-usability-for-prometheus-and-grafana-bc7e5df0e350)

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# Cluster version of VictoriaMetrics
VictoriaMetrics is fast, cost-effective and scalable time series database. It can be used as a long-term remote storage for Prometheus.
It is recommended using [single-node version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics) instead of cluster version
for ingestion rates lower than 10 million of data points per second.
Single-node version [scales perfectly](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae)
with the number of CPU cores, RAM and available storage space.
Single-node version is easier to configure and operate comparing to cluster version, so think twice before sticking to cluster version.
Join [our Slack](http://slack.victoriametrics.com/) or [contact us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) with consulting and support questions.
## Prominent features
- Supports all the features of [single-node version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics).
- Performance and capacity scales horizontally.
- Supports multiple independent namespaces for time series data (aka multi-tenancy).
## Architecture overview
VictoriaMetrics cluster consists of the following services:
- `vmstorage` - stores the data
- `vminsert` - proxies the ingested data to `vmstorage` shards using consistent hashing
- `vmselect` - performs incoming queries using the data from `vmstorage`
Each service may scale independently and may run on the most suitable hardware.
<img src="https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/e/2PACX-1vTvk2raU9kFgZ84oF-OKolrGwHaePhHRsZEcfQ1I_EC5AB_XPWwB392XshxPramLJ8E4bqptTnFn5LL/pub?w=1104&amp;h=746">
## Binaries
Compiled binaries for cluster version are available in the `assets` section of [releases page](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases).
See archives containing `cluster` word.
Docker images for cluster version are available here:
- `vminsert` - https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/vminsert/tags
- `vmselect` - https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/vmselect/tags
- `vmstorage` - https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/vmstorage/tags
## Building from sources
Source code for cluster version is available at [cluster branch](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
### Development Builds
1. [Install go](https://golang.org/doc/install). The minimum supported version is Go 1.12.
2. Run `make` from the repository root. It should build `vmstorage`, `vmselect`
and `vminsert` binaries and put them into the `bin` folder.
### Production builds
There is no need in installing Go on a host system since binaries are built
inside [the official docker container for Go](https://hub.docker.com/_/golang).
This makes reproducible builds.
So [install docker](https://docs.docker.com/install/) and run the following command:
```
make vminsert-prod vmselect-prod vmstorage-prod
```
Production binaries are built into statically linked binaries for `GOARCH=amd64`, `GOOS=linux`.
They are put into `bin` folder with `-prod` suffixes:
```
$ make vminsert-prod vmselect-prod vmstorage-prod
$ ls -1 bin
vminsert-prod
vmselect-prod
vmstorage-prod
```
### Building docker images
Run `make package`. It will build the following docker images locally:
* `victoriametrics/vminsert:<PKG_TAG>`
* `victoriametrics/vmselect:<PKG_TAG>`
* `victoriametrics/vmstorage:<PKG_TAG>`
`<PKG_TAG>` is auto-generated image tag, which depends on source code in the repository.
The `<PKG_TAG>` may be manually set via `PKG_TAG=foobar make package`.
## Operation
### Cluster setup
A minimal cluster must contain the following nodes:
* a single `vmstorage` node with `-retentionPeriod` and `-storageDataPath` flags
* a single `vminsert` node with `-storageNode=<vmstorage_host>:8400`
* a single `vmselect` node with `-storageNode=<vmstorage_host>:8401`
It is recommended to run at least two nodes for each service
for high availability purposes.
An http load balancer must be put in front of `vminsert` and `vmselect` nodes:
- requests starting with `/insert` must be routed to port `8480` on `vminsert` nodes.
- requests starting with `/select` must be routed to port `8481` on `vmselect` nodes.
Ports may be altered by setting `-httpListenAddr` on the corresponding nodes.
It is recommended setting up [monitoring](#monitoring) for the cluster.
### Monitoring
All the cluster components expose various metrics in Prometheus-compatible format at `/metrics` page on the TCP port set in `-httpListenAddr` command-line flag.
By default the following TCP ports are used:
- `vminsert` - 8480
- `vmselect` - 8481
- `vmstorage` - 8482
It is recommended setting up Prometheus to scrape `/metrics` pages from all the cluster components, so they can be monitored and analyzed
with [the official Grafana dashboard for VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/11176).
### URL format
* URLs for data ingestion: `http://<vminsert>:8480/insert/<accountID>/<suffix>`, where:
- `<accountID>` is an arbitrary number identifying namespace for data ingestion (aka tenant)
- `<suffix>` may have the following values:
- `prometheus` - for inserting data with [Prometheus remote write API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#remote_write)
- `influx/write` or `influx/api/v2/write` - for inserting data with [Influx line protocol](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/write_protocols/line_protocol_tutorial/)
* URLs for querying: `http://<vmselect>:8481/select/<accountID>/prometheus/<suffix>`, where:
- `<accountID>` is an arbitrary number identifying data namespace for the query (aka tenant)
- `<suffix>` may have the following values:
- `api/v1/query` - performs [PromQL instant query](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#instant-queries)
- `api/v1/query_range` - performs [PromQL range query](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries)
- `api/v1/series` - performs [series query](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#finding-series-by-label-matchers)
- `api/v1/labels` - returns a [list of label names](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#getting-label-names)
- `api/v1/label/<label_name>/values` - returns values for the given `<label_name>` according [to API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#querying-label-values)
- `federate` - returns [federated metrics](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/federation/)
- `api/v1/export` - exports raw data. See [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/analyzing-prometheus-data-with-external-tools-5f3e5e147639) for details
* URL for time series deletion: `http://<vmselect>:8481/delete/<accountID>/prometheus/api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series?match[]=<timeseries_selector_for_delete>`.
Note that the `delete_series` handler should be used only in exceptional cases such as deletion of accidentally ingested incorrect time series. It shouldn't
be used on a regular basis, since it carries non-zero overhead.
* `vmstorage` nodes provide the following HTTP endpoints on `8482` port:
- `/snapshot/create` - create [instant snapshot](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282),
which can be used for backups in background. Snapshots are created in `<storageDataPath>/snapshots` folder, where `<storageDataPath>` is the corresponding
command-line flag value.
- `/snapshot/list` - list available snasphots.
- `/snapshot/delete?snapshot=<id>` - delete the given snapshot.
- `/snapshot/delete_all` - delete all the snapshots.
Snapshots may be created independently on each `vmstorage` node. There is no need in synchronizing snapshots' creation
across `vmstorage` nodes.
### Cluster resizing and scalability.
Cluster performance and capacity scales with adding new nodes.
* `vminsert` and `vmselect` nodes are stateless and may be added / removed at any time.
Do not forget updating the list of these nodes on http load balancer.
Adding more `vminsert` nodes scales data ingestion rate. See [this comment](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/175#issuecomment-536925841)
about ingestion rate scalability.
Adding more `vmselect` nodes scales select queries rate.
* `vmstorage` nodes own the ingested data, so they cannot be removed without data loss.
Adding more `vmstorage` nodes scales cluster capacity.
Steps to add `vmstorage` node:
1. Start new `vmstorage` node with the same `-retentionPeriod` as existing nodes in the cluster.
2. Gradually restart all the `vmselect` nodes with new `-storageNode` arg containing `<new_vmstorage_host>:8401`.
3. Gradually restart all the `vminsert` nodes with new `-storageNode` arg containing `<new_vmstorage_host>:8400`.
### Cluster availability
* HTTP load balancer must stop routing requests to unavailable `vminsert` and `vmselect` nodes.
* The cluster remains available if at least a single `vmstorage` node exists:
- `vminsert` re-routes incoming data from unavailable `vmstorage` nodes to healthy `vmstorage` nodes
- `vmselect` continues serving partial responses if at least a single `vmstorage` node is available.
### Updating / reconfiguring cluster nodes
All the node types - `vminsert`, `vmselect` and `vmstorage` - may be updated via graceful shutdown.
Send `SIGINT` signal to the corresponding process, wait until it finishes and then start new version
with new configs.
Cluster should remain in working state if at least a single node of each type remains available during
the update process. See [cluster availability](#cluster-availability) section for details.
### Capacity planning
Each instance type - `vminsert`, `vmselect` and `vmstorage` - can run on the most suitable hardware.
#### vminsert
* The recommended total number of vCPU cores for all the `vminsert` instances can be calculated from the ingestion rate: `vCPUs = ingestion_rate / 150K`.
* The recommended number of vCPU cores per each `vminsert` instance should equal to the number of `vmstorage` instances in the cluster.
* The amount of RAM per each `vminsert` instance should be 1GB or more. RAM is used as a buffer for spikes in ingestion rate.
* Sometimes `-rpc.disableCompression` command-line flag on `vminsert` instances could increase ingestion capacity at the cost
of higher network bandwidth usage between `vminsert` and `vmstorage`.
#### vmstorage
* The recommended total number of vCPU cores for all the `vmstorage` instances can be calculated from the ingestion rate: `vCPUs = ingestion_rate / 150K`.
* The recommended total amount of RAM for all the `vmstorage` instances can be calculated from the number of active time series: `RAM = active_time_series * 1KB`.
Time series is active if it received at least a single data point during the last hour or if it has been queried during the last hour.
* The recommended total amount of storage space for all the `vmstorage` instances can be calculated
from the ingestion rate and retention: `storage_space = ingestion_rate * retention_seconds`.
#### vmselect
The recommended hardware for `vmselect` instances highly depends on the type of queries. Lightweight queries over small number of time series usually require
small number of vCPU cores and small amount of RAM on `vmselect`, while heavy queries over big number of time series (>10K) usually require
bigger number of vCPU cores and bigger amounts of RAM.
### Helm
Helm chart simplifies managing cluster version of VictoriaMetrics in Kubernetes.
It is available in the [helm-charts](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts) repository.
Upgrade follows `Cluster resizing procedure` under the hood.
### Replication and data safety
VictoriaMetrics offloads replication to the underlying storage pointed by `-storageDataPath`.
It is recommended storing data on [Google Compute Engine persistent disks](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#pdspecs),
since they are protected from data loss and data corruption. They also provide consistently high performance
and [may be resized](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/add-persistent-disk) without downtime.
HDD-based persistent disks should be enough for the majority of use cases.
It is recommended using durable replicated persistent volumes in Kubernetes.
Note that [replication doesn't save from disaster](https://medium.com/@valyala/speeding-up-backups-for-big-time-series-databases-533c1a927883).
### Backups
It is recommended performing periodical backups from [instant snapshots](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282)
for protecting from user errors such as accidental data deletion.
The following steps must be performed for each `vmstorage` node for creating a backup:
1. Create an instant snapshot by navigating to `/snapshot/create` HTTP handler. It will create snapshot and return its name.
2. Archive the created snapshot from `<-storageDataPath>/snapshots/<snapshot_name>` folder using [vmbackup](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/cluster/app/vmbackup/README.md).
The archival process doesn't interfere with `vmstorage` work, so it may be performed at any suitable time.
3. Delete unused snapshots via `/snapshot/delete?snapshot=<snapshot_name>` or `/snapshot/delete_all` in order to free up occupied storage space.
There is no need in synchronizing backups among all the `vmstorage` nodes.
Restoring from backup:
1. Stop `vmstorage` node with `kill -INT`.
2. Restore data from backup using [vmrestore](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/cluster/app/vmrestore/README.md) into `-storageDataPath` directory.
3. Start `vmstorage` node.
## Community and contributions
We are open to third-party pull requests provided they follow [KISS design principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle):
- Prefer simple code and architecture.
- Avoid complex abstractions.
- Avoid magic code and fancy algorithms.
- Avoid [big external dependencies](https://medium.com/@valyala/stripping-dependency-bloat-in-victoriametrics-docker-image-983fb5912b0d).
- Minimize the number of moving parts in the distributed system.
- Avoid automated decisions, which may hurt cluster availability, consistency or performance.
Adhering `KISS` principle simplifies the resulting code and architecture, so it can be reviewed, understood and verified by many people.
Due to `KISS` cluster version of VictoriaMetrics has no the following "features" popular in distributed computing world:
- Fragile gossip protocols. See [failed attempt in Thanos](https://github.com/improbable-eng/thanos/blob/030bc345c12c446962225221795f4973848caab5/docs/proposals/completed/201809_gossip-removal.md).
- Hard-to-understand-and-implement-properly [Paxos protocols](https://www.quora.com/In-distributed-systems-what-is-a-simple-explanation-of-the-Paxos-algorithm).
- Complex replication schemes, which may go nuts in unforesseen edge cases. The replication is offloaded to the underlying durable replicated storage
such as [persistent disks in Google Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#pdspecs).
- Automatic data reshuffling between storage nodes, which may hurt cluster performance and availability.
- Automatic cluster resizing, which may cost you a lot of money if improperly configured.
- Automatic discovering and addition of new nodes in the cluster, which may mix data between dev and prod clusters :)
- Automatic leader election, which may result in split brain disaster on network errors.
## Reporting bugs
Report bugs and propose new features [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues).
## Victoria Metrics Logo
[Zip](VM_logo.zip) contains three folders with different image orientation (main color and inverted version).
Files included in each folder:
* 2 JPEG Preview files
* 2 PNG Preview files with transparent background
* 2 EPS Adobe Illustrator EPS10 files
### Logo Usage Guidelines
#### Font used:
* Lato Black
* Lato Regular
#### Color Palette:
* HEX [#110f0f](https://www.color-hex.com/color/110f0f)
* HEX [#ffffff](https://www.color-hex.com/color/ffffff)
### We kindly ask:
- Please don't use any other font instead of suggested.
- There should be sufficient clear space around the logo.
- Do not change spacing, alignment, or relative locations of the design elements.
- Do not change the proportions of any of the design elements or the design itself. You may resize as needed but must retain all proportions.

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VictoriaMetrics supports [standard PromQL](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/)
including [subqueries](https://prometheus.io/blog/2019/01/28/subquery-support/).
Additionally it supports useful extensions mentioned below.
Try these extensions on [an editable Grafana dashboard](http://play-grafana.victoriametrics.com:3000/d/4ome8yJmz/node-exporter-on-victoriametrics-demo).
- [`WITH` templates](https://play.victoriametrics.com/promql/expand-with-exprs). This feature simplifies writing and managing complex queries. Go to [`WITH` templates playground](https://victoriametrics.com/promql/expand-with-exprs) and try it.
- Metric names and metric labels may contain escaped chars. For instance, `foo\-bar{baz\=aa="b"}` is valid expression. It returns time series with name `foo-bar` containing label `baz=aa` with value `b`. Additionally, `\xXX` escape sequence is supported, where `XX` is hexadecimal representation of escaped char.
- `offset`, range duration and step value for range vector may refer to the current step aka `$__interval` value from Grafana.
For instance, `rate(metric[10i] offset 5i)` would return per-second rate over a range covering 10 previous steps with the offset of 5 steps.
- `default` binary operator. `q1 default q2` substitutes `NaN` values from `q1` with the corresponding values from `q2`.
- `if` binary operator. `q1 if q2` removes values from `q1` for `NaN` values from `q2`.
- `ifnot` binary operator. `q1 ifnot q2` removes values from `q1` for non-`NaN` values from `q2`.
- `offset` may be put anywere in the query. For instance, `sum(foo) offset 24h`.
- Trailing commas on all the lists are allowed - label filters, function args and with expressions. For instance, the following queries are valid: `m{foo="bar",}`, `f(a, b,)`, `WITH (x=y,) x`. This simplifies maintenance of multi-line queries.
- String literals may be concatenated. This is useful with `WITH` templates: `WITH (commonPrefix="long_metric_prefix_") {__name__=commonPrefix+"suffix1"} / {__name__=commonPrefix+"suffix2"}`.
- Range duration in functions such as [rate](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/functions/#rate()) may be omitted. VictoriaMetrics automatically selects range duration depending on the current step used for building the graph. For instance, the following query is valid in VictoriaMetrics: `rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total)`.
- [Range duration](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#range-vector-selectors) and [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier) may be fractional. For instance, `rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total[1.5m] offset 0.5d)`.
- Comments starting with `#` and ending with newline. For instance, `up # this is a comment for 'up' metric`.
- Rollup functions - `rollup(m[d])`, `rollup_rate(m[d])`, `rollup_deriv(m[d])`, `rollup_increase(m[d])`, `rollup_delta(m[d])` - return `min`, `max` and `avg`
values for all the `m` data points over `d` duration.
- `rollup_candlestick(m[d])` - returns `open`, `close`, `low` and `high` values (OHLC) for all the `m` data points over `d` duration. This function is useful for financial applications.
- `union(q1, ... qN)` function for building multiple graphs for `q1`, ... `qN` subqueries with a single query. The `union` function name may be skipped -
the following queries are equivalent: `union(q1, q2)` and `(q1, q2)`.
- `ru(freeResources, maxResources)` function for returning resource utilization percentage in the range `0% - 100%`. For instance, `ru(node_memory_MemFree_bytes, node_memory_MemTotal_bytes)` returns memory utilization over [node_exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter) metrics.
- `ttf(slowlyChangingFreeResources)` function for returning the time in seconds when the given `slowlyChangingFreeResources` expression reaches zero. For instance, `ttf(node_filesystem_avail_byte)` returns the time to storage space exhaustion. This function may be useful for capacity planning.
- Functions for label manipulation:
- `alias(q, name)` for setting metric name across all the time series `q`.
- `label_set(q, label1, value1, ... labelN, valueN)` for setting the given values for the given labels on `q`.
- `label_del(q, label1, ... labelN)` for deleting the given labels from `q`.
- `label_keep(q, label1, ... labelN)` for deleting all the labels except the given labels from `q`.
- `label_copy(q, src_label1, dst_label1, ... src_labelN, dst_labelN)` for copying label values from `src_*` to `dst_*`.
- `label_move(q, src_label1, dst_label1, ... src_labelN, dst_labelN)` for moving label values from `src_*` to `dst_*`.
- `label_transform(q, label, regexp, replacement)` for replacing all the `regexp` occurences with `replacement` in the `label` values from `q`.
- `label_value(q, label)` - returns numeric values for the given `label` from `q`.
- `step()` function for returning the step in seconds used in the query.
- `start()` and `end()` functions for returning the start and end timestamps of the `[start ... end]` range used in the query.
- `integrate(m[d])` for returning integral over the given duration `d` for the given metric `m`.
- `ideriv(m)` - for calculating `instant` derivative for `m`.
- `deriv_fast(m[d])` - for calculating `fast` derivative for `m` based on the first and the last points from duration `d`.
- `running_` functions - `running_sum`, `running_min`, `running_max`, `running_avg` - for calculating [running values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_total) on the selected time range.
- `range_` functions - `range_sum`, `range_min`, `range_max`, `range_avg`, `range_first`, `range_last`, `range_median`, `range_quantile` - for calculating global value over the selected time range.
- `smooth_exponential(q, sf)` - smooths `q` using [exponential moving average](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_average#Exponential_moving_average) with the given smooth factor `sf`.
- `remove_resets(q)` - removes counter resets from `q`.
- `lag(q[d])` - returns lag between the current timestamp and the timestamp from the previous data point in `q` over `d`.
- `lifetime(q[d])` - returns lifetime of `q` over `d` in seconds. It is expected that `d` exceeds the lifetime of `q`.
- `scrape_interval(q[d])` - returns the average interval in seconds between data points of `q` over `d` aka `scrape interval`.
- Trigonometric functions - `sin(q)`, `cos(q)`, `asin(q)`, `acos(q)` and `pi()`.
- `median_over_time(m[d])` - calculates median values for `m` over `d` time window. Shorthand to `quantile_over_time(0.5, m[d])`.
- `median(q)` - median aggregate. Shorthand to `quantile(0.5, q)`.
- `limitk(k, q)` - limits the number of time series returned from `q` to `k`.
- `keep_last_value(q)` - fills missing data (gaps) in `q` with the previous value.
- `distinct_over_time(m[d])` - returns distinct number of values for `m` data points over `d` duration.
- `distinct(q)` - returns a time series with the number of unique values for each timestamp in `q`.
- `sum2_over_time(m[d])` - returns sum of squares for all the `m` values over `d` duration.
- `sum2(q)` - returns a time series with sum of square values for each timestamp in `q`.
- `geomean_over_time(m[d])` - returns [geomean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean) value for all the `m` value over `d` duration.
- `geomean(q)` - returns a time series with [geomean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean) value for each timestamp in `q`.
- `rand()`, `rand_normal()` and `rand_exponential()` functions - for generating pseudo-random series with even, normal and exponential distribution.
- `increases_over_time(m[d])` and `decreases_over_time(m[d])` - returns the number of `m` increases or decreases over the given duration `d`.
- `prometheus_buckets(q)` - converts [VictoriaMetrics histogram](https://godoc.org/github.com/VictoriaMetrics/metrics#Histogram) buckets to Prometheus buckets with `le` labels.
- `histogram(q)` - calculates aggregate histogram over `q` time series for each point on the graph.

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### What is the main purpose of VictoriaMetrics?
To provide the best long-term [remote storage](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage) solution for [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/).
### Which features does VictoriaMetrics have?
* 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)
and [comparing Thanos to VictoriaMetrics](https://medium.com/@valyala/comparing-thanos-to-victoriametrics-cluster-b193bea1683).
* 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:
* [Prometheus remote write API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#remote_write)
* [InfluxDB line protocol](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/write_protocols/line_protocol_tutorial/)
* [Graphite plaintext protocol](https://graphite.readthedocs.io/en/latest/feeding-carbon.html) with [tags](https://graphite.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tags.html#carbon)
if `-graphiteListenAddr` is set.
* [OpenTSDB put message](http://opentsdb.net/docs/build/html/api_telnet/put.html) if `-opentsdbListenAddr` is set.
* Ideally works with big amounts of time series data from IoT sensors, connected car sensors and industrial sensors.
* Has open source [cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
### Which clients do you target?
The following Prometheus users may be interested in VictoriaMetrics:
- Users who don't want to bother with Prometheus' local storage operational burden - backups, replication, capacity planning, scalability, etc.
- Users with multiple Prometheus instances who want performing arbitrary queries over all the metrics collected by their Prometheus instances (aka `global querying view`).
- Users who want reducing costs for storing huge amounts of time series data.
### How to start using VictoriaMetrics?
Start with [single-node version](Single-server-VictoriaMetrics). It is easy to configure and operate. It should fit the majority of use cases.
### Is it safe to enable [remote write storage](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/integrations/#remote-endpoints-and-storage) in Prometheus?
Yes. Prometheus continues writing data to local storage after enabling remote storage write, so all the existing local storage data
and new data is available for querying via Prometheus as usual.
### How does VictoriaMetrics compare to other clustered TSDBs on top of Prometheus such as [M3 from Uber](https://eng.uber.com/m3/), [Thanos](https://github.com/improbable-eng/thanos), [Cortex](https://github.com/cortexproject/cortex), etc.?
VictoriaMetrics is simpler, faster, more cost-effective and it provides [useful extensions for PromQL](ExtendedPromQL). The simplicity is twofold:
- It is simpler to configure and operate. There is no need in configuring third-party [sidecars](https://github.com/improbable-eng/thanos/blob/master/docs/components/sidecar.md)
or fighting with [gossip protocol](https://github.com/improbable-eng/thanos/blob/master/docs/proposals/completed/201809_gossip-removal.md).
- VictoriaMetrics has simpler architecture, which means less bugs and more useful features in a long run comparing to competing TSDBs.
See [comparing Thanos to VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://medium.com/@valyala/comparing-thanos-to-victoriametrics-cluster-b193bea1683).
### How does VictoriaMetrics compare to [InfluxDB](https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/influxdb/)?
VictoriaMetrics requires [10x less RAM](https://medium.com/@valyala/insert-benchmarks-with-inch-influxdb-vs-victoriametrics-e31a41ae2893) and it [works faster](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
It is easier to configure and operate. It provides [better query language](https://medium.com/@valyala/promql-tutorial-for-beginners-9ab455142085) than InfluxQL or Flux.
### How does VictoriaMetrics compare to [TimescaleDB](https://www.timescale.com/)?
TimescaleDB insists on using SQL as a query language. While SQL is more powerful than PromQL, this power is rarely required during typical TSDB usage. Real-world queries usually [look clearer and simpler when written in PromQL than in SQL](https://medium.com/@valyala/promql-tutorial-for-beginners-9ab455142085).
Additionally, VictoriaMetrics requires [up to 70x less storage space comparing to TimescaleDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/when-size-matters-benchmarking-victoriametrics-vs-timescale-and-influxdb-6035811952d4) for storing the same amount of time series data.
### Does VictoriaMetrics use Prometheus technologies like other clustered TSDBs built on top of Prometheus such as [M3 from Uber](https://eng.uber.com/m3/), [Thanos](https://github.com/improbable-eng/thanos), [Cortex](https://github.com/cortexproject/cortex)?
No. VictoriaMetrics core is written in Go from scratch by [fasthttp](https://github.com/valyala/fasthttp) [author](https://github.com/valyala).
The architecture is [optimized for storing and querying large amounts of time series data with high cardinality](https://medium.com/devopslinks/victoriametrics-creating-the-best-remote-storage-for-prometheus-5d92d66787ac). VictoriaMetrics storage uses [certain ideas from ClickHouse](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282). Special thanks to [Alexey Milovidov](https://github.com/alexey-milovidov).
### Are there performance comparisons with other solutions?
Yes:
* [Measuring vertical scalability for time series databases: VictoriaMetrics vs InfluxDB vs TimescaleDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
* [Measuring insert performance on high-cardinality time series: VictoriaMetrics vs InfluxDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/insert-benchmarks-with-inch-influxdb-vs-victoriametrics-e31a41ae2893)
* [TSBS benchmark on high-cardinality time series: VictoriaMetrics vs InfluxDB vs TimescaleDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/high-cardinality-tsdb-benchmarks-victoriametrics-vs-timescaledb-vs-influxdb-13e6ee64dd6b)
* [Standard TSBS benchmark: VictoriaMetrics vs InfluxDB vs TimescaleDB](https://medium.com/@valyala/when-size-matters-benchmarking-victoriametrics-vs-timescale-and-influxdb-6035811952d4)
### What is the pricing for VictoriaMetrics?
The following versions are open source and free:
* [Single-node version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics).
* [Cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
We provide commercial support for both versions. [Contact us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) for the pricing.
The following versions are commercial:
* Managed cluster in the Cloud.
* SaaS version.
[Contact us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) for the pricing.
### Why VictoriaMetrics doesn't support [Prometheus remote read API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#%3Cremote_read%3E)?
Remote read API requires transferring all the raw data for all the requested metrics over the given time range. For instance,
if a query covers 1000 metrics with 10K values each, then the remote read API had to return `1000*10K`=10M metric values to Prometheus.
This is slow and expensive.
Prometheus remote read API isn't intended for querying foreign data aka `global query view`. See [this issue](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/issues/4456) for details.
So just query VictoriaMetrics directly via [Prometheus Querying API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/)
or via [Prometheus datasoruce in Grafana](http://docs.grafana.org/features/datasources/prometheus/).
### Does VictoriaMetrics deduplicate data from Prometheus instances scraping the same targets (aka `HA pairs`)?
Data from all the Prometheus instances is saved in VictoriaMetrics without deduplication.
The deduplication for Prometheus HA pair may be easily implemented on top of VictoriaMetrics with the following steps:
1) Run multiple VictoriaMetrics instances in multiple availability zones (datacenters).
2) Configure each Prometheus from each HA pair to write data to VictoriaMetrics in distinct availability zone.
3) Put [Promxy](https://github.com/jacksontj/promxy) in front of all the VictoriaMetrics instances.
4) Send queries to Promxy - it will deduplicate data from VictoriaMetrics instances behind it.
### Where is the source code of VictoriaMetrics?
Source code for the following versions is available in the following places:
* [Single-node version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics).
* [Cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
### Does VictoriaMetrics fit for data from IoT sensors and industrial sensors?
VictoriaMetrics is able to handle data from hundreds of millions of IoT sensors and industrial sensors.
It supports [high cardinality data](https://medium.com/@valyala/high-cardinality-tsdb-benchmarks-victoriametrics-vs-timescaledb-vs-influxdb-13e6ee64dd6b),
perfectly [scales up on a single node](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae)
and scales horizontally to multiple nodes.
### Where can I ask questions about VictoriaMetrics?
See [VictoriaMetrics-users group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/victorametrics-users).
### Where can I file bugs and feature requests regarding VictoriaMetrics?
File bugs and feature requests [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues).
### Are you looking for investors?
Yes. [Mail us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) if you are interested in.

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## VictoriaMetrics docs
* [Quick start](Quick-Start)
* [`WITH` templates playground](https://play.victoriametrics.com/promql/expand-with-exprs)
* [Grafana playground](http://play-grafana.victoriametrics.com:3000/d/4ome8yJmz/node-exporter-on-victoriametrics-demo)
* [Extended PromQL](ExtendedPromQL)
* [FAQ](FAQ)
* [Single-node version](Single-server-VictoriaMetrics)
* [Cluster version](Cluster-VictoriaMetrics)
* [Articles](Articles)

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1. Download the latest VictoriaMetrics release from [releases page](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases),
from [Docker hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/valyala/victoria-metrics/)
or [build it from sources](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics#how-to-build-from-sources).
2. Run the binary or Docker image with the desired command-line flags. Pass `-help` in order to see description for all the available flags
and their default values. Default flag values should fit the majoirty of cases. The minimum required flags to configure are:
* `-storageDataPath` - path to directory where VictoriaMetrics stores all the data.
* `-retentionPeriod` - data retention in months.
For instance:
`./victoria-metrics-prod -storageDataPath=/var/lib/victoria-metrics-data -retentionPeriod=3`
See [these instructions](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/43) in order to configure VictoriaMetrics as OS service.
It is recommended setting up [VictoriaMetrics monitoring](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/README.md#monitoring).
3. Configure all the Prometheus instances to write data to VictoriaMetrics.
See [these instructions](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics#prometheus-setup).
4. Configure Grafana to query VictoriaMetrics instead of Prometheus.
See [these instructions](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics#grafana-setup).
There is also [cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster) and [SaaS playground](https://play.victoriametrics.com/signIn).

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## Release version and Docker images
1. Create release tag with `git tag v1.xx.y`.
2. Run `make release` for creating `*.tar.gz` release archive with the corresponding `_checksums.txt` inside `bin` directory.
3. Run `make publish` for creating and publishing Docker images.
4. Push release tag to https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics : `git push origin v1.xx.y`.
5. Go to https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases , create new release from the pushed tag on step 4
and upload `*.tar.gz` archive with the corresponding `_checksums.txt` from step 2.
## Helm Charts
The helm chart repository [https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/)
### Bump the version of images.
In that case, don't need to bump the helm chart version
1. Need to update [`values.yaml`](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/blob/master/charts/victoria-metrics-cluster/values.yaml), bump version for `vmselect`, `vminsert` and `vmstorage`
2. Specify the correct version in [`Chart.yaml`](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/blob/master/charts/victoria-metrics-cluster/Chart.yaml)
3. Update version [README.md](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/blob/master/charts/victoria-metrics-cluster/README.md), specify the new version in the documentation
4. Push changes to master. `master` is a source of truth
5. Rebase `master` into `gh-pages` branch
6. Run `make package` which creates or updates zip file with the packed chart
7. Run `make merge`. It creates or updates metadata for charts in index.yaml
8. Push the changes to `gh-pages` branch
### Updating the chart.
1. Update chart version in [`Chart.yaml`](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/blob/master/charts/victoria-metrics-cluster/Chart.yaml)
2. Update [README.md](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/blob/master/charts/victoria-metrics-cluster/README.md) file, reflect changes in the documentation.
3. Repeat the procedure from step _4_ previous section.

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## Single-node VictoriaMetrics
VictoriaMetrics is fast, cost-effective and scalable time-series database. It can be used as long-term remote storage for Prometheus.
It is available in [binary releases](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases),
[docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics/) and
in [source code](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics).
Cluster version is available [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
## Prominent features
* 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).
* Supports global query view. Multiple Prometheus instances may write data into VictoriaMetrics. Later this data may be used in a single query.
* 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).
* Optimized for time series with high churn rate. Think about [prometheus-operator](https://github.com/coreos/prometheus-operator) metrics from frequent deployments in Kubernetes.
* 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 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)
and [comparing Thanos to VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://medium.com/@valyala/comparing-thanos-to-victoriametrics-cluster-b193bea1683).
* Easy operation:
* VictoriaMetrics consists of a single [small executable](https://medium.com/@valyala/stripping-dependency-bloat-in-victoriametrics-docker-image-983fb5912b0d) 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 and fast backups from [instant snapshots](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282)
to S3 or GCS with [vmbackup](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/app/vmbackup/README.md) / [vmrestore](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/app/vmrestore/README.md).
See [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/speeding-up-backups-for-big-time-series-databases-533c1a927883) for more details.
* Storage is protected from corruption on unclean shutdown (i.e. OOM, 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](#backfilling) via the following protocols:
* [Prometheus remote write API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#remote_write)
* [InfluxDB line protocol](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/write_protocols/line_protocol_tutorial/)
* [Graphite plaintext protocol](https://graphite.readthedocs.io/en/latest/feeding-carbon.html) with [tags](https://graphite.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tags.html#carbon)
if `-graphiteListenAddr` is set.
* [OpenTSDB put message](http://opentsdb.net/docs/build/html/api_telnet/put.html) if `-opentsdbListenAddr` is set.
* [HTTP OpenTSDB /api/put requests](http://opentsdb.net/docs/build/html/api_http/put.html) if `-opentsdbHTTPListenAddr` is set.
* Ideally works with big amounts of time series data from Kubernetes, IoT sensors, connected cars, industrial telemetry, financial data and various Enterprise workloads.
* Has open source [cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster).
## Operation
### Table of contents
- [How to start VictoriaMetrics](#how-to-start-victoriametrics)
- [Prometheus setup](#prometheus-setup)
- [Grafana setup](#grafana-setup)
- [How to upgrade VictoriaMetrics?](#how-to-upgrade-victoriametrics)
- [How to apply new config to VictoriaMetrics?](#how-to-apply-new-config-to-victoriametrics)
- [How to send data from InfluxDB-compatible agents such as Telegraf?](#how-to-send-data-from-influxdb-compatible-agents-such-as-telegraf)
- [How to send data from Graphite-compatible agents such as StatsD?](#how-to-send-data-from-graphite-compatible-agents-such-as-statsd)
- [Querying Graphite data](#querying-graphite-data)
- [How to send data from OpenTSDB-compatible agents?](#how-to-send-data-from-opentsdb-compatible-agents)
- [How to build from sources](#how-to-build-from-sources)
- [Development build](#development-build)
- [Production build](#production-build)
- [ARM build](#arm-build)
- [Pure Go build (CGO_ENABLED=0)](#pure-go-build-cgo_enabled0)
- [Building docker images](#building-docker-images)
- [Start with docker-compose](#start-with-docker-compose)
- [Setting up service](#setting-up-service)
- [Third-party contributions](#third-party-contributions)
- [How to work with snapshots?](#how-to-work-with-snapshots)
- [How to delete time series?](#how-to-delete-time-series)
- [How to export time series?](#how-to-export-time-series)
- [Federation](#federation)
- [Capacity planning](#capacity-planning)
- [High availability](#high-availability)
- [Multiple retentions](#multiple-retentions)
- [Downsampling](#downsampling)
- [Multi-tenancy](#multi-tenancy)
- [Scalability and cluster version](#scalability-and-cluster-version)
- [Alerting](#alerting)
- [Security](#security)
- [Tuning](#tuning)
- [Monitoring](#monitoring)
- [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)
- [Backfilling](#backfilling)
- [Profiling](#profiling)
- [Integrations](#integrations)
- [Roadmap](#roadmap)
- [Contacts](#contacts)
- [Community and contributions](#community-and-contributions)
- [Reporting bugs](#reporting-bugs)
- [Victoria Metrics Logo](#victoria-metrics-logo)
- [Logo Usage Guidelines](#logo-usage-guidelines)
- [Font used:](#font-used)
- [Color Palette:](#color-palette)
- [We kindly ask:](#we-kindly-ask)
### How to start VictoriaMetrics
Just start VictoriaMetrics [executable](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases)
or [docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics/) with the desired command-line flags.
The following command-line flags are used the most:
* `-storageDataPath` - path to data directory. VictoriaMetrics stores all the data in this directory. Default path is `victoria-metrics-data` in current working directory.
* `-retentionPeriod` - retention period in months for the data. Older data is automatically deleted. Default period is 1 month.
* `-httpListenAddr` - TCP address to listen to for http requests. By default, it listens port `8428` on all the network interfaces.
* `-graphiteListenAddr` - TCP and UDP address to listen to for Graphite data. By default, it is disabled.
* `-opentsdbListenAddr` - TCP and UDP address to listen to for OpenTSDB data over telnet protocol. By default, it is disabled.
* `-opentsdbHTTPListenAddr` - TCP address to listen to for HTTP OpenTSDB data over `/api/put`. By default, it is disabled.
Pass `-help` to see all the available flags with description and default values.
It is recommended setting up [monitoring](#monitoring) for VictoriaMetrics.
### Prometheus setup
Add the following lines to Prometheus config file (it is usually located at `/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml`):
```yml
remote_write:
- url: http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428/api/v1/write
queue_config:
max_samples_per_send: 10000
max_shards: 30
```
Substitute `<victoriametrics-addr>` with the hostname or IP address of VictoriaMetrics.
Then apply the new config via the following command:
```
kill -HUP `pidof prometheus`
```
Prometheus writes incoming data to local storage and replicates it to remote storage in parallel.
This means the data remains available in local storage for `--storage.tsdb.retention.time` duration
even if remote storage is unavailable.
If you plan to send data to VictoriaMetrics from multiple Prometheus instances, then add the following lines into `global` section
of [Prometheus config](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#configuration-file):
```yml
global:
external_labels:
datacenter: dc-123
```
This instructs Prometheus to add `datacenter=dc-123` label to each time series sent to remote storage.
The label name may be arbitrary - `datacenter` is just an example. The label value must be unique
across Prometheus instances, so those time series may be filtered and grouped by this label.
It is recommended upgrading Prometheus to [v2.12.0](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases) or newer,
since the previous versions may have issues with `remote_write`.
### Grafana setup
Create [Prometheus datasource](http://docs.grafana.org/features/datasources/prometheus/) in Grafana with the following Url:
```
http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428
```
Substitute `<victoriametrics-addr>` with the hostname or IP address of VictoriaMetrics.
Then build graphs with the created datasource using [Prometheus query language](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/).
VictoriaMetrics supports native PromQL and [extends it with useful features](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/wiki/ExtendedPromQL).
### How to upgrade VictoriaMetrics?
It is safe upgrading VictoriaMetrics to new versions unless [release notes](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases)
say otherwise. It is recommended performing regular upgrades to the latest version,
since it may contain important bug fixes, performance optimizations or new features.
Follow the following steps during the upgrade:
1) Send `SIGINT` signal to VictoriaMetrics process in order to gracefully stop it.
2) Wait until the process stops. This can take a few seconds.
3) Start the upgraded VictoriaMetrics.
Prometheus doesn't drop data during VictoriaMetrics restart.
See [this article](https://grafana.com/blog/2019/03/25/whats-new-in-prometheus-2.8-wal-based-remote-write/) for details.
### How to apply new config to VictoriaMetrics?
VictoriaMetrics must be restarted for applying new config:
1) Send `SIGINT` signal to VictoriaMetrics process in order to gracefully stop it.
2) Wait until the process stops. This can take a few seconds.
3) Start VictoriaMetrics with the new config.
Prometheus doesn't drop data during VictoriaMetrics restart.
See [this article](https://grafana.com/blog/2019/03/25/whats-new-in-prometheus-2.8-wal-based-remote-write/) for details.
### How to send data from InfluxDB-compatible agents such as [Telegraf](https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/telegraf/)?
Just use `http://<victoriametric-addr>:8428` url instead of InfluxDB url in agents' configs.
For instance, put the following lines into `Telegraf` config, so it sends data to VictoriaMetrics instead of InfluxDB:
```
[[outputs.influxdb]]
urls = ["http://<victoriametrics-addr>:8428"]
```
Do not forget substituting `<victoriametrics-addr>` with the real address where VictoriaMetrics runs.
VictoriaMetrics maps Influx data using the following rules:
* [`db` query arg](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/tools/api/#write-http-endpoint) is mapped into `db` label value
unless `db` tag exists in the Influx line.
* Field names are mapped to time series names prefixed with `{measurement}{separator}` value,
where `{separator}` equals to `_` by default. It can be changed with `-influxMeasurementFieldSeparator` command-line flag.
See also `-influxSkipSingleField` command-line flag.
* Field values are mapped to time series values.
* Tags are mapped to Prometheus labels as-is.
For example, the following Influx line:
```
foo,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=12,field2=40
```
is converted into the following Prometheus data points:
```
foo_field1{tag1="value1", tag2="value2"} 12
foo_field2{tag1="value1", tag2="value2"} 40
```
Example for writing data with [Influx line protocol](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/write_protocols/line_protocol_tutorial/)
to local VictoriaMetrics using `curl`:
```
curl -d 'measurement,tag1=value1,tag2=value2 field1=123,field2=1.23' -X POST 'http://localhost:8428/write'
```
An arbitrary number of lines delimited by '\n' may be sent in a single request.
After that the data may be read via [/api/v1/export](#how-to-export-time-series) endpoint:
```
curl -G 'http://localhost:8428/api/v1/export' -d 'match={__name__!=""}'
```
The `/api/v1/export` endpoint should return the following response:
```
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement_field1","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[123],"timestamps":[1560272508147]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"measurement_field2","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[1.23],"timestamps":[1560272508147]}
```
Note that Influx line protocol expects [timestamps in *nanoseconds* by default](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.7/write_protocols/line_protocol_tutorial/#timestamp),
while VictoriaMetrics stores them with *milliseconds* precision.
### How to send data from Graphite-compatible agents such as [StatsD](https://github.com/etsy/statsd)?
1) Enable Graphite receiver in VictoriaMetrics by setting `-graphiteListenAddr` command line flag. For instance,
the following command will enable Graphite receiver in VictoriaMetrics on TCP and UDP port `2003`:
```
/path/to/victoria-metrics-prod -graphiteListenAddr=:2003
```
2) Use the configured address in Graphite-compatible agents. For instance, set `graphiteHost`
to the VictoriaMetrics host in `StatsD` configs.
Example for writing data with Graphite plaintext protocol to local VictoriaMetrics using `nc`:
```
echo "foo.bar.baz;tag1=value1;tag2=value2 123 `date +%s`" | nc -N localhost 2003
```
VictoriaMetrics sets the current time if the timestamp is omitted.
An arbitrary number of lines delimited by `\n` may be sent in one go.
After that the data may be read via [/api/v1/export](#how-to-export-time-series) endpoint:
```
curl -G 'http://localhost:8428/api/v1/export' -d 'match={__name__!=""}'
```
The `/api/v1/export` endpoint should return the following response:
```
{"metric":{"__name__":"foo.bar.baz","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[123],"timestamps":[1560277406000]}
```
### Querying Graphite data
Data sent to VictoriaMetrics via `Graphite plaintext protocol` may be read either via
[Prometheus querying API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/)
or via [go-graphite/carbonapi](https://github.com/go-graphite/carbonapi/blob/master/cmd/carbonapi/carbonapi.example.prometheus.yaml).
### How to send data from OpenTSDB-compatible agents?
VictoriaMetrics supports [telnet put protocol](http://opentsdb.net/docs/build/html/api_telnet/put.html)
and [HTTP /api/put requests](http://opentsdb.net/docs/build/html/api_http/put.html) for ingesting OpenTSDB data.
#### Sending data via `telnet put` protocol
1) Enable OpenTSDB receiver in VictoriaMetrics by setting `-opentsdbListenAddr` command line flag. For instance,
the following command enables OpenTSDB receiver in VictoriaMetrics on TCP and UDP port `4242`:
```
/path/to/victoria-metrics-prod -opentsdbListenAddr=:4242
```
2) Send data to the given address from OpenTSDB-compatible agents.
Example for writing data with OpenTSDB protocol to local VictoriaMetrics using `nc`:
```
echo "put foo.bar.baz `date +%s` 123 tag1=value1 tag2=value2" | nc -N localhost 4242
```
An arbitrary number of lines delimited by `\n` may be sent in one go.
After that the data may be read via [/api/v1/export](#how-to-export-time-series) endpoint:
```
curl -G 'http://localhost:8428/api/v1/export' -d 'match={__name__!=""}'
```
The `/api/v1/export` endpoint should return the following response:
```
{"metric":{"__name__":"foo.bar.baz","tag1":"value1","tag2":"value2"},"values":[123],"timestamps":[1560277292000]}
```
#### Sending OpenTSDB data via HTTP `/api/put` requests
1) Enable HTTP server for OpenTSDB `/api/put` requests by setting `-opentsdbHTTPListenAddr` command line flag. For instance,
the following command enables OpenTSDB HTTP server on port `4242`:
```
/path/to/victoria-metrics-prod -opentsdbHTTPListenAddr=:4242
```
2) Send data to the given address from OpenTSDB-compatible agents.
Example for writing a single data point:
```
curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"metric":"x.y.z","value":45.34,"tags":{"t1":"v1","t2":"v2"}}' http://localhost:4242/api/put
```
Example for writing multiple data points in a single request:
```
curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '[{"metric":"foo","value":45.34},{"metric":"bar","value":43}]' http://localhost:4242/api/put
```
After that the data may be read via [/api/v1/export](#how-to-export-time-series) endpoint:
```
curl -G 'http://localhost:8428/api/v1/export' -d 'match[]=x.y.z' -d 'match[]=foo' -d 'match[]=bar'
```
The `/api/v1/export` endpoint should return the following response:
```
{"metric":{"__name__":"foo"},"values":[45.34],"timestamps":[1566464846000]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"bar"},"values":[43],"timestamps":[1566464846000]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"x.y.z","t1":"v1","t2":"v2"},"values":[45.34],"timestamps":[1566464763000]}
```
### How to build from sources
We recommend using either [binary releases](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases) or
[docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics/) instead of building VictoriaMetrics
from sources. Building from sources is reasonable when developing additional features specific
to your needs.
#### Development build
1. [Install Go](https://golang.org/doc/install). The minimum supported version is Go 1.12.
2. Run `make victoria-metrics` from the root folder of the repository.
It builds `victoria-metrics` binary and puts it into the `bin` folder.
#### Production build
1. [Install docker](https://docs.docker.com/install/).
2. Run `make victoria-metrics-prod` from the root folder of the repository.
It builds `victoria-metrics-prod` binary and puts it into the `bin` folder.
#### ARM build
ARM build may run on Raspberry Pi or on [energy-efficient ARM servers](https://blog.cloudflare.com/arm-takes-wing/).
#### Development ARM build
1. [Install Go](https://golang.org/doc/install). The minimum supported version is Go 1.12.
2. Run `make victoria-metrics-arm` or `make victoria-metrics-arm64` from the root folder of the repository.
It builds `victoria-metrics-arm` or `victoria-metrics-arm64` binary respectively and puts it into the `bin` folder.
#### Production ARM build
1. [Install docker](https://docs.docker.com/install/).
2. Run `make victoria-metrics-arm-prod` or `make victoria-metrics-arm64-prod` from the root folder of the repository.
It builds `victoria-metrics-arm-prod` or `victoria-metrics-arm64-prod` binary respectively and puts it into the `bin` folder.
#### Pure Go build (CGO_ENABLED=0)
`Pure Go` mode builds only Go code without [cgo](https://golang.org/cmd/cgo/) dependencies.
This is an experimental mode, which may result in a lower compression ratio and slower decompression performance.
Use it with caution!
1. [Install Go](https://golang.org/doc/install). The minimum supported version is Go 1.12.
2. Run `make victoria-metrics-pure` from the root folder of the repository.
It builds `victoria-metrics-pure` binary and puts it into the `bin` folder.
#### Building docker images
Run `make package-victoria-metrics`. It builds `victoriametrics/victoria-metrics:<PKG_TAG>` docker image locally.
`<PKG_TAG>` is auto-generated image tag, which depends on source code in the repository.
The `<PKG_TAG>` may be manually set via `PKG_TAG=foobar make package-victoria-metrics`.
### Start with docker-compose
[Docker-compose](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/deployment/docker/docker-compose.yml)
helps to spin up VictoriaMetrics, Prometheus and Grafana with one command.
More details may be found [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/master/deployment/docker#folder-contains-basic-images-and-tools-for-building-and-running-victoria-metrics-in-docker).
### Setting up service
Read [these instructions](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/43) on how to set up VictoriaMetrics as a service in your OS.
### Third-party contributions
* [Unofficial yum repository](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/antonpatsev/VictoriaMetrics/) ([source code](https://github.com/patsevanton/victoriametrics-rpm))
### How to work with snapshots?
VictoriaMetrics can 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 at any time
with [vmbackup](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/app/vmbackup/README.md).
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.
Steps for restoring from a snapshot:
1. Stop VictoriaMetrics with `kill -INT`.
2. Restore snapshot contents from backup with [vmrestore](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/app/vmrestore/README.md)
to the directory pointed by `-storageDataPath`.
3. Start VictoriaMetrics.
### 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.
It is recommended verifying which metrics will be deleted with the call to `http://<victoria-metrics-addr>:8428/api/v1/series?match[]=<timeseries_selector_for_delete>`
before actually deleting the metrics.
### 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:
```
{"metric":{"__name__":"up","job":"node_exporter","instance":"localhost:9100"},"values":[0,0,0],"timestamps":[1549891472010,1549891487724,1549891503438]}
{"metric":{"__name__":"up","job":"prometheus","instance":"localhost:9090"},"values":[1,1,1],"timestamps":[1549891461511,1549891476511,1549891491511]}
```
Optional `start` and `end` args may be added to the request in order to limit the time frame for the exported data. These args may contain either
unix timestamp in seconds or [RFC3339](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt) values.
### Federation
VictoriaMetrics exports [Prometheus-compatible federation data](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/federation/)
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. The default value for `max_lookback` is `5m` (5 minutes), but it 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
A rough estimation of the required resources for ingestion path:
* 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.
The number of active time series may be obtained from `vm_cache_entries{type="storage/hour_metric_ids"}` metric
exproted on the `/metrics` page.
VictoriaMetrics stores various caches in RAM. Memory size for these caches may be limited by `-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. The ingestion rate may be lower for high cardinality data or for time series with high number of labels.
See [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/insert-benchmarks-with-inch-influxdb-vs-victoriametrics-e31a41ae2893) for details.
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 space: 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.
Read [this article](https://medium.com/faun/victoriametrics-achieving-better-compression-for-time-series-data-than-gorilla-317bc1f95932)
for details.
* Network usage: outbound traffic is negligible. Ingress traffic is ~100 bytes per ingested data point via
[Prometheus remote_write API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#remote_write).
The actual ingress bandwidth usage depends on the average number of labels per ingested metric and the average size
of label values. The higher number of per-metric labels and longer label values mean the higher ingress bandwidth.
The required resources for query path:
* RAM size: depends on the number of time series to scan in each query and the `step`
argument passed to [/api/v1/query_range](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries).
The higher number of scanned time series and lower `step` argument results in the higher RAM usage.
* CPU cores: a CPU core per 30 millions of scanned data points per second.
* Network usage: depends on the frequency and the type of incoming requests. Typical Grafana dashboards usually
require negligible network bandwidth.
### High availability
1) Install multiple VictoriaMetrics instances in distinct datacenters (availability zones).
2) Add addresses of these instances to `remote_write` section in Prometheus config:
```yml
remote_write:
- url: http://<victoriametrics-addr-1>:8428/api/v1/write
queue_config:
max_samples_per_send: 10000
# ...
- url: http://<victoriametrics-addr-N>:8428/api/v1/write
queue_config:
max_samples_per_send: 10000
```
3) Apply the updated config:
```
kill -HUP `pidof prometheus`
```
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.
If you have Prometheus HA pairs with replicas `r1` and `r2` in each pair, then configure each `r1`
to write data to `victoriametrics-addr-1`, while each `r2` should write data to `victoriametrics-addr-2`.
### 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
### Downsampling
There is no downsampling support at the moment, but:
- VictoriaMetrics is optimized for querying big amounts of raw data. See benchmark results for heavy queries
in [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
- VictoriaMetrics has good compression for on-disk data. See [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/victoriametrics-achieving-better-compression-for-time-series-data-than-gorilla-317bc1f95932)
for details.
These properties reduce the need in downsampling. We plan to implement downsampling in the future.
See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/36) for details.
### Multi-tenancy
Single-node VictoriaMetrics doesn't support multi-tenancy. Use [cluster version](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/tree/cluster) instead.
### 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 a moderately sized cluster built with competing solutions
such as Thanos, Uber M3, InfluxDB or TimescaleDB. See [vertical scalability benchmarks](https://medium.com/@valyala/measuring-vertical-scalability-for-time-series-databases-in-google-cloud-92550d78d8ae).
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.
### Alerting
VictoriaMetrics doesn't support rule evaluation and alerting yet, so these actions must be performed either
on [Prometheus side](https://prometheus.io/docs/alerting/overview/) or on [Grafana side](https://grafana.com/docs/alerting/rules/).
### Security
Do not forget protecting sensitive endpoints in VictoriaMetrics when exposing it to untrusted networks such as the 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 of 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.
* 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 storing 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`:
```
mkfs.ext4 ... -O 64bit,huge_file,extent -T huge
```
### 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).
The most interesting metrics are:
* `vm_cache_entries{type="storage/hour_metric_ids"}` - the number of time series with new data points during the last hour
aka active time series.
* `rate(vm_new_timeseries_created_total[5m])` - time series churn rate.
* `vm_rows{type="indexdb"}` - the number of rows in inverted index. High value for this number usually mean high churn rate for time series.
* Sum of `vm_rows{type="storage/big"}` and `vm_rows{type="storage/small"}` - total number of `(timestamp, value)` data points
in the database.
* Sum of all the `vm_cache_size_bytes` metrics - the total size of all the caches in the database.
* `vm_allowed_memory_bytes` - the maximum allowed size for caches in the database. It is calculated as `system_memory * <-memory.allowedPercent> / 100`,
where `system_memory` is the amount of system memory and `-memory.allowedPercent` is the corresponding flag value.
* `vm_rows_inserted_total` - the total number of inserted rows since VictoriaMetrics start.
### Troubleshooting
* It is recommended to use default command-line flag values (i.e. don't set them explicitly) until the need
in tweaking these flag values arises.
* 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.
* VictoriaMetrics requires free disk space for [merging data files to bigger ones](https://medium.com/@valyala/how-victoriametrics-makes-instant-snapshots-for-multi-terabyte-time-series-data-e1f3fb0e0282).
It may slow down when there is no enough free space left. So make sure `-storageDataPath` directory
has at least 20% of free space comparing to disk size.
* If VictoriaMetrics doesn't work because of certain parts are corrupted due to disk errors,
then just remove directoreis with broken parts. This will recover VictoriaMetrics at the cost
of data loss stored in the broken parts. In the future, `vmrecover` tool will be created
for automatic recovering from such errors.
### Backfilling
Make sure that configured `-retentionPeriod` covers timestamps for the backfilled data.
It is recommended disabling query cache with `-search.disableCache` command-line flag when writing
historical data with timestamps from the past, since the cache assumes that the data is written with
the current timestamps. Query cache can be enabled after the backfilling is complete.
### Profiling
VictoriaMetrics provides handlers for collecting the following [Go profiles](https://blog.golang.org/profiling-go-programs):
- Memory profile. It can be collected with the following command:
```
curl -s http://<victoria-metrics-host>:8428/debug/pprof/heap > mem.pprof
```
- CPU profile. It can be collected with the following command:
```
curl -s http://<victoria-metrics-host>:8428/debug/pprof/profile > cpu.pprof
```
The command for collecting CPU profile waits for 30 seconds before returning.
The collected profiles may be analyzed with [go tool pprof](https://github.com/google/pprof).
## Integrations
* [netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata) can push data into VictoriaMetrics via `Prometheus remote_write API`.
See [these docs](https://github.com/netdata/netdata#integrations).
* [go-graphite/carbonapi](https://github.com/go-graphite/carbonapi) can use VictoriaMetrics as time series backend.
See [this example](/blob/master/cmd/carbonapi/carbonapi.example.prometheus.yaml).
* [Ansible role for installing VictoriaMetrics](https://github.com/dreamteam-gg/ansible-victoriametrics-role).
## Roadmap
- [ ] Replication [#118](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/118)
- [ ] Support of Object Storages (GCS, S3, Azure Storage) [#38](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/38)
- [ ] Data downsampling [#36](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/36)
- [ ] Alert Manager Integration [#119](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/119)
- [ ] CLI tool for data migration, re-balancing and adding/removing nodes [#103](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/103)
The discussion happens [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/129). Feel free to comment any item or add own one.
## Contacts
Contact us with any questions regarding VictoriaMetrics at [info@victoriametrics.com](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com).
## Community and contributions
Feel free asking any questions regarding VictoriaMetrics:
- [slack](http://slack.victoriametrics.com/)
- [telegram-en](https://t.me/VictoriaMetrics_en)
- [telegram-ru](https://t.me/VictoriaMetrics_ru1)
- [google groups](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/victorametrics-users)
If you like VictoriaMetrics and want to contribute, then we need the following:
- Filing issues and feature requests [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues).
- Spreading a word about VictoriaMetrics: conference talks, articles, comments, experience sharing with colleagues.
- Updating documentation.
We are open to third-party pull requests provided they follow [KISS design principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle):
- Prefer simple code and architecture.
- Avoid complex abstractions.
- Avoid magic code and fancy algorithms.
- Avoid [big external dependencies](https://medium.com/@valyala/stripping-dependency-bloat-in-victoriametrics-docker-image-983fb5912b0d).
- Minimize the number of moving parts in the distributed system.
- Avoid automated decisions, which may hurt cluster availability, consistency or performance.
Adhering `KISS` principle simplifies the resulting code and architecture, so it can be reviewed, understood and verified by many people.
## Reporting bugs
Report bugs and propose new features [here](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues).
## Victoria Metrics Logo
[Zip](VM_logo.zip) contains three folders with different image orientation (main color and inverted version).
Files included in each folder:
* 2 JPEG Preview files
* 2 PNG Preview files with transparent background
* 2 EPS Adobe Illustrator EPS10 files
### Logo Usage Guidelines
#### Font used:
* Lato Black
* Lato Regular
#### Color Palette:
* HEX [#110f0f](https://www.color-hex.com/color/110f0f)
* HEX [#ffffff](https://www.color-hex.com/color/ffffff)
### We kindly ask:
- Please don't use any other font instead of suggested.
- There should be sufficient clear space around the logo.
- Do not change spacing, alignment, or relative locations of the design elements.
- Do not change the proportions of any of the design elements or the design itself. You may resize as needed but must retain all proportions.