`vmauth` is a simple auth proxy, router and [load balancer](#load-balancing) for [VictoriaMetrics](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics).
matches them against configs pointed by [-auth.config](#auth-config) command-line flag and proxies incoming HTTP requests to the configured per-user `url_prefix` on successful match.
The auth config can be reloaded via the following ways:
- By passing `SIGHUP` signal to `vmauth`.
- By querying `/-/reload` http endpoint. This endpoint can be protected with `-reloadAuthKey` command-line flag. See [security docs](#security) for more details.
- By specifying `-configCheckInterval` command-line flag to the interval between config re-reads. For example, `-configCheckInterval=5s` will re-read the config
See how `vmauth` used in [docker-compose env](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/deployment/docker/README.md#victoriametrics-cluster).
Feel free [contacting us](mailto:info@victoriametrics.com) if you need customized auth proxy for VictoriaMetrics with the support of LDAP, SSO, RBAC, SAML,
- Requests starting with `/app1/` are proxied to `http://app1-backend/`, while the `/app1/` path prefix is dropped according to [`drop_src_path_prefix_parts`](#dropping-request-path-prefix).
For example, the request to `http://vmauth:8427/app1/foo/bar?baz=qwe` is proxied to `http://app1-backend/foo/bar?baz=qwe`.
- Requests starting with `/app2/` are proxied to `http://app2-backend/`, while the `/app2/` path prefix is dropped according to [`drop_src_path_prefix_parts`](#dropping-request-path-prefix).
For example, the request to `http://vmauth:8427/app2/index.html` is proxied to `http://app2-backend/index.html`.
- Other requests are proxied to `http://some-backend/404-page.html`, while the requested path is passed via `request_path` query arg.
For example, the request to `http://vmauth:8427/foo/bar?baz=qwe` is proxied to `http://some-backend/404-page.html?request_path=%2Ffoo%2Fbar%3Fbaz%3Dqwe`.
The following config routes requests to host `app1.my-host.com` to `http://app1-backend`, while routing requests to `app2.my-host.com` to `http://app2-backend`:
`src_paths` and `src_hosts` accept a list of [regular expressions](https://github.com/google/re2/wiki/Syntax). The incoming request is routed to the given `url_prefix`
if the whole request path matches at least one `src_paths` entry. The incoming request is routed to the given `url_prefix` if the whole request host matches at least one `src_hosts` entry.
If both `src_paths` and `src_hosts` lists are specified, then the request is routed to the given `url_prefix` when both request path and request host match at least one entry
If [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html) is used for processing [data push requests](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#how-to-push-data-to-vmagent),
then it is possible to scale the performance of data processing at `vmagent` by spreading load among multiple identically configured `vmagent` instances.
This can be done with the following [config](#auth-config) for `vmagent`:
[VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html) accepts incoming data via `vminsert` nodes
and processes incoming requests via `vmselect` nodes according to [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#architecture-overview).
`vmauth` can be used for balancing both `insert` and `select` requests among `vminsert` and `vmselect` nodes, when the following [`-auth.config`](#auth-config) is used:
See [load balancing docs](#load-balancing) for more details.
### High availability
`vmauth` automatically switches from temporarily unavailable backend to other hot standby backends listed in `url_prefix`
if it runs with `-loadBalancingPolicy=first_available` command-line flag. The load balancing policy can be overridden at `user` and `url_map` sections
of [`-auth.config`](#auth-config) via `load_balancing_policy` option. For example, the following config instructs `vmauth` to proxy requests to `http://victoria-metrics-main:8428/` backend.
If this backend becomes unavailable, then `vmauth` starts proxying requests to `http://victoria-metrics-standby1:8428/`.
If this backend becomes also unavailable, then requests are proxied to the last specified backend - `http://victoria-metrics-standby2:8428/`:
*`-httpListenAddr` sets the address to listen for incoming HTTPS requests
*`-tls` enables accepting TLS connections at `-httpListenAddr`
*`-tlsKeyFile` sets the path to TLS certificate key file
*`-tlsCertFile` sets the path to TLS certificate file
### Basic Auth proxy
`vmauth` can authorize access to backends depending on the provided [Basic Auth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication) request headers.
For example, the following [config](#auth-config) proxies requests to [single-node VictoriaMetrics](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/)
if they contain Basic Auth header with the given `username` and `password`:
The following [`-auth.config`](#auth-config) instructs proxying `insert` and `select` requests from the [Basic Auth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication)
user `tenant1` to the [tenant](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#multitenancy) `1`,
while requests from the user `tenant2` are sent to tenant `2`:
In this case `vmauth` spreads requests among the specified urls using least-loaded round-robin policy.
This guarantees that incoming load is shared uniformly among the specified backends.
`vmauth` automatically detects temporarily unavailable backends and spreads incoming queries among the remaining available backends.
This allows restarting the backends and peforming mantenance tasks on the backends without the need to remove them from the `url_prefix` list.
By default `vmauth` returns backend responses with all the http status codes to the client. It is possible to configure automatic retry of requests
at other backends if the backend responds with status code specified in the `-retryStatusCodes` command-line flag.
It is possible to customize the list of http response status codes to retry via `retry_status_codes` list at `user` and `url_map` level of [`-auth.config`](#auth-config).
For example, the following config re-tries requests on other backends if the current backend returns response with `500` or `502` HTTP status code:
Load balancing feature can be used in the following cases:
- Balancing the load among multiple `vmselect` and/or `vminsert` nodes in [VictoriaMetrics cluster](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html).
- Sending select queries to the closest availability zone (AZ), while falling back to other AZs with identical data if the closest AZ is unavaialable.
For example, the following [`-auth.config`](#auth-config) sends select queries to `https://vmselect-az1/` and uses the `https://vmselect-az2/` as a fallback
when `https://vmselect-az1/` is temporarily unavailable or cannot return full responses.
See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html#cluster-availability) for details about `deny_partial_response` query arg,
which is added to requests before they are proxied to backends.
Load balancig can be configured independently per each `user` entry and per each `url_map` entry. See [auth config docs](#auth-config) for more details.
-`vmauth_unauthorized_user_concurrent_requests_capacity` - the limit on the number of concurrent requests for unauthorized users (if `unauthorized_user` section is used).
-`vmauth_unauthorized_user_concurrent_requests_current` - the current number of concurrent requests for unauthorized users (if `unauthorized_user` section is used).
-`vmauth_unauthorized_user_concurrent_requests_limit_reached_total` - the number of requests rejected with `429 Too Many Requests` error
because of the concurrency limit has been reached for unauthorized users (if `unauthorized_user` section is used).
[Enterprise version](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/enterprise.html) of `vmauth` can be configured to allow / deny incoming requests via global and per-user IP filters.
For example, the following config allows requests to `vmauth` from `10.0.0.0/24` network and from `1.2.3.4` IP address, while denying requests from `10.0.0.42` IP address:
It is expected that all the backend services protected by `vmauth` are located in an isolated private network, so they can be accessed by external users only via `vmauth`.
Do not transfer Basic Auth headers in plaintext over untrusted networks. Enable https at `-httpListenAddr`. This can be done by passing the following `-tls*` command-line flags to `vmauth`:
`vmauth` also supports the ability to restrict access by IP - see [these docs](#ip-filters). See also [concurrency limiting docs](#concurrency-limiting).
`vmauth` exports various metrics in Prometheus exposition format at `http://vmauth-host:8427/metrics` page. It is recommended setting up regular scraping of this page
either via [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html) or via Prometheus-compatible scraper, so the exported metrics could be analyzed later.
If you use Google Cloud Managed Prometheus for scraping metrics from VictoriaMetrics components, then pass `-metrics.exposeMetadata`
command-line to them, so they add `TYPE` and `HELP` comments per each exposed metric at `/metrics` page.
See [these docs](https://cloud.google.com/stackdriver/docs/managed-prometheus/troubleshooting#missing-metric-type) for details.
`vmauth` exports the following metrics per each defined user in [`-auth.config`](#auth-config):
*`vmauth_user_requests_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of requests served for the given `username`
*`vmauth_user_request_backend_errors_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of request errors for the given `username`
*`vmauth_user_request_duration_seconds` [summary](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#summary) - the duration of requests for the given `username`
*`vmauth_user_concurrent_requests_limit_reached_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of failed requests
for the given `username` because of exceeded [concurrency limits](#concurrency-limiting)
*`vmauth_user_concurrent_requests_capacity` [gauge](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#gauge) - the maximum number of [concurrent requests](#concurrency-limiting)
for the given `username`
*`vmauth_user_concurrent_requests_current` [gauge](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#gauge) - the current number of [concurrent requests](#concurrency-limiting)
for the given `username`
By default, per-user metrics contain only `username` label. This label is set to `username` field value at the corresponding user section in the [`-auth.config`](#auth-config) file.
It is possible to override the `username` label value by specifying `name` field additionally to `username` field.
For example, the following config will result in `vmauth_user_requests_total{username="foobar"}` instead of `vmauth_user_requests_total{username="secret_user"}`:
`vmauth` exports the following metrics if `unauthorized_user` section is defined in [`-auth.config`](#auth-config):
*`vmauth_unauthorized_user_requests_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of unauthorized requests served
*`vmauth_unauthorized_user_request_backend_errors_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of unauthorized request errors
*`vmauth_unauthorized_user_request_duration_seconds` [summary](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#summary) - the duration of unauthorized requests
*`vmauth_unauthorized_user_concurrent_requests_limit_reached_total` [counter](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#counter) - the number of failed unauthorized requests
because of exceeded [concurrency limits](#concurrency-limiting)
*`vmauth_unauthorized_user_concurrent_requests_capacity` [gauge](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#gauge) - the maximum number
of [concurrent unauthorized requests](#concurrency-limiting)
*`vmauth_user_concurrent_requests_current` [gauge](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/keyConcepts.html#gauge) - the current number of [concurrent unauthorized requests](#concurrency-limiting)
It is recommended using [binary releases](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/latest) - `vmauth` is located in `vmutils-*` archives there.
by setting it via `<ROOT_IMAGE>` environment variable. For example, the following command builds the image on top of [scratch](https://hub.docker.com/_/scratch) image:
Path to auth config. It can point either to local file or to http url. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html for details on the format of this auth config
Optional path to TLS root CA file, which is used for TLS verification when connecting to backends over HTTPS. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html#backend-tls-setup
-backend.tlsInsecureSkipVerify
Whether to skip TLS verification when connecting to backends over HTTPS. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html#backend-tls-setup
Whether to enable reading flags from environment variables in addition to the command line. Command line flag values have priority over values from environment vars. Flags are read only from the command line if this flag isn't set. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#environment-variables for more details
Deprecated, please use -license or -licenseFile flags instead. By specifying this flag, you confirm that you have an enterprise license and accept the ESA https://victoriametrics.com/legal/esa/ . This flag is available only in Enterprise binaries. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/enterprise.html
Sets a delay period for load balancing to skip a malfunctioning backend (default 3s)
-filestream.disableFadvise
Whether to disable fadvise() syscall when reading large data files. The fadvise() syscall prevents from eviction of recently accessed data from OS page cache during background merges and backups. In some rare cases it is better to disable the syscall if it uses too much CPU
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -flagsAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -flagsAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -flagsAuthKey=http://host/path or -flagsAuthKey=https://host/path
Whether to use pread() instead of mmap() for reading data files. By default, mmap() is used for 64-bit arches and pread() is used for 32-bit arches, since they cannot read data files bigger than 2^32 bytes in memory. mmap() is usually faster for reading small data chunks than pread()
Incoming http connections are closed after the configured timeout. This may help to spread the incoming load among a cluster of services behind a load balancer. Please note that the real timeout may be bigger by up to 10% as a protection against the thundering herd problem (default 2m0s)
The maximum duration for a graceful shutdown of the HTTP server. A highly loaded server may require increased value for a graceful shutdown (default 7s)
An optional prefix to add to all the paths handled by http server. For example, if '-http.pathPrefix=/foo/bar' is set, then all the http requests will be handled on '/foo/bar/*' paths. This may be useful for proxied requests. See https://www.robustperception.io/using-external-urls-and-proxies-with-prometheus
Optional delay before http server shutdown. During this delay, the server returns non-OK responses from /health page, so load balancers can route new requests to other servers
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -httpAuth.password=file:///abs/path/to/file or -httpAuth.password=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -httpAuth.password=http://host/path or -httpAuth.password=https://host/path
Whether to use proxy protocol for connections accepted at -httpListenAddr . See https://www.haproxy.org/download/1.8/doc/proxy-protocol.txt . With enabled proxy protocol http server cannot serve regular /metrics endpoint. Use -pushmetrics.url for metrics pushing
-internStringCacheExpireDuration duration
The expiry duration for caches for interned strings. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringMaxLen and -internStringDisableCache (default 6m0s)
-internStringDisableCache
Whether to disable caches for interned strings. This may reduce memory usage at the cost of higher CPU usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringCacheExpireDuration and -internStringMaxLen
The maximum length for strings to intern. A lower limit may save memory at the cost of higher CPU usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning . See also -internStringDisableCache and -internStringCacheExpireDuration (default 500)
Lisense key for VictoriaMetrics Enterprise. See https://victoriametrics.com/products/enterprise/ . Trial Enterprise license can be obtained from https://victoriametrics.com/products/enterprise/trial/ . This flag is available only in Enterprise binaries. The license key can be also passed via file specified by -licenseFile command-line flag
Whether to enable offline verification for VictoriaMetrics Enterprise license key, which has been passed either via -license or via -licenseFile command-line flag. The issued license key must support offline verification feature. Contact info@victoriametrics.com if you need offline license verification. This flag is avilable only in Enterprise binaries
Path to file with license key for VictoriaMetrics Enterprise. See https://victoriametrics.com/products/enterprise/ . Trial Enterprise license can be obtained from https://victoriametrics.com/products/enterprise/trial/ . This flag is available only in Enterprise binaries. The license key can be also passed inline via -license command-line flag
The default load balancing policy to use for backend urls specified inside url_prefix section. Supported policies: least_loaded, first_available. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html#load-balancing for more details (default "least_loaded")
Whether to log requests with invalid auth tokens. Such requests are always counted at vmauth_http_request_errors_total{reason="invalid_auth_token"} metric, which is exposed at /metrics page
Per-second limit on the number of ERROR messages. If more than the given number of errors are emitted per second, the remaining errors are suppressed. Zero values disable the rate limit
The maximum length of a single logged argument. Longer arguments are replaced with 'arg_start..arg_end', where 'arg_start' and 'arg_end' is prefix and suffix of the arg with the length not exceeding -loggerMaxArgLen / 2 (default 1000)
Timezone to use for timestamps in logs. Timezone must be a valid IANA Time Zone. For example: America/New_York, Europe/Berlin, Etc/GMT+3 or Local (default "UTC")
Per-second limit on the number of WARN messages. If more than the given number of warns are emitted per second, then the remaining warns are suppressed. Zero values disable the rate limit
The maximum number of concurrent requests vmauth can process per each configured user. Other requests are rejected with '429 Too Many Requests' http status code. See also -maxConcurrentRequests command-line option and max_concurrent_requests option in per-user config (default 300)
The maximum number of concurrent requests vmauth can process. Other requests are rejected with '429 Too Many Requests' http status code. See also -maxConcurrentPerUserRequests and -maxIdleConnsPerBackend command-line options (default 1000)
Allowed size of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. This option overrides -memory.allowedPercent if set to a non-zero value. Too low a value may increase the cache miss rate usually resulting in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high a value may evict too much data from the OS page cache resulting in higher disk IO usage
Allowed percent of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. See also -memory.allowedBytes. Too low a value may increase cache miss rate usually resulting in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high a value may evict too much data from the OS page cache which will result in higher disk IO usage (default 60)
Whether to expose TYPE and HELP metadata at the /metrics page, which is exposed at -httpListenAddr . The metadata may be needed when the /metrics page is consumed by systems, which require this information. For example, Managed Prometheus in Google Cloud - https://cloud.google.com/stackdriver/docs/managed-prometheus/troubleshooting#missing-metric-type
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -metricsAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -metricsAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -metricsAuthKey=http://host/path or -metricsAuthKey=https://host/path
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -pprofAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -pprofAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -pprofAuthKey=http://host/path or -pprofAuthKey=https://host/path
Optional labels to add to metrics pushed to every -pushmetrics.url . For example, -pushmetrics.extraLabel='instance="foo"' adds instance="foo" label to all the metrics pushed to every -pushmetrics.url
Supports an array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Optional HTTP request header to send to every -pushmetrics.url . For example, -pushmetrics.header='Authorization: Basic foobar' adds 'Authorization: Basic foobar' header to every request to every -pushmetrics.url
Optional URL to push metrics exposed at /metrics page. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#push-metrics . By default, metrics exposed at /metrics page aren't pushed to any remote storage
Flag value can be read from the given file when using -reloadAuthKey=file:///abs/path/to/file or -reloadAuthKey=file://./relative/path/to/file . Flag value can be read from the given http/https url when using -reloadAuthKey=http://host/path or -reloadAuthKey=https://host/path
Comma-separated list of default HTTP response status codes when vmauth re-tries the request on other backends. See https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html#load-balancing for details (default 0)
Supports array of values separated by comma or specified via multiple flags.
Path to file with TLS certificate if -tls is set. Prefer ECDSA certs instead of RSA certs as RSA certs are slower. The provided certificate file is automatically re-read every second, so it can be dynamically updated
Optional list of TLS cipher suites for incoming requests over HTTPS if -tls is set. See the list of supported cipher suites at https://pkg.go.dev/crypto/tls#pkg-constants
