![Type: application](https://img.shields.io/badge/Type-application-informational?style=flat-square) ![Version: 0.4.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/Version-0.4.0-informational?style=flat-square) [![Artifact Hub](https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https://artifacthub.io/badge/repository/victoriametrics)](https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics-distributed) [![Slack](https://img.shields.io/badge/join%20slack-%23victoriametrics-brightgreen.svg)](https://slack.victoriametrics.com/) A Helm chart for Running VMCluster on Multiple Availability Zones ## Prerequisites * Install the follow packages: ``git``, ``kubectl``, ``helm``, ``helm-docs``. See this [tutorial](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/helm/requirements/). * PV support on underlying infrastructure. * Multiple availability zones. ## Chart Details This chart sets up multiple VictoriaMetrics cluster instances on multiple [availability zones](https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/best-practices/multiple-zones/), provides both global write and read entrypoints. The default setup is as shown below: ![victoriametrics-distributed-topology](./img/victoriametrics-distributed-topology.webp) For write: 1. extra-vmagent(optional): scrapes external targets and all the components installed by this chart, sends data to global write entrypoint. 2. vmauth-global-write: global write entrypoint, proxies requests to one of the zone `vmagent` with `least_loaded` policy. 3. vmagent(per-zone): remote writes data to availability zones that enabled `.Values.availabilityZones.allowIngest`, and [buffer data on disk](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/#calculating-disk-space-for-persistence-queue) when zone is unavailable to ingest. 4. vmauth-write-balancer(per-zone): proxies requests to vminsert instances inside it's zone with `least_loaded` policy. 5. vmcluster(per-zone): processes write requests and stores data. For read: 1. vmcluster(per-zone): processes query requests and returns results. 2. vmauth-read-balancer(per-zone): proxies requests to vmselect instances inside it's zone with `least_loaded` policy. 3. vmauth-read-proxy(per-zone): uses all the `vmauth-read-balancer` as servers if zone has `.Values.availabilityZones.allowQuery` enabled, always prefer "local" `vmauth-read-balancer` to reduce cross-zone traffic with `first_available` policy. 4. vmauth-global-read: global query entrypoint, proxies requests to one of the zone `vnauth-read-proxy` with `first_available` policy. 5. grafana(optional): uses `vmauth-global-read` as default datasource. >Note: As the topology shown above, this chart doesn't include components like vmalert, alertmanager, etc by default. You can install them using dependency [victoria-metrics-k8s-stack](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/tree/master/charts/victoria-metrics-k8s-stack) or having separate release. ### Why use `victoria-metrics-distributed` chart? One of the best practice of running production kubernetes cluster is running with [multiple availability zones](https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/best-practices/multiple-zones/). And apart from kubernetes control plane components, we also want to spread our application pods on multiple zones, to continue serving even if zone outage happens. VictoriaMetrics supports [data replication](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/#replication-and-data-safety) natively which can guarantees data availability when part of the vmstorage instances failed. But it doesn't works well if vmstorage instances are spread on multiple availability zones, since data replication could be stored on single availability zone, which will be lost when zone outage happens. To avoid this, vmcluster must be installed on multiple availability zones, each containing a 100% copy of data. As long as one zone is available, both global write and read entrypoints should work without interruption. ### How to write data? The chart provides `vmauth-global-write` as global write entrypoint, it supports [push-based data ingestion protocols](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/#how-to-push-data-to-vmagent) as VictoriaMetrics does. Optionally, you can push data to any of the per-zone vmagents, and they will replicate the received data across zones. ### How to query data? The chart provides `vmauth-global-read` as global read entrypoint, it picks the first available zone (see [first_available](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth/#high-availability) policy) as it's preferred datasource and switches automatically to next zone if first one is unavailable, check [vmauth `first_available`](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth/#high-availability) for more details. If you have services like [vmalert](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmalert) or Grafana deployed in each zone, then configure them to use local `vmauth-read-proxy`. Per-zone `vmauth-read-proxy` always prefers "local" vmcluster for querying and reduces cross-zone traffic. You can also pick other proxies like kubernetes service which supports [Topology Aware Routing](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/topology-aware-routing/) as global read entrypoint. ### What happens if zone outage happen? If availability zone `zone-eu-1` is experiencing an outage, `vmauth-global-write` and `vmauth-global-read` will work without interruption: 1. `vmauth-global-write` stops proxying write requests to `zone-eu-1` automatically; 2. `vmauth-global-read` and `vmauth-read-proxy` stops proxying read requests to `zone-eu-1` automatically; 3. `vmagent` on `zone-us-1` fails to send data to `zone-eu-1.vmauth-write-balancer`, starts to buffer data on disk(unless `-remoteWrite.disableOnDiskQueue` is specified, which is not recommended for this topology); To keep data completeness for all the availability zones, make sure you have enough disk space on vmagent for buffer, see [this doc](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent/#calculating-disk-space-for-persistence-queue) for size recommendation. And to avoid getting incomplete responses from `zone-eu-1` which gets recovered from outage, check vmagent on `zone-us-1` to see if persistent queue has been drained. If not, remove `zone-eu-1` from serving query by setting `.Values.availabilityZones.{zone-eu-1}.allowQuery=false` and change it back after confirm all data are restored. ### How to use [multitenancy](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/cluster-victoriametrics/#multitenancy)? By default, all the data that written to `vmauth-global-write` belong to tenant `0`. To write data to different tenants, set `.Values.enableMultitenancy=true` and create new tenant users for `vmauth-global-write`. For example, writing data to tenant `1088` with following steps: 1. create tenant VMUser for vmauth `vmauth-global-write` to use: ``` apiVersion: operator.victoriametrics.com/v1beta1 kind: VMUser metadata: name: tenant-1088-rw labels: tenant-test: "true" spec: targetRefs: - static: ## list all the zone vmagent here url: "http://vmagent-vmagent-zone-eu-1:8429" url: "http://vmagent-vmagent-zone-us-1:8429" paths: - "/api/v1/write" - "/prometheus/api/v1/write" - "/write" - "/api/v1/import" - "/api/v1/import/.+" target_path_suffix: /insert/1088/ username: tenant-1088 password: secret ``` Add extra VMUser selector in vmauth `vmauth-global-write` ``` spec: userSelector: matchLabels: tenant-test: "true" ``` 2. send data to `vmauth-global-write` using above token. Example command using vmagent: ``` /path/to/vmagent -remoteWrite.url=http://vmauth-vmauth-global-write-$ReleaseName-vm-distributed:8427/prometheus/api/v1/write -remoteWrite.basicAuth.username=tenant-1088 -remoteWrite.basicAuth.password=secret ``` ## How to install Access a Kubernetes cluster. ### Setup chart repository (can be omitted for OCI repositories) Add a chart helm repository with follow commands: ```console helm repo add vm https://victoriametrics.github.io/helm-charts/ helm repo update ``` List versions of `vm/victoria-metrics-distributed` chart available to installation: ```console helm search repo vm/victoria-metrics-distributed -l ``` ### Install `victoria-metrics-distributed` chart Export default values of `victoria-metrics-distributed` chart to file `values.yaml`: - For HTTPS repository ```console helm show values vm/victoria-metrics-distributed > values.yaml ``` - For OCI repository ```console helm show values oci://ghcr.io/victoriametrics/helm-charts/victoria-metrics-distributed > values.yaml ``` Change the values according to the need of the environment in ``values.yaml`` file. Test the installation with command: - For HTTPS repository ```console helm install vmd vm/victoria-metrics-distributed -f values.yaml -n NAMESPACE --debug --dry-run ``` - For OCI repository ```console helm install vmd oci://ghcr.io/victoriametrics/helm-charts/victoria-metrics-distributed -f values.yaml -n NAMESPACE --debug --dry-run ``` Install chart with command: - For HTTPS repository ```console helm install vmd vm/victoria-metrics-distributed -f values.yaml -n NAMESPACE ``` - For OCI repository ```console helm install vmd oci://ghcr.io/victoriametrics/helm-charts/victoria-metrics-distributed -f values.yaml -n NAMESPACE ``` Get the pods lists by running this commands: ```console kubectl get pods -A | grep 'vmd' ``` Get the application by running this command: ```console helm list -f vmd -n NAMESPACE ``` See the history of versions of `vmd` application with command. ```console helm history vmd -n NAMESPACE ``` ## How to upgrade In order to serving query and ingestion while upgrading components version or changing configurations, it's recommended to perform maintenance on availability zone one by one. First, performing update on availability zone `zone-eu-1`: 1. remove `zone-eu-1` from serving query by setting `.Values.availabilityZones.{zone-eu-1}.allowQuery=false`; 2. run `helm upgrade vm-dis -n NAMESPACE` with updated configurations for `zone-eu-1` in `values.yaml`; 3. wait for all the components on zone `zone-eu-1` running; 4. wait `zone-us-1` vmagent persistent queue for `zone-eu-1` been drained, add `zone-eu-1` back to serving query by setting `.Values.availabilityZones.{zone-eu-1}.allowQuery=true`. Then, perform update on availability zone `zone-us-1` with the same steps1~4. ## How to uninstall Remove application with command. ```console helm uninstall vmd -n NAMESPACE ``` ## Documentation of Helm Chart Install ``helm-docs`` following the instructions on this [tutorial](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/helm/requirements/). Generate docs with ``helm-docs`` command. ```bash cd charts/victoria-metrics-distributed helm-docs ``` The markdown generation is entirely go template driven. The tool parses metadata from charts and generates a number of sub-templates that can be referenced in a template file (by default ``README.md.gotmpl``). If no template file is provided, the tool has a default internal template that will generate a reasonably formatted README. ## Parameters The following tables lists the configurable parameters of the chart and their default values. Change the values according to the need of the environment in ``victoria-metrics-distributed`/values.yaml`` file.
Key Type Default Description
availabilityZones[0].allowIngest bool 
true

Allow data ingestion to this zone
availabilityZones[0].allowQuery bool 
true

Allow data query from this zone through global query endpoint
availabilityZones[0].extraAffinity object 
{}

Extra affinity adds user defined custom affinity rules
availabilityZones[0].name string 
zone-eu-1

Availability zone name
availabilityZones[0].nodeSelector object 
topology.kubernetes.io/zone: zone-eu-1

Node selector to restrict where pods of this zone can be placed. usually provided by cloud providers.
availabilityZones[0].topologySpreadConstraints list 
- maxSkew: 1
  topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
  whenUnsatisfiable: ScheduleAnyway

Topology spread constraints allows to customize the default topologySpreadConstraints.
availabilityZones[0].vmagent object 
annotations: {}
enabled: true
name: ""
spec: {}

VMAgent here only meant to proxy write requests to each az, doesn’t support customized other remote write address.
availabilityZones[0].vmagent.annotations object 
{}

VMAgent annotations
availabilityZones[0].vmagent.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmagent object
availabilityZones[0].vmagent.spec object 
{}

VMAgent spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[0].vmauthCrossAZQuery.enabled bool 
true

Create a vmauth with all the zone with allowQuery: true as query backends
availabilityZones[0].vmauthCrossAZQuery.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[0].vmauthCrossAZQuery.spec object 
{}

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[0].vmauthIngest.enabled bool 
true

Create vmauth as a local write endpoint
availabilityZones[0].vmauthIngest.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[0].vmauthIngest.spec object 
extraArgs:
    discoverBackendIPs: "true"

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[0].vmauthQueryPerZone.enabled bool 
true

Create vmauth as a local read endpoint
availabilityZones[0].vmauthQueryPerZone.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[0].vmauthQueryPerZone.spec object 
extraArgs:
    discoverBackendIPs: "true"

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[0].vmcluster.enabled bool 
true
availabilityZones[0].vmcluster.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmcluster, by default is vmcluster-
availabilityZones[0].vmcluster.spec object 
replicationFactor: 2
retentionPeriod: "14"
vminsert:
    extraArgs: {}
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
vmselect:
    extraArgs: {}
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
vmstorage:
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
    storageDataPath: /vm-data

Spec for VMCluster CRD, see here
availabilityZones[1].allowIngest bool 
true

Allow data ingestion to this zone
availabilityZones[1].allowQuery bool 
true

Allow data query from this zone through global query endpoint
availabilityZones[1].extraAffinity object 
{}

Extra affinity adds user defined custom affinity rules
availabilityZones[1].name string 
zone-us-1

Availability zone name
availabilityZones[1].nodeSelector object 
topology.kubernetes.io/zone: zone-us-1

Node selector to restrict where pods of this zone can be placed. usually provided by cloud providers.
availabilityZones[1].topologySpreadConstraints list 
- maxSkew: 1
  topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
  whenUnsatisfiable: ScheduleAnyway

Topology spread constraints allows to customize the default topologySpreadConstraints.
availabilityZones[1].vmagent object 
annotations: {}
enabled: true
name: ""
spec: {}

VMAgent only meant to proxy write requests to each az, doesn’t support customized remote write address
availabilityZones[1].vmagent.annotations object 
{}

VMAgent annotations
availabilityZones[1].vmagent.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmagent object
availabilityZones[1].vmagent.spec object 
{}

VMAgent spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[1].vmauthCrossAZQuery.enabled bool 
true

Create a vmauth with all the zone with allowQuery: true as query backends
availabilityZones[1].vmauthCrossAZQuery.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[1].vmauthCrossAZQuery.spec object 
{}

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[1].vmauthIngest.enabled bool 
true

Create vmauth as a local write endpoint
availabilityZones[1].vmauthIngest.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[1].vmauthIngest.spec object 
extraArgs:
    discoverBackendIPs: "true"

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[1].vmauthQueryPerZone.enabled bool 
true

Create vmauth as a local read endpoint
availabilityZones[1].vmauthQueryPerZone.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
availabilityZones[1].vmauthQueryPerZone.spec object 
extraArgs:
    discoverBackendIPs: "true"

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
availabilityZones[1].vmcluster.enabled bool 
true
availabilityZones[1].vmcluster.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmcluster, by default is vmcluster-
availabilityZones[1].vmcluster.spec object 
replicationFactor: 2
retentionPeriod: "14"
vminsert:
    extraArgs: {}
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
vmselect:
    extraArgs: {}
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
vmstorage:
    replicaCount: 2
    resources: {}
    storageDataPath: /vm-data

Spec for VMCluster CRD, see here
enableMultitenancy bool 
false

Enable multitenancy mode see here
extraVMAgent object 
enabled: true
name: test-vmagent
spec:
    selectAllByDefault: true

Set up an extra vmagent to scrape all the scrape objects by default, and write data to above vmauth-global-ingest endpoint.
fullnameOverride string 
""

Overrides the chart’s computed fullname.
nameOverride string 
vm-distributed

Overrides the chart’s name
victoria-metrics-k8s-stack object 
alertmanager:
    enabled: false
crds:
    enabled: true
enabled: true
grafana:
    enabled: true
    sidecar:
        datasources:
            enabled: true
victoria-metrics-operator:
    enabled: true
vmagent:
    enabled: false
vmalert:
    enabled: false
vmcluster:
    enabled: false
vmsingle:
    enabled: false

Set up vm operator and other resources like vmalert, grafana if needed
vmauthIngestGlobal.enabled bool 
true

Create a vmauth as the global write entrypoint
vmauthIngestGlobal.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
vmauthIngestGlobal.spec object 
{}

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here
vmauthQueryGlobal.enabled bool 
true

Create vmauth as the global read entrypoint
vmauthQueryGlobal.name string 
""

Override the name of the vmauth object
vmauthQueryGlobal.spec object 
{}

VMAuth spec. More options can be found here