Getting started with VM Operator #

The guide covers:

Preconditions

1. VictoriaMetrics Helm repository #

See how to work with a VictoriaMetrics Helm repository in previous guide.

2. Install the VM Operator from the Helm chart #

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              helm install vmoperator vm/victoria-metrics-operator

The expected output is:

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              NAME: vmoperator
LAST DEPLOYED: Fri Mar 21 12:01:52 2025
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
victoria-metrics-operator has been installed. Check its status by running:
  kubectl --namespace default get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=vmoperator"

Get more information on https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/helm-charts/tree/master/charts/victoria-metrics-operator.
See "Getting started guide for VM Operator" on https://docs.victoriametrics.com/guides/getting-started-with-vm-operator

Run the following command to check that VM Operator is up and running:

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              kubectl --namespace default get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=vmoperator"

The expected output:

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              NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
vmoperator-victoria-metrics-operator-67cff44cd6-s47n6   1/1     Running   0          77s

3. Install VictoriaMetrics Cluster #

Note

For this example we will use default value for name: example-vmcluster-persistent. Change it value up to your needs.

Run the following command to install VictoriaMetrics Cluster via VM Operator:

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              cat << EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: operator.victoriametrics.com/v1beta1
kind: VMCluster
metadata:
  name: example-vmcluster-persistent
spec:
  # Add fields here
  retentionPeriod: "12"
  vmstorage:
    replicaCount: 2
  vmselect:
    replicaCount: 2
  vminsert:
    replicaCount: 2
EOF

The expected output:

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              vmcluster.operator.victoriametrics.com/example-vmcluster-persistent created
  • By applying this CRD we install the VictoriaMetrics cluster to the default namespace of your k8s cluster with following params:
  • retentionPeriod: "12" defines the retention to 12 months.
  • replicaCount: 2 creates two replicas of vmselect, vminsert and vmstorage.

Please note that it may take some time for the pods to start. To check that the pods are started, run the following command:

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              kubectl get pods | grep vmcluster

The expected output:

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              NAME                                                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent-845849cb84-9vb6f   1/1     Running   0          5m15s
vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent-845849cb84-r7mmk   1/1     Running   0          5m15s
vmselect-example-vmcluster-persistent-0                  1/1     Running   0          5m21s
vmselect-example-vmcluster-persistent-1                  1/1     Running   0          5m21s
vmstorage-example-vmcluster-persistent-0                 1/1     Running   0          5m25s
vmstorage-example-vmcluster-persistent-1                 1/1     Running   0          5m25s

There is an extra command to get information about the cluster state:

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              kubectl get vmclusters

The expected output:

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              NAME                           INSERT COUNT   STORAGE COUNT   SELECT COUNT   AGE     STATUS
example-vmcluster-persistent   2              2               2              5m53s   operational

Internet traffic goes through the Kubernetes Load balancer which use the set of Pods targeted by a Kubernetes Service. The service in VictoriaMetrics Cluster architecture which accepts the ingested data named vminsert and in Kubernetes it is a vminsert service. So we need to use it for remote_write url.

To get the name of vminsert services, please run the following command:

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              kubectl get svc | grep vminsert

The expected output:

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              vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent    ClusterIP   10.107.47.136   <none>        8480/TCP                     5m58s

To scrape metrics from Kubernetes with a VictoriaMetrics Cluster we will need to install VMAgent with some additional configurations. Copy vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent (or whatever user put into metadata.name field https://docs.victoriametrics.com/guides/getting-started-with-vm-operator.html#example-cluster-config) service name and add it to the remoteWrite URL from quick-start example. Here is an example of the full configuration that we need to apply:

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              cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: operator.victoriametrics.com/v1beta1
kind: VMAgent
metadata:
  name: example-vmagent
spec:
  serviceScrapeNamespaceSelector: {}
  podScrapeNamespaceSelector: {}
  podScrapeSelector: {}
  serviceScrapeSelector: {}
  nodeScrapeSelector: {}
  nodeScrapeNamespaceSelector: {}
  staticScrapeSelector: {}
  staticScrapeNamespaceSelector: {}
  replicaCount: 1
  remoteWrite:
    - url: "http://vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent.default.svc.cluster.local:8480/insert/0/prometheus/api/v1/write"
EOF

The expected output:

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              vmagent.operator.victoriametrics.com/example-vmagent created
Note

remoteWrite.url for VMAgent consists of the following parts: “service_name.VMCluster_namespace.svc.kubernetes_cluster_domain” that in our case will look like vminsert-example-vmcluster-persistent.default.svc.cluster.local

Verify that VMAgent is up and running by executing the following command:

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              kubectl get pods | grep vmagent

The expected output is:

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              vmagent-example-vmagent-7996844b5f-b5rzs                 2/2     Running   0          9s
Note

There are two containers for VMagent: the first one is a VMagent and the second one is a sidecar with a secret. VMagent use a secret with configuration which is mounted to the special sidecar. It observes the changes with configuration and send a signal to reload configuration for the VMagent.

Run the following command to make VMAgent’s port accessible from the local machine:

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              kubectl port-forward svc/vmagent-example-vmagent 8429:8429

The expected output is:

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              Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:8429 -> 8429
Forwarding from [::1]:8429 -> 8429

To check that VMAgent collects metrics from the k8s cluster open in the browser http://127.0.0.1:8429/targets. You will see something like this:

VMCluster

VMAgent connects to kubernetes service discovery and gets targets which needs to be scraped. This service discovery is controlled by VictoriaMetrics Operator

4. Verifying VictoriaMetrics cluster #

See how to install and connect Grafana to VictoriaMetrics but with one addition - we should get the name of vmselect service from the freshly installed VictoriaMetrics Cluster because it will now be different.

To get the new service name, please run the following command:

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              kubectl get svc | grep vmselect

The expected output:

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              vmselect-example-vmcluster-persistent    ClusterIP   None             <none>        8481/TCP                     7m

The final config will look like this:

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              cat <<EOF | helm install my-grafana grafana/grafana -f -
  datasources:
    datasources.yaml:
      apiVersion: 1
      datasources:
        - name: victoriametrics
          type: prometheus
          orgId: 1
          url: http://vmselect-example-vmcluster-persistent.default.svc.cluster.local:8481/select/0/prometheus/
          access: proxy
          isDefault: true
          updateIntervalSeconds: 10
          editable: true

  dashboardProviders:
   dashboardproviders.yaml:
     apiVersion: 1
     providers:
     - name: 'default'
       orgId: 1
       folder: ''
       type: file
       disableDeletion: true
       editable: true
       options:
         path: /var/lib/grafana/dashboards/default

  dashboards:
    default:
      victoriametrics:
        gnetId: 11176
        revision: 18
        datasource: victoriametrics
      vmagent:
        gnetId: 12683
        revision: 7
        datasource: victoriametrics
      kubernetes:
        gnetId: 14205
        revision: 1
        datasource: victoriametrics
EOF

5. Check the result you obtained in your browser #

To check that VictoriaMetrics collecting metrics from the k8s cluster open in your browser http://127.0.0.1:3000/dashboards and choose the VictoriaMetrics - cluster dashboard. Use admin for login and the password that you previously got from kubectl.

Dashboards 1

The expected output is:

Dashboards 2

6. Summary #

  • We set up Kubernetes Operator for VictoriaMetrics with using CRD.
  • We collected metrics from all running services and stored them in the VictoriaMetrics database.