---
keywords: [Kubernetes deployment, cluster, monitoring]
description: Complete guide to deploying self-monitoring for GreptimeDB clusters on Kubernetes, including Grafana dashboard setup and configuration options
---

# Self-Monitoring GreptimeDB Clusters

Before reading this document, ensure you understand how to [deploy a GreptimeDB cluster on Kubernetes](/user-guide/deployments-administration/deploy-on-kubernetes/deploy-greptimedb-cluster.md).
This guide will walk you through configuring monitoring when deploying a GreptimeDB cluster.

## Quick Start

You can enable monitoring and Grafana by adding configurations to the `values.yaml` file when deploying the GreptimeDB cluster using Helm Chart. 
Here's a complete example of `values.yaml` for deploying a minimal GreptimeDB cluster with monitoring and Grafana:

```yaml
image:
  registry: docker.io
  # Image repository:
  # Use `greptime/greptimedb` for OSS GreptimeDB
  # Consult staff for GreptimeDB Enterprise
  repository: <repository>
  # Image tag:
  # Use database version `VAR::greptimedbVersion` for OSS GreptimeDB
  # Consult staff for GreptimeDB Enterprise
  tag: <tag>
  pullSecrets: []

initializer:
  registry: docker.io
  repository: greptime/greptimedb-initializer

monitoring:
  # Enable monitoring
  enabled: true

grafana:
  # Enable Grafana deployment
  # Requires monitoring to be enabled first (monitoring.enabled: true)
  enabled: true

frontend:
  replicas: 1

meta:
  replicas: 1
  backendStorage:
    etcd:
      endpoints: "etcd.etcd-cluster.svc.cluster.local:2379"

datanode:
  replicas: 1
```

When `monitoring` is enabled, GreptimeDB Operator launches an additional GreptimeDB Standalone instance to collect metrics and logs from the GreptimeDB cluster.
To collect log data, GreptimeDB Operator starts a [Vector](https://vector.dev/) sidecar container in each Pod.

When `grafana` is enabled, a Grafana instance is deployed that uses the GreptimeDB Standalone instance configured for cluster monitoring as its data source.
This enables visualization of the GreptimeDB cluster's monitoring data out of the box using both Prometheus and MySQL protocols.

Then install the GreptimeDB cluster with the above `values.yaml` file:

```bash
helm upgrade --install mycluster \
  greptime/greptimedb-cluster \
  --values /path/to/values.yaml \
  -n default
```

After installation, you can check the Pod status of the GreptimeDB cluster:

```bash
kubectl -n default get pods
```

<details>
  <summary>Expected Output</summary>
```bash
NAME                                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
mycluster-datanode-0                 2/2     Running   0          77s
mycluster-frontend-6ffdd549b-9s7gx   2/2     Running   0          66s
mycluster-grafana-675b64786-ktqps    1/1     Running   0          6m35s
mycluster-meta-58bc88b597-ppzvj      2/2     Running   0          86s
mycluster-monitor-standalone-0       1/1     Running   0          6m35s
```
</details>

You can then access the Grafana dashboard by port-forwarding the Grafana service to your local machine:

```shell
kubectl -n default port-forward svc/mycluster-grafana 18080:80
```

Then refer to the [Access Grafana Dashboard](#access-grafana-dashboard) section below for details on accessing Grafana.

## Monitoring Configuration

This section covers the details of monitoring configurations.

### Enable Monitoring

Add the following configuration to [`values.yaml`](/user-guide/deployments-administration/deploy-on-kubernetes/deploy-greptimedb-cluster.md#setup-valuesyaml) to enable monitoring when deploying the GreptimeDB cluster:

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true
```

This deploys a GreptimeDB Standalone instance named `${cluster-name}-monitoring` to collect metrics and logs. You can verify the deployment with:

```bash
kubectl get greptimedbstandalones.greptime.io ${cluster-name}-monitoring -n ${namespace}
```

The GreptimeDB Standalone instance exposes services using `${cluster-name}-monitoring-standalone` as the Kubernetes Service name. You can use the following addresses to access monitoring data:

- **Prometheus metrics**: `http://${cluster-name}-monitor-standalone.${namespace}.svc.cluster.local:4000/v1/prometheus`
- **SQL logs**: `${cluster-name}-monitor-standalone.${namespace}.svc.cluster.local:4002`. By default, cluster logs are stored in the `public._gt_logs` table.

### Customize Monitoring Storage

By default, the GreptimeDB Standalone instance stores monitoring data using the Kubernetes default StorageClass in local storage.
You can configure the GreptimeDB Standalone instance through the `monitoring.standalone` field in `values.yaml`. For example, the following configuration uses S3 object storage to store monitoring data:

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true
  standalone:
    base:
     main:
       # Configure GreptimeDB Standalone instance image
       image: "greptime/greptimedb:latest"

       # Configure GreptimeDB Standalone instance resources
       resources:
         requests:
           cpu: "2"
           memory: "4Gi"
         limits:
           cpu: "2"
           memory: "4Gi"
    
    # Configure object storage for GreptimeDB Standalone instance
    objectStorage:
      s3:
        # Configure bucket
        bucket: "monitoring"
        # Configure region  
        region: "ap-southeast-1"
        # Configure secret name
        secretName: "s3-credentials"
        # Configure root path
        root: "standalone-with-s3-data"
```

### Customize Vector Sidecar

The Vector sidecar configuration for log collection can be customized via the `monitoring.vector` field.
For example, you can adjust the Vector image and resource limits as follows:

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true
  vector:
    # Configure Vector image registry
    registry: docker.io
    # Configure Vector image repository 
    repository: timberio/vector
    # Configure Vector image tag
    tag: "VAR::vectorImageVersion"

    # Configure Vector resources
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "50m"
        memory: "64Mi"
      limits:
        cpu: "250m" 
        memory: "256Mi"
```

### YAML Configuration with `kubectl` Deployment

If you're not using Helm Chart, you can also use the `monitoring` field to manually configure self-monitoring mode in the `GreptimeDBCluster` YAML:

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true
```

For detailed configuration options, refer to the [`GreptimeDBCluster` API documentation](https://github.com/GreptimeTeam/greptimedb-operator/blob/main/docs/api-references/docs.md#monitoringspec).


## Grafana Configuration

### Enable Grafana

To enable Grafana deployment, add the following configuration to `values.yaml`.
Note that monitoring must be enabled first [(`monitoring.enabled: true`)](#enable-monitoring):

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true

grafana:
  enabled: true
```

### Customize Grafana Data Sources

By default, Grafana uses `mycluster` and `default` as the cluster name and namespace to create data sources.
To monitor clusters with different names or namespaces, you need to create custom data source configurations based on the actual cluster names and namespaces.
Here's an example `values.yaml` configuration:

```yaml
monitoring:
  enabled: true

grafana:
  enabled: true
  datasources:
    datasources.yaml:
      datasources:
        - name: greptimedb-metrics
          type: prometheus
          url: http://${cluster-name}-monitor-standalone.${namespace}.svc.cluster.local:4000/v1/prometheus
          access: proxy
          isDefault: true

        - name: greptimedb-logs
          type: mysql
          url: ${cluster-name}-monitor-standalone.${namespace}.svc.cluster.local:4002
          access: proxy
          database: public
```

This configuration creates the following data sources for GreptimeDB cluster monitoring in Grafana:

- **`greptimedb-metrics`**: Cluster metrics stored in the standalone monitoring database, exposed via Prometheus protocol (`type: prometheus`)
- **`greptimedb-logs`**: Cluster logs stored in the standalone monitoring database, exposed via MySQL protocol (`type: mysql`). Uses the `public` database by default

### Access Grafana Dashboard

You can access the Grafana dashboard by port-forwarding the Grafana service to your local machine:

```bash
kubectl -n ${namespace} port-forward svc/${cluster-name}-grafana 18080:80 
```

Then open `http://localhost:18080` to access the Grafana dashboard.
The default login credentials for Grafana are:

- **Username**: `admin`
- **Password**: `gt-operator`

Navigate to the `Dashboards` section to explore the pre-configured dashboards for monitoring your GreptimeDB cluster.

![Grafana Dashboard](/kubernetes-cluster-grafana-dashboard.jpg)


## Cleanup the PVCs

:::danger
The cleanup operation will remove the metadata and data of the GreptimeDB cluster. Please make sure you have backed up the data before proceeding.
:::
To uninstall the GreptimeDB cluster, please refer to the [Cleanup GreptimeDB Cluster](/user-guide/deployments-administration/deploy-on-kubernetes/deploy-greptimedb-cluster.md#cleanup) documentation.

To clean up the Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) used by the GreptimeDB standalone monitoring instance, delete the PVCs using the following command:

```bash
kubectl -n default delete pvc -l app.greptime.io/component=${cluster-name}-monitor-standalone
```
