mimir

name	mimir
license	Apache-2.0
description	Grafana Mimir scalable long-term metrics storage. Covers architecture (distributor/ingester/compactor/querier/ query-frontend/store-gateway/ruler), deployment modes (monolithic/microservices), configuration, Prometheus remote write, PromQL querying, multi-tenancy, compaction, and operations. Use when working with Mimir for metrics storage, scaling Prometheus, configuring Mimir clusters, writing PromQL, or debugging Mimir.

Grafana Mimir

Docs: https://grafana.com/docs/mimir/latest/

Horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant, long-term storage for Prometheus and OpenTelemetry metrics.

Quick Start (Monolithic Mode)

# demo.yaml - single binary, no external dependencies
target: all
multitenancy_enabled: false

blocks_storage:
  backend: filesystem
  bucket_store:
    sync_dir: /tmp/mimir/tsdb-sync
  filesystem:
    dir: /tmp/mimir/data/tsdb
  tsdb:
    dir: /tmp/mimir/tsdb

compactor:
  data_dir: /tmp/mimir/compactor
  sharding_ring:
    kvstore:
      store: memberlist

distributor:
  ring:
    instance_addr: 127.0.0.1
    kvstore:
      store: memberlist

ingester:
  ring:
    instance_addr: 127.0.0.1
    kvstore:
      store: memberlist
    replication_factor: 1

server:
  http_listen_port: 9009
  grpc_listen_port: 9095
  log_level: error

docker run --rm -p 9009:9009 -v $(pwd)/demo.yaml:/etc/mimir/demo.yaml \
  grafana/mimir:latest --config.file=/etc/mimir/demo.yaml

Sending Metrics to Mimir

Prometheus remote_write

remote_write:
  - url: http://localhost:9009/api/v1/push
    headers:
      X-Scope-OrgID: tenant1

Grafana Alloy

prometheus.remote_write "mimir" {
  endpoint {
    url = "http://mimir:9009/api/v1/push"
    headers = { "X-Scope-OrgID" = "tenant1" }
  }
}

Multi-tenancy

multitenancy_enabled: true
# All requests require: X-Scope-OrgID: <tenant-id>

Architecture

Write Path

Client → Distributor → Ingester (WAL) → Object Storage (blocks)

Read Path

Client → Query-frontend (cache/sharding) → Query-scheduler → Querier ← Store-gateway

Components

Component	Role
Distributor	Validates & routes incoming samples via hash ring
Ingester	In-memory storage, WAL, flushes blocks to object store
Compactor	Merges blocks, enforces retention
Querier	Executes PromQL across ingesters + object store
Query-frontend	Request splitting, caching, parallelization
Store-gateway	Provides access to blocks in object storage
Ruler	Evaluates recording and alerting rules
Alertmanager	Routes and deduplicates alerts

Storage Configuration

S3

blocks_storage:
  backend: s3
  s3:
    bucket_name: mimir-blocks
    endpoint: s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
    region: us-east-1
    access_key_id: ${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}
    secret_access_key: ${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}

GCS

blocks_storage:
  backend: gcs
  gcs:
    bucket_name: mimir-blocks

Azure

blocks_storage:
  backend: azure
  azure:
    account_name: storageaccountname
    account_key: ${AZURE_STORAGE_KEY}
    container_name: mimir-blocks

Deployment Modes

# Monolithic
mimir -config.file=mimir.yaml -target=all

# Kubernetes (Helm)
helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
helm install mimir grafana/mimir-distributed -f values.yaml

# Read-Write mode
mimir -target=write    # distributor + ingester
mimir -target=read     # query-frontend + querier
mimir -target=backend  # store-gateway + compactor + ruler

Key Configuration Options

limits:
  ingestion_rate: 10000
  ingestion_burst_size: 200000
  max_global_series_per_user: 1500000
  max_label_names_per_series: 30
  compactor_blocks_retention_period: 30d
  ruler_max_rules_per_rule_group: 20

ingester:
  ring:
    replication_factor: 3

querier:
  max_concurrent: 20

frontend:
  max_outstanding_per_tenant: 100
  compress_responses: true

HTTP API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/v1/push	Remote write
POST	/otlp/v1/metrics	OTLP ingestion
GET	/api/v1/query	Instant PromQL query
GET	/api/v1/query_range	Range PromQL query
GET	/api/v1/labels	List labels
GET	/api/v1/series	List series
GET	/api/v1/rules	List rules
GET	/ready	Readiness probe
GET	/metrics	Self metrics