README.md
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2
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7
8# Cortex: horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant, long term storage for Prometheus.
9
10Cortex provides horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant, long term storage for
11[Prometheus](https://prometheus.io).
12
13- **Horizontally scalable:** Cortex can run across multiple machines in a cluster, exceeding the throughput and storage of a single machine. This enables you to send the metrics from multiple Prometheus servers to a single Cortex cluster and run "globally aggregated" queries across all data in a single place.
14- **Highly available:** When run in a cluster, Cortex can replicate data between machines. This allows you to survive machine failure without gaps in your graphs.
15- **Multi-tenant:** Cortex can isolate data and queries from multiple different independent
16Prometheus sources in a single cluster, allowing untrusted parties to share the same cluster.
17- **Long term storage:** Cortex supports S3, GCS, Swift and Microsoft Azure for long term storage of metric data. This allows you to durably store data for longer than the lifetime of any single machine, and use this data for long term capacity planning.
18
19Cortex is a [CNCF](https://cncf.io) incubation project used in several production systems including [Weave Cloud](https://cloud.weave.works) and [Grafana Cloud](https://grafana.com/cloud).
20Cortex is primarily used as a [remote write](https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/configuration/#remote_write) destination for Prometheus, with a Prometheus-compatible query API.
21
22## Documentation
23
24Read the [getting started guide](https://cortexmetrics.io/docs/getting-started) if you're new to the
25project. Before deploying Cortex with a permanent storage backend you
26should read:
271. [An overview of Cortex's architecture](https://cortexmetrics.io/docs/architecture/)
281. [Getting started with Cortex](https://cortexmetrics.io/docs/getting-started/)
291. [Information regarding configuring Cortex](https://cortexmetrics.io/docs/configuration/)
30
31For a guide to contributing to Cortex, see the [contributor guidelines](https://cortexmetrics.io/docs/contributing/).
32
33## Further reading
34
35To learn more about Cortex, consult the following talks and articles.
36
37### Recent talks and articles
38
39- Dec 2020 blog post "[How AWS and Grafana Labs are scaling Cortex for the cloud](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/how-aws-and-grafana-labs-are-scaling-cortex-for-the-cloud/)"
40- Oct 2020 blog post "[How to switch Cortex from chunks to blocks storage (and why you won’t look back)](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/10/19/how-to-switch-cortex-from-chunks-to-blocks-storage-and-why-you-wont-look-back/)"
41- Oct 2020 blog post "[Now GA: Cortex blocks storage for running Prometheus at scale with reduced operational complexity](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/10/06/now-ga-cortex-blocks-storage-for-running-prometheus-at-scale-with-reduced-operational-complexity/)"
42- Sep 2020 blog post "[A Tale of Tail Latencies](https://www.weave.works/blog/a-tale-of-tail-latencies)"
43- Sep 2020 KubeCon talk "Scaling Prometheus: How We Got Some Thanos Into Cortex" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5OJzRogAS4), [slides](https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccnceu20/ec/2020-08%20-%20KubeCon%20EU%20-%20Cortex%20blocks%20storage.pdf))
44- Aug 2020 blog post "[Scaling Prometheus: How we’re pushing Cortex blocks storage to its limit and beyond](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/08/12/scaling-prometheus-how-were-pushing-cortex-blocks-storage-to-its-limit-and-beyond/)"
45- Jul 2020 blog post "[How blocks storage in Cortex reduces operational complexity for running Prometheus at massive scale](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/07/29/how-blocks-storage-in-cortex-reduces-operational-complexity-for-running-prometheus-at-massive-scale/)"
46- Jul 2020 PromCon talk "Sharing is Caring: Leveraging Open Source to Improve Cortex & Thanos" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oTLouUvsac), [slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OuKYD7-k9Grb7unppYycdmVGWN0Bo0UwdJRySOoPdpg/edit))
47- Mar 2020 blog post "[Cortex: Zone Aware Replication](https://kenhaines.net/cortex-zone-aware-replication/)"
48- Mar 2020 blog post "[How we're using gossip to improve Cortex and Loki availability](https://grafana.com/blog/2020/03/25/how-were-using-gossip-to-improve-cortex-and-loki-availability/)"
49- Jan 2020 blog post "[The Future of Cortex: Into the Next Decade][future-of-cortex-blog]"
50
51[future-of-cortex-blog]: https://grafana.com/blog/2020/01/21/the-future-of-cortex-into-the-next-decade/
52
53### Previous talks and articles
54
55- Nov 2019 KubeCon talks "[Cortex 101: Horizontally Scalable Long Term Storage for Prometheus][kubecon-cortex-101]" ([video][kubecon-cortex-101-video], [slides][kubecon-cortex-101-slides]), "[Configuring Cortex for Max
56Performance][kubecon-cortex-201]" ([video][kubecon-cortex-201-video], [slides][kubecon-cortex-201-slides], [write up][kubecon-cortex-201-writeup]) and "[Blazin’ Fast PromQL][kubecon-blazin]" ([slides][kubecon-blazin-slides], [video][kubecon-blazin-video], [write up][kubecon-blazin-writeup])
57- Nov 2019 PromCon talk "[Two Households, Both Alike in Dignity: Cortex and Thanos][promcon-two-households]" ([video][promcon-two-households-video], [slides][promcon-two-households-slides], [write up][promcon-two-households-writeup])
58- May 2019 KubeCon talks; "[Cortex: Intro][kubecon-cortex-intro]" ([video][kubecon-cortex-intro-video], [slides][kubecon-cortex-intro-slides], [blog post][kubecon-cortex-intro-blog]) and "[Cortex: Deep Dive][kubecon-cortex-deepdive]" ([video][kubecon-cortex-deepdive-video], [slides][kubecon-cortex-deepdive-slides])
59- Feb 2019 blog post & podcast; "[Prometheus Scalability with Bryan Boreham][prometheus-scalability]" ([podcast][prometheus-scalability-podcast])
60- Feb 2019 blog post; "[How Aspen Mesh Runs Cortex in Production][aspen-mesh-2019]"
61- Dec 2018 KubeCon talk; "[Cortex: Infinitely Scalable Prometheus][kubecon-2018-talk]" ([video][kubecon-2018-video], [slides][kubecon-2018-slides])
62- Dec 2018 CNCF blog post; "[Cortex: a multi-tenant, horizontally scalable Prometheus-as-a-Service][cncf-2018-blog]"
63- Nov 2018 CloudNative London meetup talk; "Cortex: Horizontally Scalable, Highly Available Prometheus" ([slides][cloudnative-london-2018-slides])
64- Nov 2018 CNCF TOC Presentation; "Horizontally Scalable, Multi-tenant Prometheus" ([slides][cncf-toc-presentation])
65- Sept 2018 blog post; "[What is Cortex?][what-is-cortex]"
66- Aug 2018 PromCon panel; "[Prometheus Long-Term Storage Approaches][promcon-2018-panel]" ([video][promcon-2018-video])
67- Jul 2018 design doc; "[Cortex Query Optimisations][cortex-query-optimisation-2018]"
68- Aug 2017 PromCon talk; "[Cortex: Prometheus as a Service, One Year On][promcon-2017-talk]" ([videos][promcon-2017-video], [slides][promcon-2017-slides], write up [part 1][promcon-2017-writeup-1], [part 2][promcon-2017-writeup-2], [part 3][promcon-2017-writeup-3])
69- Jun 2017 Prometheus London meetup talk; "Cortex: open-source, horizontally-scalable, distributed Prometheus" ([video][prometheus-london-2017-video])
70- Dec 2016 KubeCon talk; "Weave Cortex: Multi-tenant, horizontally scalable Prometheus as a Service" ([video][kubecon-2016-video], [slides][kubecon-2016-slides])
71- Aug 2016 PromCon talk; "Project Frankenstein: Multitenant, Scale-Out Prometheus": ([video][promcon-2016-video], [slides][promcon-2016-slides])
72- Jun 2016 design document; "[Project Frankenstein: A Multi Tenant, Scale Out Prometheus](http://goo.gl/prdUYV)"
73
74[kubecon-cortex-101]: https://kccncna19.sched.com/event/UaiH/cortex-101-horizontally-scalable-long-term-storage-for-prometheus-chris-marchbanks-splunk
75[kubecon-cortex-101-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8GmbH0U_kI
76[kubecon-cortex-101-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccncna19/92/cortex_101.pdf
77[kubecon-cortex-201]: https://kccncna19.sched.com/event/UagC/performance-tuning-and-day-2-operations-goutham-veeramachaneni-grafana-labs
78[kubecon-cortex-201-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccncna19/87/Taming%20Cortex_%20Configuring%20for%20maximum%20performance%281%29.pdf
79[kubecon-cortex-201-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuE5aDHDexU
80[kubecon-cortex-201-writeup]: https://grafana.com/blog/2019/12/02/kubecon-recap-configuring-cortex-for-maximum-performance-at-scale/
81[kubecon-blazin]: https://kccncna19.sched.com/event/UaWT/blazin-fast-promql-tom-wilkie-grafana-labs
82[kubecon-blazin-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccncna19/0b/2019-11%20Blazin%27%20Fast%20PromQL.pdf
83[kubecon-blazin-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYgdZyeBOck
84[kubecon-blazin-writeup]: https://grafana.com/blog/2019/09/19/how-to-get-blazin-fast-promql/
85[promcon-two-households]: https://promcon.io/2019-munich/talks/two-households-both-alike-in-dignity-cortex-and-thanos/
86[promcon-two-households-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmJnmd3K3Ws&feature=youtu.be
87[promcon-two-households-slides]: https://promcon.io/2019-munich/slides/two-households-both-alike-in-dignity-cortex-and-thanos.pdf
88[promcon-two-households-writeup]: https://grafana.com/blog/2019/11/21/promcon-recap-two-households-both-alike-in-dignity-cortex-and-thanos/
89[kubecon-cortex-intro]: https://kccnceu19.sched.com/event/MPhX/intro-cortex-tom-wilkie-grafana-labs-bryan-boreham-weaveworks
90[kubecon-cortex-intro-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Wnta-3-W0
91[kubecon-cortex-intro-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccnceu19/af/Cortex%20Intro%20KubeCon%20EU%202019.pdf
92[kubecon-cortex-intro-blog]: https://grafana.com/blog/2019/05/21/grafana-labs-at-kubecon-the-latest-on-cortex/
93[kubecon-cortex-deepdive]: https://kccnceu19.sched.com/event/MPjK/deep-dive-cortex-tom-wilkie-grafana-labs-bryan-boreham-weaveworks
94[kubecon-cortex-deepdive-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyFT4ChHio
95[kubecon-cortex-deepdive-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccnceu19/52/Cortex%20Deep%20Dive%20KubeCon%20EU%202019.pdf
96[prometheus-scalability]: https://www.weave.works/blog/prometheus-scalability-with-bryan-boreham
97[prometheus-scalability-podcast]: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2019/01/21/prometheus-scalability-with-bryan-boreham/
98[aspen-mesh-2019]: https://www.weave.works/blog/how-aspen-mesh-runs-cortex-in-production
99[kubecon-2018-talk]: https://kccna18.sched.com/event/GrXL/cortex-infinitely-scalable-prometheus-bryan-boreham-weaveworks
100[kubecon-2018-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyN40FsRQEo
101[kubecon-2018-slides]: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/kccna18/9b/Cortex%20CloudNativeCon%202018.pdf
102[cloudnative-london-2018-slides]: https://www.slideshare.net/grafana/cortex-horizontally-scalable-highly-available-prometheus
103[cncf-2018-blog]: https://www.cncf.io/blog/2018/12/18/cortex-a-multi-tenant-horizontally-scalable-prometheus-as-a-service/
104[cncf-toc-presentation]: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/190oIFgujktVYxWZLhLYN4q8p9dtQYoe4sxHgn4deBSI/edit#slide=id.g3b8e2d6f7e_0_6
105[what-is-cortex]: https://medium.com/weaveworks/what-is-cortex-2c30bcbd247d
106[promcon-2018-panel]: https://promcon.io/2018-munich/talks/panel-discussion-prometheus-long-term-storage-approaches/
107[promcon-2018-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pTG_N8yGSU
108[prometheus-london-2017-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi4jq2IUbLs
109[promcon-2017-talk]: https://promcon.io/2017-munich/talks/cortex-prometheus-as-a-service-one-year-on/
110[promcon-2017-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8DmPW4iQBQ
111[promcon-2017-slides]: https://promcon.io/2017-munich/slides/cortex-prometheus-as-a-service-one-year-on.pdf
112[promcon-2017-writeup-1]: https://kausal.co/blog/cortex-prometheus-aas-promcon-1/
113[promcon-2017-writeup-2]: https://kausal.co/blog/cortex-prometheus-aas-promcon-2/
114[promcon-2017-writeup-3]: https://kausal.co/blog/cortex-prometheus-aas-promcon-3/
115[cortex-query-optimisation-2018]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lsvSkv0tiAMPQv-V8vI2LZ8f4i9JuTRsuPI_i-XcAqY
116[kubecon-2016-video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uctgnazfwk
117[kubecon-2016-slides]: http://www.slideshare.net/weaveworks/weave-cortex-multitenant-horizontally-scalable-prometheus-as-a-service
118[promcon-2016-video]: https://youtu.be/3Tb4Wc0kfCM
119[promcon-2016-slides]: http://www.slideshare.net/weaveworks/project-frankenstein-a-multitenant-horizontally-scalable-prometheus-as-a-service
120
121## <a name="help"></a>Getting Help
122
123If you have any questions about Cortex:
124
125- Ask a question on the [Cortex Slack channel](https://cloud-native.slack.com/messages/cortex/). To invite yourself to the CNCF Slack, visit http://slack.cncf.io/.
126- <a href="https://github.com/cortexproject/cortex/issues/new">File an issue.</a>
127- Send an email to <a href="mailto:cortex-users@lists.cncf.io">cortex-users@lists.cncf.io</a>
128
129Your feedback is always welcome.
130
131For security issues see https://github.com/cortexproject/cortex/security/policy
132
133## Community Meetings
134
135The Cortex community call happens every two weeks on Thursday, alternating at 1200 UTC and 1700 UTC. To get a calendar invite join the [google groups](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cortex-monitoring) or check out [the CNCF community calendar](https://www.cncf.io/calendar/).
136
137Meeting notes are held [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1shtXSAqp3t7fiC-9uZcKkq3mgwsItAJlH6YW6x1joZo/edit).
138
139## Hosted Cortex (Prometheus as a service)
140
141There are several commercial services where you can use Cortex
142on-demand:
143
144### Weave Cloud
145
146[Weave Cloud](https://cloud.weave.works) from
147[Weaveworks](https://weave.works) lets you deploy, manage, and monitor
148container-based applications. Sign up at https://cloud.weave.works
149and follow the instructions there. Additional help can also be found
150in the [Weave Cloud documentation](https://www.weave.works/docs/cloud/latest/overview/).
151
152[Instrumenting Your App: Best Practices](https://www.weave.works/docs/cloud/latest/tasks/monitor/best-instrumenting/)
153
154### Grafana Cloud
155
156The Cortex project was started by Tom Wilkie (Grafana Labs' VP Product) and Julius Volz (Prometheus' co-founder) in June 2016. Employing 6 out of 8 maintainers for Cortex enables [Grafana Labs](https://grafana.com/) to offer Cortex-as-a-service with exceptional performance and reliability. As the creators of [Grafana](https://grafana.com/oss/grafana/), [Loki](https://grafana.com/oss/loki/), and [Tempo](https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/), Grafana Labs can offer you the most wholistic Observability-as-a-Service stack out there.
157
158For further information see Grafana Cloud [documentation](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/), [tutorials](https://grafana.com/tutorials/), [webinars](https://grafana.com/videos/), and [KubeCon talks](https://grafana.com/categories/cortex/). Get started today and [sign up here](https://grafana.com/products/cloud/).
159
160### Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus (AMP)
161
162[Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus (AMP)](https://aws.amazon.com/prometheus/) is a Prometheus-compatible monitoring service that makes it easy to monitor containerized applications at scale. It is a highly available, secure, and managed monitoring for your containers. Get started [here](https://console.aws.amazon.com/prometheus/home). To learn more about the AMP, reference our [documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prometheus/latest/userguide/what-is-Amazon-Managed-Service-Prometheus.html) and [Getting Started with AMP blog](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/mt/getting-started-amazon-managed-service-for-prometheus/).
163
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