Mimir

by grafana1ccacf29049fApache-2.0279 starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated today

Stand up Grafana Mimir for horizontally scalable, multi-tenant, long-term Prometheus + OTLP metrics storage. Covers monolithic / read-write / microservices deployment, S3 / GCS / Azure / filesystem block storage, Prometheus `remote_write` and OTLP ingestion, multi-tenancy with `X-Scope-OrgID`, ingester replication factor, compactor retention, and per-tenant limits. Use when running Mimir locally or on Kubernetes (Helm `mimir-distributed`), scaling Prometheus past a single node, picking ingest / query / backend split, configuring tenants and ingestion rate, debugging `/ready` 503s or `429 Too Many Requests`, or pointing Grafana at a Mimir datasource — even when the user says "I need long-term Prometheus storage", "scale Prometheus", "multi-tenant metrics backend", "Cortex replacement", "remote_write target", or "store 10M active series" without naming Mimir.

Instructions onlyDevOps & Cloud

AI-generated overview

Guides standing up and operating Grafana Mimir for scalable, multi-tenant, long-term Prometheus and OTLP metrics storage.

What it does: This skill provides configuration and command guidance for deploying Grafana Mimir in monolithic, read-write, or microservices modes, including local Docker runs and Kubernetes Helm installs. It covers block storage backends, Prometheus remote_write and Grafana Alloy ingestion, multi-tenancy via the X-Scope-OrgID header, replication factor, compactor retention, and per-tenant limits. It also includes verification steps and troubleshooting for readiness failures, rate limiting, and empty query results.
When to use it: Use it when scaling Prometheus beyond a single node, setting up a multi-tenant long-term metrics backend, or replacing Cortex. It is also relevant when debugging Mimir readiness or ingestion errors, or connecting Grafana to a Mimir datasource.
Requirements: Docker or a Kubernetes cluster with Helm for deployment, an object-storage bucket (S3, GCS, or Azure) for production, and a Prometheus or Alloy instance able to remote_write. It ships no scripts; it is instructions only, with two reference documents.

Grafana Mimir

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

Horizontally scalable, multi-tenant, long-term storage for Prometheus + OpenTelemetry metrics.

Prerequisites

Docker (for quick start) or a Kubernetes cluster (for Helm)
An object-storage bucket for production (S3/GCS/Azure) — filesystem only for dev
Prometheus or Alloy able to remote_write to the Mimir push endpoint

Common Workflows

1. Stand up monolithic Mimir locally

yaml

# demo.yamltarget: allmultitenancy_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

# demo.yamltarget: allmultitenancy_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

bash

# 1. Run itdocker run --rm -p 9009:9009 -v $(pwd)/demo.yaml:/etc/mimir/demo.yaml \  grafana/mimir:latest --config.file=/etc/mimir/demo.yaml
# 2. Verify readiness (expect HTTP 200, body: "ready")curl -sf http://localhost:9009/ready
# 3. Verify it's serving the APIcurl -s http://localhost:9009/api/v1/labels | jq '.status'   # → "success"
# 4. Verify self-metrics scrapecurl -s http://localhost:9009/metrics | grep -E '^mimir_(distributor|ingester)_' | head

# 1. Run itdocker run --rm -p 9009:9009 -v $(pwd)/demo.yaml:/etc/mimir/demo.yaml \  grafana/mimir:latest --config.file=/etc/mimir/demo.yaml
# 2. Verify readiness (expect HTTP 200, body: "ready")curl -sf http://localhost:9009/ready
# 3. Verify it's serving the APIcurl -s http://localhost:9009/api/v1/labels | jq '.status'   # → "success"
# 4. Verify self-metrics scrapecurl -s http://localhost:9009/metrics | grep -E '^mimir_(distributor|ingester)_' | head

2. Send metrics — Prometheus remote_write

yaml

remote_write:  - url: http://localhost:9009/api/v1/push    headers:      X-Scope-OrgID: tenant1   # required when multitenancy_enabled: true

remote_write:  - url: http://localhost:9009/api/v1/push    headers:      X-Scope-OrgID: tenant1   # required when multitenancy_enabled: true

bash

# Verify samples are landingcurl -s -H 'X-Scope-OrgID: tenant1' \  'http://localhost:9009/api/v1/query?query=up' | jq '.data.result | length'# Expect > 0 within ~30s of Prometheus scraping

# Verify samples are landingcurl -s -H 'X-Scope-OrgID: tenant1' \  'http://localhost:9009/api/v1/query?query=up' | jq '.data.result | length'# Expect > 0 within ~30s of Prometheus scraping

3. Send metrics — Grafana Alloy

alloy

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

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

4. Deploy on Kubernetes (Helm, microservices)

bash

# 1. Installhelm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-chartshelm install mimir grafana/mimir-distributed --version 6.0.6 -f values.yaml
# 2. Verify every pod is Running / Readykubectl get pods -n mimir#   distributor, ingester, querier, query-frontend, store-gateway, compactor, ruler
# 3. Verify the gateway is readykubectl port-forward -n mimir svc/mimir-nginx 9009:80 &curl -sf http://localhost:9009/ready

# 1. Installhelm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-chartshelm install mimir grafana/mimir-distributed --version 6.0.6 -f values.yaml
# 2. Verify every pod is Running / Readykubectl get pods -n mimir#   distributor, ingester, querier, query-frontend, store-gateway, compactor, ruler
# 3. Verify the gateway is readykubectl port-forward -n mimir svc/mimir-nginx 9009:80 &curl -sf http://localhost:9009/ready

Multi-tenancy

For storage backends (S3 / GCS / Azure / filesystem) see references/storage.md [blocked]. For component roles, ring options, limits, and API endpoint dumps see references/architecture.md [blocked].

Troubleshooting

/ready returns 503 → ingester still joining ring; check mimir_ring_members and ingester logs
429 Too Many Requests on push → bump limits.ingestion_rate / ingestion_burst_size
Samples written but query returns empty → confirm X-Scope-OrgID matches between write and read
Query for old data returns nothing → check compactor logs and that store-gateway has synced blocks

Resources

Source and attribution

Source:grafana/skillsinskills/grafana-lgtm/mimirat commit1ccacf2

License: Apache-2.0

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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Mimir

Grafana Mimir

Prerequisites

Common Workflows

1. Stand up monolithic Mimir locally

2. Send metrics — Prometheus remote_write

3. Send metrics — Grafana Alloy

4. Deploy on Kubernetes (Helm, microservices)

Multi-tenancy

Troubleshooting

Resources

Source and attribution

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