Deploy VictoriaMetrics vmalert as a Prometheus-compatible rule evaluator
domain: docs.victoriametrics.com · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Write alerting and recording rule groups in standard Prometheus rule-file syntax
Start `vmalert` with `-rule` pointing at your rule file(s), `-datasource.url` pointing at VictoriaMetrics, and `-notifier.url` pointing at Alertmanager
Set `-remoteWrite.url` if you use recording rules, since vmalert persists their results via remote write rather than local storage
Optionally set `-remoteRead.url` to restore alert state on restart
Validate rule syntax with `-dryRun` before deploying
For multi-tenant VictoriaMetrics clusters, run per-tenant vmalert instances or use tenant-scoped datasource/remote-write URLs
Known gotchas
vmalert is a separate process from VictoriaMetrics itself, unlike Prometheus where rule evaluation is built into the server
Recording rules require `-remoteWrite.url` to be set or their results are never persisted
vmalert supports MetricsQL as well as PromQL, so double-check query language compatibility when porting rules from other systems
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