diff --git a/docs/guides/rule-evaluations-via-query-frontend.md b/docs/guides/rule-evaluations-via-query-frontend.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..d3c17ba894 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/guides/rule-evaluations-via-query-frontend.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Rule evaluations via query frontend" +linkTitle: "Rule evaluations via query frontend" +weight: 10 +slug: rule-evalutions-via-query-frontend +--- + +This guide explains how to configure the Ruler to evaluate rules via Query Frontends instead of the Ingester/Store Gateway and the pros and cons of rule evaluation via Query Frontend. + +## How to enable + +By default, the Ruler queries both Ingesters and Store Gateway depending on the Rule time range for evaluating rules (alerting rules or recording rules). If you have set `-ruler.frontend-address` then the Ruler queries the Query Frontend for evaluation rules. +The address should be the gRPC listen address in host:port format. + + +You can configure via args: +``` +-ruler.frontend-address=query-frontend.svc.cluster.local:9095 +``` +And via yaml: +```yaml +ruler: + frontend_address: query-frontend.svc.cluster.local:9095 +``` + +In addition, you can configure gRPC client (Ruler -> Query Frontend) config, please refer to frontend_client section in [ruler config](../configuration/config-file-reference.md#ruler_config). + +## Configure query response format +You can configure the query response format via `-ruler.query-response-format`, it is used to retrieve query results from the Query Frontend. +The supported values are `protobuf` and `json`. We recommend using `protobuf`(default) because the retrieved query results containing native histograms are only supported on `protobuf`. + + +## Pros and Cons +If this feature is enabled, the query execute path is as follows: + +Ruler -> Query Frontend -> Query Scheduler -> Querier -> Ingester/Store Gateway + +There are pros and cons regarding query performance as more hops than before (Ruler -> Ingester/Store Gateway). +### Pros +- The rule evaluation performance could be improved in such a situation where the number of Queriers pulling queries from the Query Scheduler is good enough. +If then, the queries in Query Scheduler are fetched in a reasonable time (i.e. a lot of hops are not a defect for query performance). In this environment, query performance could be improved as we can use Query Frontend features like the vertical query sharding. +- The Ruler can use fewer resources as it doesn't need to run a query engine to evaluate rules. + +### Cons +- If there are not enough Queriers, adding rule queries to Query Scheduler could cause query starvation problem (queries in Query Scheduler could not be fetched in a reasonable time), so rules cannot be evaluated in time. + +You can utilize the `cortex_prometheus_rule_evaluation_duration_seconds` metric whether to use `-ruler.frontend-address`. \ No newline at end of file