--- title: Remote Read weight: 4 menu: docs: parent: "vmctl" identifier: "vmctl-remote-read" weight: 4 --- `vmctl` supports `remote-read` mode for migrating data from remote databases that support [Prometheus remote read API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/remote_read_api/). `vmctl remote-read` allows migrating data from the following systems: - [Cortex](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl/cortex/) - [Mimir](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl/mimir/) - [Promscale](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl/promscale/) - [Thanos](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl/thanos#remote-read-protocol) Remote read API has two implementations of remote read API: default (`SAMPLES`) and [streamed](https://prometheus.io/blog/2019/10/10/remote-read-meets-streaming/) (`STREAMED_XOR_CHUNKS`). Streamed version is more efficient but has lower adoption. See `./vmctl remote-read --help` for details and the full list of flags. > Migration via remote read protocol allows to fetch data via API. This is usually a resource intensive operation for Thanos and may be slow or expensive in terms of resources. The importing process example for local installation of Prometheus: ```sh ./vmctl remote-read \ --remote-read-src-addr=http://:9091 \ --remote-read-filter-time-start=2021-10-18T00:00:00Z \ --remote-read-step-interval=hour \ --vm-addr=http://:8428 \ ``` _See how to configure [--vm-addr](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl#configuring-victoriametrics)._ ## Filtering Filtering by time can be configured via flags `--remote-read-filter-time-start` and `--remote-read-filter-time-end` in RFC3339 format. Filtering by labels can be configured via flags `--remote-read-filter-label` and `--remote-read-filter-label-value`. For example, `--remote-read-filter-label=tenant` and `--remote-read-filter-label-value="team-eu"` will select only series with `tenant="team-eu"` label-value pair. ## Configuration Migrating big volumes of data may result in remote read client reaching the timeout. Increase the value of `--remote-read-http-timeout` (default `5m`) command-line flag when seeing timeouts or `context canceled` errors. Flag `--remote-read-step-interval` allows splitting export data into chunks to reduce pressure on the source `--remote-read-src-addr`. Valid values are `month, day, hour, minute`. Flag `--remote-read-use-stream` defines whether to use `SAMPLES` or `STREAMED_XOR_CHUNKS` mode. Mode `STREAMED_XOR_CHUNKS` is much less resource intensive for the source, but not many databases support it. By default, is uses `SAMPLES` mode. See general [vmctl migration tips](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/victoriametrics/vmctl/#migration-tips). See `./vmctl remote-read --help` for details and full list of flags: ```shellhelp --remote-read-concurrency value Number of concurrently running remote read readers (default: 1) --remote-read-filter-time-start value The time filter in RFC3339 format to select timeseries with timestamp equal or higher than provided value. E.g. '2020-01-01T20:07:00Z' --remote-read-filter-time-end value The time filter in RFC3339 format to select timeseries with timestamp equal or lower than provided value. E.g. '2020-01-01T20:07:00Z' --remote-read-filter-label value Prometheus label name to filter timeseries by. E.g. '__name__' will filter timeseries by name. (default: "__name__") --remote-read-filter-label-value value Prometheus regular expression to filter label from "remote-read-filter-label-value" flag. (default: ".*") --remote-read Use Prometheus remote read protocol (default: false) --remote-read-use-stream Defines whether to use SAMPLES or STREAMED_XOR_CHUNKS mode. By default, is uses SAMPLES mode. See https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/remote_read_api/#streamed-chunks (default: false) --remote-read-step-interval value The time interval to split the migration into steps. For example, to migrate 1y of data with '--remote-read-step-interval=month' vmctl will execute it in 12 separate requests from the beginning of the time range to its end. To reverse the order use '--remote-read-filter-time-reverse'. Requires setting '--remote-read-filter-time-start'. Valid values are 'month','week','day','hour','minute'. --remote-read-filter-time-reverse Whether to reverse the order of time intervals split by '--remote-read-step-interval' cmd-line flag. When set, the migration will start from the newest to the oldest data. (default: false) --remote-read-src-addr value Remote read address to perform read from. --remote-read-user value Remote read username for basic auth [$REMOTE_READ_USERNAME] --remote-read-password value Remote read password for basic auth [$REMOTE_READ_PASSWORD] --remote-read-http-timeout value Timeout defines timeout for HTTP requests made by remote read client (default: 0s) --remote-read-headers value Optional HTTP headers to send with each request to the corresponding remote source storage For example, --remote-read-headers='My-Auth:foobar' would send 'My-Auth: foobar' HTTP header with every request to the corresponding remote source storage. Multiple headers must be delimited by '^^': --remote-read-headers='header1:value1^^header2:value2' --remote-read-cert-file value Optional path to client-side TLS certificate file to use when connecting to -remote-read-src-addr --remote-read-key-file value Optional path to client-side TLS key to use when connecting to -remote-read-src-addr --remote-read-CA-file value Optional path to TLS CA file to use for verifying connections to -remote-read-src-addr. By default, system CA is used --remote-read-server-name value Optional TLS server name to use for connections to remoteReadSrcAddr. By default, the server name from -remote-read-src-addr is used --remote-read-insecure-skip-verify Whether to skip TLS certificate verification when connecting to the remote read address (default: false) --remote-read-disable-path-append Whether to disable automatic appending of the /api/v1/read suffix to --remote-read-src-addr (default: false) ```