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Get started with Grafana Mimir using the Helm chart

The Grafana Mimir Helm chart allows you to configure, install, and upgrade Grafana Mimir within a Kubernetes cluster.

Before you begin

The instructions that follow are common across any flavor of Kubernetes. If you don’t have experience with Kubernetes, you can install a lightweight flavor of Kubernetes such as kind.

Experience with the following is recommended, but not essential:

  • General knowledge about using a Kubernetes cluster.
  • Understanding of what the kubectl command does.
  • Understanding of what the helm command does.

Caution: This procedure is primarily aimed at local or development setups. To set up in a production environment, see Run Grafana Mimir in production using the Helm chart.

Hardware requirements

  • A single Kubernetes node with a minimum of 4 cores and 16GiB RAM

Software requirements

  • Kubernetes 1.20 or higher

  • The kubectl command for your version of Kubernetes

    Run the following command to get both the Kubernetes and kubectl version: kubectl version. The command prints out the server and client versions, where the server is the Kubernetes itself and client means kubectl.

  • The helm command version 3.8 or higher

    Run the following command to get the Helm version: helm version.

Verify that you have

  • Access to the Kubernetes cluster

    For example by running the command kubectl get ns, which lists all namespaces.

  • Persistent storage is enabled in the Kubernetes cluster, which has a default storage class set up. You can change the default StorageClass.

    Note: If you are using kind or you are unsure, assume it is enabled and continue.

  • DNS service works in the Kubernetes cluster

    Note: If you are using kind or you are unsure, assume it works and continue.

Security setup

If you are using kind or similar local Kubernetes setup and haven’t set security policies, you can safely skip this section.

This installation will not succeed if you have enabled the PodSecurityPolicy admission controller or if you are enforcing the Restricted policy with Pod Security admission controller. The reason is that the installation includes a deployment of MinIO. The minio/minio chart is not compatible with running under a Restricted policy or the PodSecurityPolicy that the mimir-distributed chart provides.

If you are using the PodSecurityPolicy admission controller, then it is not possible to deploy the mimir-distributed chart with MinIO. Refer to Run Grafana Mimir in production using the Helm chart for instructions on setting up an external object storage and disable the built-in MinIO deployment with minio.enabled: false in the Helm values file.

If you are using the Pod Security admission controller, then MinIO and the mimir-distributed chart can successfully deploy under the baseline pod security level.

Install the Helm chart in a custom namespace

Using a custom namespace solves problems later on because you do not have to overwrite the default namespace.

  1. Create a unique Kubernetes namespace, for example mimir-test:

    Bash 
    kubectl create namespace mimir-test

    For more details, see the Kubernetes documentation about Creating a new namespace.

  2. Set up a Helm repository using the following commands:

    Bash 
    helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

    Note: The Helm chart at https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts is a publication of the source code at grafana/mimir.

  3. Install Grafana Mimir using the Helm chart:

    Bash 
    helm -n mimir-test install mimir grafana/mimir-distributed

    Note: The output of the command contains the write and read URLs necessary for the following steps.

  4. Check the statuses of the Mimir pods:

    Bash 
    kubectl -n mimir-test get pods

    The results look similar to this:

    Bash 
    NAME                                        READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
mimir-minio-7bd89b757d-q5hp6                1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-rollout-operator-76c67c7d56-v6xtl     1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-nginx-858455979c-hjvhx                1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-make-minio-buckets-svgvd              0/1     Completed   1          2m44s
mimir-ruler-64b9d59b94-tvj7z                1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-query-frontend-c444b56f9-jrmwl        1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-overrides-exporter-86c4d54645-zktkm   1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-querier-5d9c55d6d9-l6fdc              1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-distributor-7796db494f-rsvdx          1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-query-scheduler-d5dccfff7-5c5rw       1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-querier-5d9c55d6d9-xghl6              1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-query-scheduler-d5dccfff7-vz4vf       1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-alertmanager-0                        1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-store-gateway-zone-b-0                1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-store-gateway-zone-c-0                1/1     Running     0          2m43s
mimir-ingester-zone-b-0                     1/1     Running     0          2m43s
mimir-compactor-0                           1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-ingester-zone-a-0                     1/1     Running     0          2m43s
mimir-store-gateway-zone-a-0                1/1     Running     0          2m44s
mimir-ingester-zone-c-0                     1/1     Running     0          2m44s

  5. Wait until all of the pods have a status of Running or Completed, which might take a few minutes.

Generate some test metrics

Caution

Grafana Alloy is the new name for our distribution of the OTel collector. Grafana Agent has been deprecated and is in Long-Term Support (LTS) through October 31, 2025. Grafana Agent will reach an End-of-Life (EOL) on November 1, 2025. Read more about why we recommend migrating to Grafana Alloy.

The Grafana Mimir Helm chart can collect metrics, logs, or both, about Grafana Mimir itself. This is called metamonitoring. In the example that follows, metamonitoring scrapes metrics about Grafana Mimir itself, and then writes those metrics to the same Grafana Mimir instance.

  1. Deploy the Grafana Agent Operator Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). For more information, refer to Deploy the Agent Operator Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) in the Grafana Agent documentation.

  2. Create a YAML file called custom.yaml for your Helm values overrides. Add the following YAML snippet to custom.yaml to enable metamonitoring in Mimir:

    YAML 
    metaMonitoring:
  serviceMonitor:
    enabled: true
  grafanaAgent:
    enabled: true
    installOperator: true
    metrics:
      additionalRemoteWriteConfigs:
        - url: "http://mimir-nginx.mimir-test.svc:80/api/v1/push"

    Note

    In a production environment the url above would point to an external system, independent of your Grafana Mimir instance, such as an instance of Grafana Cloud Metrics.

  3. Upgrade Grafana Mimir by using the helm command:

    Bash 
    helm -n mimir-test upgrade mimir grafana/mimir-distributed -f custom.yaml

Start Grafana in Kubernetes and query metrics

  1. Install Grafana in the same Kubernetes cluster.

    For details, see Deploy Grafana on Kubernetes.

  2. If you haven’t done it as part of the previous step, port-forward Grafana to localhost, by using the kubectl command:

    Bash 
    kubectl port-forward service/grafana 3000:3000

  3. In a browser, go to the Grafana server at http://localhost:3000.

  4. Sign in using the default username admin and password admin.

  5. On the left-hand side, go to Configuration > Data sources.

  6. Configure a new Prometheus data source to query the local Grafana Mimir server, by using the following settings:

    FieldValue
    NameMimir
    URLhttp://mimir-nginx.mimir-test.svc:80/prometheus

    To add a data source, see Add a data source.

  7. Verify success:

    You should be able to query metrics in Grafana Explore, as well as create dashboard panels by using your newly configured Mimir data source.

Advanced setup with external access

In this procedure you’ll set up external access for Grafana Mimir to allow writing and quering metrics from outside the Kubernetes cluster. You’ll set up an ingress that enables you to externally access a Kubernetes cluster.

Before you begin

Verify that an ingress controller is set up in the Kubernetes cluster, for example ingress-nginx

Set up ingress

  1. Configure an ingress:

    b. Add the following to your custom.yaml Helm values file:

    YAML 
    nginx:
  ingress:
    enabled: true
    ingressClassName: nginx
    hosts:
      - host: <ingress-host>
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
    tls:
      # empty, disabled.

    Replace <ingress-host> with a suitable hostname that DNS can resolve to the external IP address of the Kubernetes cluster. For more information, see Ingress.

    Note: On Linux systems, and if it is not possible for you set up local DNS resolution, you can use the --add-host=<ingress-host>:<kubernetes-cluster-external-address> command-line flag to define the <ingress-host> local address for the docker commands in the examples that follow.

    Note: To see all of the configurable parameters for a Helm chart installation, use helm show values grafana/mimir-distributed.

  2. Upgrade Grafana Mimir by using the helm command:

    Bash 
    helm -n mimir-test upgrade mimir grafana/mimir-distributed -f custom.yaml

    The output of the command should contain the URL to use for querying Grafana Mimir from the outside, for example:

    Bash 
    From outside the cluster via ingress:
http://myhost.mynetwork/prometheus

Configure Prometheus to write to Grafana Mimir

You can either configure Prometheus to write to Grafana Mimir or configure Grafana Alloy to write to Mimir. Although you can configure both, you don’t need to.

Make a choice based on whether or not you already have a Prometheus server set up:

  • For an existing Prometheus server:

    1. Add the following YAML snippet to your Prometheus configuration file:

      YAML 
      remote_write:
  - url: http://<ingress-host>/api/v1/push

      In this case, your Prometheus server writes metrics to Grafana Mimir, based on what is defined in the existing scrape_configs configuration.

    2. Restart the Prometheus server.

  • For a Prometheus server that does not exist yet:

    1. Write the following configuration to a prometheus.yml file:

      YAML 
      remote_write:
  - url: http://<ingress-host>/api/v1/push

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: prometheus
    honor_labels: true
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:9090"]

      In this case, your Prometheus server writes metrics to Grafana Mimir that it scrapes from itself.

    2. Start a Prometheus server by using Docker:

      Bash 
      docker run -p 9090:9090  -v <absolute-path-to>/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml prom/prometheus

      Note: On Linux systems, if <ingress-host> cannot be resolved by the Prometheus server, use the additional command-line flag --add-host=<ingress-host>:<kubernetes-cluster-external-address> to set it up.

Configure Grafana Alloy to write to Grafana Mimir

You can either configure Grafana Alloy to write to Grafana Mimir or configure Prometheus to write to Mimir. Although you can configure both, you don’t need to.

Make a choice based on whether you already have Alloy set up:

  • For an existing Alloy:

    1. Add the following configuration snippet for the prometheus.remote_write component to your Alloy configuration file:

      prometheus.remote_write "LABEL" {
  endpoint {
    url = http://<ingress-host>/api/v1/push
  }
}

    2. Add forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.LABEL.receiver] to an existing pipeline.

    3. Restart Alloy.

  • For a new Alloy:

    1. Write the following configuration to a config.alloy file:

      prometheus.exporter.self "self_metrics" {
}

prometheus.scrape "self_scrape" {
  targets    = prometheus.exporter.self.self_metrics.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.mimir.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "mimir" {
  endpoint {
    url = "http://<ingress-host>/api/v1/push"
  }
}

    2. Start Alloy by using Docker:

      Bash 
      docker run -v <absolute-path-to>/config.alloy:/etc/alloy/config.alloy -p 12345:12345 grafana/alloy:latest run --server.http.listen-addr=0.0.0.0:12345 --storage.path=/var/lib/alloy/data /etc/alloy/config.alloy

      Note: On Linux systems, if <ingress-host> cannot be resolved by Alloy, use the additional command-line flag --add-host=<ingress-host>:<kubernetes-cluster-external-address> to set it up.

For more information about the prometheus.remote_write component, refer to prometheus.remote_write in the Grafana Alloy documentation.

Query metrics in Grafana

You can use the Grafana installed in Kubernetes in the Start Grafana in Kubernetes and query metrics section as well or follow the instructions bellow.

Note: If you have the port-forward running for Grafana from an earlier step, stop it.

First install Grafana, and then add Mimir as a Prometheus data source.

  1. Start Grafana by using Docker:

    Bash 
    docker run --rm --name=grafana -p 3000:3000 grafana/grafana

    Note: On Linux systems, if <ingress-host> cannot be resolved by Grafana, use the additional command-line flag --add-host=<ingress-host>:<kubernetes-cluster-external-address> to set it up.

  2. In a browser, go to the Grafana server at http://localhost:3000.

  3. Sign in using the default username admin and password admin.

  4. On the left-hand side, go to Configuration > Data sources.

  5. Configure a new Prometheus data source to query the local Grafana Mimir cluster, by using the following settings:

    FieldValue
    NameMimir
    URLhttp://<ingress-host>/prometheus

    To add a data source, see Add a data source.

  6. Verify success:

    You should be able to query metrics in Grafana Explore, as well as create dashboard panels by using your newly configured Mimir data source. For more information, see Monitor Grafana Mimir.