Storage

Applicable to open source & enterprise version

There are 2 primary items that need to be stored in OpenObserve.

Ingested stream data
Metadata of ingested stream data

Metadata for stream data is always stored:

on disk for Local mode in sqlite
in etcd/mysql/postgres for Cluster mode. etcd is highly discouraged and postgres is recommended.

Stream data can be stored on disk, s3, minIO and other compatible s3 API object storages, like: Google GCS, Alibaba OSS, Tencent COS.

Tips:

Default OpenObserve runs as Local mode, you can set LOCAL_MODE=false to enable Cluster mode.
In Local mode it also can use s3 as storage, you can set ZO_LOCAL_MODE_STORAGE=s3 to storage data in s3.
For GCS, OSS they all support s3 SDK, so you can think of them as s3 for all practical purposes. GCS is also supported if s3 is not suitable for you. Azure blob is also supported.

Data

Data is stored in parquet format, which is columnar storage format, it is efficient for query and storage.

Disk

Disk is default storage place for stream data, make sure you have enough storage available on your disk for stream data storage. During data ingestion the stream name that you provide may not be present, in that case a new folder for stream will be created automatically for storing the stream data.

S3

To use S3 for storing stream data following needs to be done:

Make AWS IAM credentials available to OpenObserve by any supported mechanisms. OpenObserve uses AWS SDK which looks for credentials through:
Environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY (Not recommended due to security concerns)
Your aws CLI credentials stored in ~/.aws/credentials
Instance metadata on an EC2 Instance/Fargate container/ECS container. You do this providing an IAM role to an EC2 instance or a task role to an ECS task - IMDS/IMDSv2 . ECS is not recommended as it does not have support for stateful workloads off EBS as of now.
IAM Roles for service Accounts in EKS

You need to create the bucket in S3 first.

MinIO

OpenObserve can use MinIO for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	minIO server address
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, can be anything, like: `us-west-1`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_PROVIDER	minio	used to specify settings like force_style=true

You need to create the bucket in MinIO first.

Openstack Swift

OpenObserve can use Openstack swift for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	swift server address, like: `https://us-west-1.xxx.com`
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, can be anything, like: `us-west-1`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_FEATURE_HTTP1_ONLY	true	--
ZO_S3_PROVIDER	s3	Use s3 compatible API
AWS_EC2_METADATA_DISABLED	true	swift doesn't support ec2 metadata, Usually you don't need this

You need to create the bucket in swift first.

Google GCS

OpenObserve can use google cloud storage for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup: Using S3 api:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	gcs server address. should be: `https://storage.googleapis.com`
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, gcs region name, or: `auto`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_FEATURE_HTTP1_ONLY	true	--
ZO_S3_PROVIDER	s3	Use s3 compatible API

You can refer to: https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/aws-simple-migration

Or you can use gcs directly:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	gcs server address. should be: `https://storage.googleapis.com`
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, gcs region name, or: `auto`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	Path to gcp json private key if not available through instance metadata
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_PROVIDER	gcs	Use gcs api

Under the hood object_store crate is used through with_env() function and if ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY is set also with with_service_account_path() function

Alibaba OSS (aliyun)

OpenObserve can use Alibaba(aliyun) OSS for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	oss endpoint address, eg: `https://oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com` or `https://bucketname.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com`
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, oss region name, eg: `oss-cn-beijing`. If ZO_S3_SERVER_URL contains a bucket name, Please comment on this option.
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_FEATURE_FORCE_PATH_STYLE	true	--

You can refer to: https://help.aliyun.com/zh/oss/user-guide/regions-and-endpoints

Tencent COS

OpenObserve can use tencent cloud storage for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	cos endpoint address
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, cos region name
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name

You can refer to: https://cloud.tencent.com/document/product/436/37421

UCloud US3

OpenObserve can use ucloud cloud storage for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	us3 endpoint address, eg: `http://internal.s3-sg.ufileos.com`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name
ZO_S3_FEATURE_HTTP1_ONLY	true	--

You can refer to: https://docs.ucloud.cn/ufile/s3/s3_introduction

Baidu BOS

OpenObserve can use baidu cloud storage for storing stream data, following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_SERVER_URL	-	bos endpoint address, eg: `https://s3.bj.bcebos.com`
ZO_S3_REGION_NAME	-	region name, bos region name, eg: `bj`
ZO_S3_ACCESS_KEY	-	access key
ZO_S3_SECRET_KEY	-	secret key
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	-	bucket name

You can refer to: https://cloud.baidu.com/doc/BOS/s/xjwvyq9l4

Azure Blob

OpenObserve can use azure blob for storing stream data. Following environment variables needs to be setup:

Environment Variable	Value	Description
ZO_S3_PROVIDER	azure	Azure blob storage provider
ZO_LOCAL_MODE_STORAGE	s3	Required only if running in single node mode
AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME	Storage account name	Need to provide mandatorily
AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_KEY	Access key	Need to provide mandatorily
ZO_S3_BUCKET_NAME	Blob Container name	Need to provide mandatorily

Metadata

Default meta store is SQLite and can be changed by using ZO_META_STORE environment variable.

etcd

ZO_META_STORE=etcd

While etcd is used as the cluster coordinator it is also set as the default meta store by the older helm charts. Newer helm charts released after Feb 23 2024 use postgres as the meta store.

SQLite

ZO_META_STORE=sqlite

Installations running on a single node can use SQLite as metadata store. You do not need to take any extra steps to use SQLite. This is generally not recommended as losing the SQLite data will causing OpenObserve to not operate.

PostgreSQL

ZO_META_STORE=postgres

This is the recommended meta store as it is more reliable and scalable. A lot of service providers provide managed postgres service that you can rely upon.

Default helm chart released after Feb 23, 2024 use cloudnative-pg to create a postgres cluster (primary + replica) which is used as the meta store. these instances provide great HA capability and backup and restore is much easier too in case its required.

MySQL

ZO_META_STORE=mysql

Use this if you prefer MySQL for any reason.