Deploy VictoriaMetrics on a VPS

Prerequisites

A RamNode VPS running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (1 vCPU / 1GB RAM minimum; 2GB recommended)
Root or sudo access
A domain or subdomain pointed at your VPS (optional, but recommended for Grafana)
Basic familiarity with the Linux command line

Choose Your RamNode Plan

VictoriaMetrics single-node is extremely memory-efficient. For personal monitoring or small infrastructure:

Starter (1GB RAM) — adequate for monitoring up to ~10 hosts with 15-second scrape intervals
Standard (2GB RAM) — comfortable for 20-50 hosts or longer retention periods
Performance (4GB+ RAM) — suitable for larger fleets or high-cardinality metrics

Storage is the more likely bottleneck. VictoriaMetrics compresses time series data at roughly 0.4 bytes per data point on average. A single host emitting 1,000 metrics every 15 seconds will consume roughly 2.3GB per month of retention.

Initial Server Setup

Log into your VPS and update the system:

Update system packages

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Create a dedicated system user for VictoriaMetrics:

Create system user

useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin victoriametrics

Create the directories VictoriaMetrics will use:

Create directories

mkdir -p /opt/victoriametrics
mkdir -p /var/lib/victoriametrics
chown victoriametrics:victoriametrics /var/lib/victoriametrics

Download and Install VictoriaMetrics

Check the VictoriaMetrics GitHub releases page for the latest stable version.

Download and install

cd /tmp
VM_VERSION="v1.101.0"
wget "https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/download/${VM_VERSION}/victoria-metrics-linux-amd64-${VM_VERSION}.tar.gz"
tar -xzf "victoria-metrics-linux-amd64-${VM_VERSION}.tar.gz"
mv victoria-metrics-prod /opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics
chmod +x /opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics

Verify the binary runs:

Verify installation

/opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics --version

Create the systemd Service

Create a systemd unit file to manage the VictoriaMetrics process:

/etc/systemd/system/victoriametrics.service

[Unit]
Description=VictoriaMetrics
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=victoriametrics
Group=victoriametrics
ExecStart=/opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics \
  -storageDataPath=/var/lib/victoriametrics \
  -retentionPeriod=3 \
  -httpListenAddr=127.0.0.1:8428 \
  -selfScrapeInterval=10s \
  -loggerLevel=INFO
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
LimitNOFILE=65536

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Flag	Purpose
-storageDataPath	Directory where VictoriaMetrics stores its data
-retentionPeriod	How many months of data to retain (3 = 3 months)
-httpListenAddr	Bind only to localhost — do not expose directly
-selfScrapeInterval	VictoriaMetrics scrapes its own metrics every 10 seconds

Enable and start

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now victoriametrics
systemctl status victoriametrics

Confirm it is listening:

Verify

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8428/metrics | head -20

Install and Configure node_exporter

node_exporter exposes host-level metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network) in Prometheus format.

Download node_exporter

NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION="1.8.0"
cd /tmp
wget "https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}/node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
tar -xzf "node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
mv "node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64/node_exporter" /usr/local/bin/

Create system user

useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin node_exporter

/etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus Node Exporter
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=node_exporter
Group=node_exporter
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --web.listen-address=127.0.0.1:9100
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now node_exporter

Configure VictoriaMetrics to Scrape Metrics

VictoriaMetrics supports Prometheus-compatible scrape configurations.

Create config directory

mkdir -p /etc/victoriametrics

/etc/victoriametrics/scrape.yml

global:
  scrape_interval: 15s
  scrape_timeout: 10s

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: node
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - 127.0.0.1:9100
        labels:
          instance: my-ramnode-vps

  - job_name: victoriametrics
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - 127.0.0.1:8428
        labels:
          instance: my-ramnode-vps

Update the systemd service to load this config by adding the -promscrape.config flag to ExecStart:

Updated ExecStart

ExecStart=/opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics \
  -storageDataPath=/var/lib/victoriametrics \
  -retentionPeriod=3 \
  -httpListenAddr=127.0.0.1:8428 \
  -promscrape.config=/etc/victoriametrics/scrape.yml \
  -selfScrapeInterval=10s \
  -loggerLevel=INFO

Reload and restart

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart victoriametrics

Verify scraping is working:

Verify scraping

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8428/api/v1/query?query=up" | python3 -m json.tool

You should see up{job="node"} and up{job="victoriametrics"} with a value of 1.

Install Grafana

Grafana is the standard visualization layer for VictoriaMetrics.

Install Grafana

apt install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common
wget -q -O - https://apt.grafana.com/gpg.key | gpg --dearmor > /etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.gpg] https://apt.grafana.com stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
apt update
apt install -y grafana

Enable and start

systemctl enable --now grafana-server
systemctl status grafana-server

By default Grafana listens on port 3000. Configure a firewall rule or proceed to the Nginx reverse proxy step before accessing it.

Set Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Avoid exposing VictoriaMetrics or Grafana directly. Use Nginx with a domain and TLS.

Install Nginx and Certbot

apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

/etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name metrics.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Enable site and get TLS certificate

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx
certbot --nginx -d metrics.yourdomain.com

Configure Grafana

Navigate to https://metrics.yourdomain.com. Default credentials: admin / admin.

Add VictoriaMetrics as a Data Source

Go to Connections → Data Sources → Add data source
Select Prometheus (VictoriaMetrics is fully Prometheus-compatible)
Set the URL to http://127.0.0.1:8428
Click Save & Test — you should see a green confirmation

Import a Node Exporter Dashboard

Go to Dashboards → Import
Enter dashboard ID 1860 (Node Exporter Full)
Select your VictoriaMetrics data source
Click Import

Configure the Firewall

Only ports 80 and 443 should be publicly accessible:

UFW firewall rules

ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
ufw enable
ufw status

Confirm that ports 8428, 9100, and 3000 are not reachable from the public internet:

Verify local binding

ss -tlnp | grep -E '8428|9100|3000'

All three should show 127.0.0.1 as the bound address, not 0.0.0.0.

Monitor VictoriaMetrics Itself

VictoriaMetrics ships with a built-in UI at http://127.0.0.1:8428/vmui. It provides:

A MetricsQL query interface (compatible with PromQL)
An explorer for active time series
Cardinality analysis to identify expensive metrics
Storage and ingestion stats

You can also import VictoriaMetrics' own Grafana dashboard (ID 10229) to track internal performance metrics.

Tuning for Low-Memory VPS Nodes

If you are running on a 1GB RAM plan, apply these additional flags:

Low-memory ExecStart

ExecStart=/opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics \
  -storageDataPath=/var/lib/victoriametrics \
  -retentionPeriod=1 \
  -httpListenAddr=127.0.0.1:8428 \
  -promscrape.config=/etc/victoriametrics/scrape.yml \
  -memory.allowedPercent=60 \
  -search.maxConcurrentRequests=2 \
  -search.maxQueryDuration=30s \
  -loggerLevel=WARN

Flag	Purpose
-memory.allowedPercent=60	Caps internal caches to 60% of available RAM
-search.maxConcurrentRequests=2	Prevents query storms from exhausting memory
-search.maxQueryDuration=30s	Kills runaway queries automatically
-retentionPeriod=1	Reduces retention to 1 month to limit disk/memory pressure

Upgrading VictoriaMetrics

VictoriaMetrics upgrades are safe and fast — the storage format is backward compatible.

Upgrade process

systemctl stop victoriametrics

VM_VERSION="v1.102.0"   # replace with the new version
cd /tmp
wget "https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/download/${VM_VERSION}/victoria-metrics-linux-amd64-${VM_VERSION}.tar.gz"
tar -xzf "victoria-metrics-linux-amd64-${VM_VERSION}.tar.gz"
mv victoria-metrics-prod /opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics
chmod +x /opt/victoriametrics/victoria-metrics

systemctl start victoriametrics
systemctl status victoriametrics

Monitoring Remote Hosts

Install node_exporter on each remote host and bind it to a private or WireGuard IP. Then add entries to the scrape config:

Add remote targets to scrape.yml

  - job_name: node
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - 127.0.0.1:9100
          - 10.0.0.2:9100
          - 10.0.0.3:9100
        labels:
          cluster: ramnode-fleet

Send a SIGHUP to reload the scrape config without downtime:

Reload config

kill -HUP $(pidof victoria-metrics)

Deploy VictoriaMetrics on a RamNode VPS

Prerequisites

Choose Your RamNode Plan

Initial Server Setup

Download and Install VictoriaMetrics

Create the systemd Service

Install and Configure node_exporter

Configure VictoriaMetrics to Scrape Metrics

Install Grafana

Set Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Configure Grafana

Add VictoriaMetrics as a Data Source

Import a Node Exporter Dashboard

Configure the Firewall

Monitor VictoriaMetrics Itself

Tuning for Low-Memory VPS Nodes

Upgrading VictoriaMetrics

Monitoring Remote Hosts

Further Reading