# Issue Passing Environment Variables to vm\_agent in PMM Client **URL:** \ **Category:** PMM 2.x\ **Tags:** mysql\ **Created:** [October 18, 2024, 10:11am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450 "2024-10-18T10:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Adrian\_Castillo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/adrian_castillo/32/18561_2.png) [@Adrian\_Castillo](https://forums.percona.com/u/Adrian_Castillo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 10:11am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/1 "2024-10-18T10:11:49Z")
## Description: I am encountering an issue with PMM Client where the `vm_agent` process fails to scrape metrics due to exceeding the default `-promscrape.maxScrapeSize` limit. I enabled debug mode and captured the following error: ```auto the response size exceeds -promscrape.maxScrapeSize=67108864; either reduce the response size for the target or increase -promscrape.maxScrapeSize. ``` I have reviewed the [Percona documentation on VictoriaMetrics](https://docs.percona.com/percona-monitoring-and-management/details/victoria-metrics.html), which mentions the use of environment variables. However, it is unclear whether these can be applied to the PMM Client (`pmm-agent`) and how to set them for `vm_agent`. I tried setting the environment variable both in the `pmm-agent` binary installation and using the Docker image, but it didn’t work. ## Steps to Reproduce: 1. Set up PMM Client and register the MySQL service using `pmm-admin`. 2. Enable debug mode and review the logs when `vm_agent` is scraping metrics. 3. Check for the error related to `-promscrape.maxScrapeSize` when scraping MySQL metrics. 4. Attempt to set `VM_promscrape_maxScrapeSize` to a higher value, both in the Docker container and using the binary. ## Version: - PMM Server: 2.42.0 - PMM Client: 2.42.0 ## Logs: ```auto 2024-10-18T08:39:06.218+00:00 level=info msg="cannot scrape target... the response size exceeds -promscrape.maxScrapeSize=67108864; either reduce the response size for the target or increase -promscrape.maxScrapeSize" component=agent-process type=vm_agent ``` ## Expected Result: The `vm_agent` should be able to scrape the metrics successfully without exceeding the `maxScrapeSize` limit, or the environment variable to increase the block size should be passed and applied to `vm_agent`. ## Actual Result: `vm_agent` is unable to scrape metrics due to the size limit being exceeded, and attempts to set `promscrape.maxScrapeSize` have not worked. It is unclear whether environment variables can be applied to `vm_agent` running under PMM Client, or if they are only for PMM Server. ## Additional Information: - The `vm_agent` process runs with `-envflag.prefix=VMAGENT_` and `-envflag.enable=true`, but setting variables like `VMAGENT_promscrape_maxScrapeSize` does not seem to have any effect. - The documentation does not clarify whether environment variables can be applied on the client side and what prefix (`VM_` or `VMAGENT_`) should be used for `vm_agent`. ---
**Author:** ![matthewb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/matthewb/32/34_2.png) [@matthewb](https://forums.percona.com/u/matthewb)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/2 "2024-10-18T12:19:17Z")
Hello @Adrian_Castillo, Can you provide more details on your setup of pmm-agent? Do you have any custom queries enabled? The out-of-box settings for PMM perfectly allow for scraping the data, so your setup must be different in some way to cause this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Adrian\_Castillo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/adrian_castillo/32/18561_2.png) [@Adrian\_Castillo](https://forums.percona.com/u/Adrian_Castillo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2024, 6:51am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/3 "2024-10-21T06:51:41Z")
Hi @matthewb , and thanks for the reply! I have no custom queries for that service. The setup for the pmm-agent is very simple, I’ll share with you the command for the host registration and the MySQL service config: `pmm-admin config --server-insecure-tls --server-url "https://xxx:xxx@x.x.x.x:xxx"` `pmm-admin add mysql --query-source=perfschema --username=xxx --password='xxx' --disable-tablestats-limit=3000` Because of I want all the info about “Table Details” panel, I’ve added the “disable-tablestats-limits” because of the huge number of tables the server haves. I’m able to collect “Tables Details” and “Users Detaills” metrics (the only two panels that there was no data) removing the service and adding a “disable-collectos” flag: `pmm-admin add mysql --query-source=perfschema --username=xxx --password='xxx' --disable-tablestats-limit=3000 --disable-collectors=info_schema.clientstats` But we want to get all the collectors, that’s why I’m trying to pass the “-promscrape.maxScrapeSize” flag to the vm\_agent. ---
**Author:** ![matthewb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/matthewb/32/34_2.png) [@matthewb](https://forums.percona.com/u/matthewb)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/4 "2024-10-21T15:42:50Z")
> [@Adrian\_Castillo](#): > > But we want to get all the collectors, that’s why I’m trying to pass the “-promscrape.maxScrapeSize” flag to the vm\_agent. Hmm. You should not need to set this, even when enabling all collectors. The defaults handle most situations. > [@Adrian\_Castillo](#): > > because of the huge number of tables the server haves. How many? This might be the actual problem. If you have 10,000 tables, that might be too much for the scraper size. The error messsage you showed above, does that come from PMM server? or the client agent? ---
**Author:** ![Agustin\_G](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/agustin_g/32/14111_2.png) [@Agustin\_G](https://forums.percona.com/u/Agustin_G)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/5 "2024-10-22T02:00:27Z")
Hi Adrián, Please check [[PMM-12638] - Percona JIRA](https://perconadev.atlassian.net/browse/PMM-12638) > PMM\_PROMSCRAPE\_MAX\_SCRAPE\_SIZE should be passed to pmm-server. any env variables on the client side are ignored at the moment. What PMM server deployment method are you using? ---
**Author:** ![Adrian\_Castillo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/adrian_castillo/32/18561_2.png) [@Adrian\_Castillo](https://forums.percona.com/u/Adrian_Castillo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 11:46am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/issue-passing-environment-variables-to-vm-agent-in-pmm-client/34450/6 "2024-10-22T11:46:10Z")
Thaks @Agustin_G! I’m using k8s deployment, and I’ve added the `PMM_PROMSCRAPE_MAX_SCRAPE_SIZE` inside `pmmEnv` block. This approach solved the problem!