# PMM with external victoria metrics server

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090>\
**Category:** Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM)\
**Tags:** pmm, pmm-doc\
**Created:** [June 18, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090 "2024-06-18T18:22:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bala529](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@bala529](https://forums.percona.com/u/bala529)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090/1 "2024-06-18T18:22:38Z")

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## Description:

I want to use external victoria metrics setup to be used instead of the inbuilt victoria metrics of PMM. I found this document which describes it .

> **[Percona Monitoring and Management](https://docs.percona.com/percona-monitoring-and-management/3/404.html)**
>
> Documentation

But, there is a contradicting statement in the document and I want clarity on the same.

> When external VictoriaMetrics is configured, internal VictoriaMetrics stops. In this case, VM Agent on PMM Server pulls metrics from agents configured in the pull metrics mode and from remote nodes. Data is then pushed to external VictoriaMetrics.
> 
> Note  
> VM Agents run by PMM Clients push data directly to external VictoriaMetrics.  
> Ensure that they can connect to external VictoriaMetrics

The Note contradicts the above statement. Can anyone confirm this and get more clarity on wether the push of metrics from vm agents on PMM clients directly goes to this external Victoria metrics server or will it go first to PMM and then PMM will push it to the external victoria metrics server?

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**Author:** ![ademidoff](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/ademidoff/32/14234_2.png) [@ademidoff](https://forums.percona.com/u/ademidoff)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090/2 "2024-06-18T18:43:01Z")

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Hi!

That statement is correct. The metrics collected by exporters will be pushed to the external instance of VictoriaMetrics you will have configured. Therefore, to display the metrics on its dashboards PMM will pull the data from that instance.

Alex

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bala529](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@bala529](https://forums.percona.com/u/bala529)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 7:09am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090/3 "2024-06-19T07:09:10Z")

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Thanks for the clarity.

_Push model_  
PMM client --push–\> Victora metrics(external server) --read–\> PMM server(reads from vm server)

_Pull Model_  
PMM Client --pull–\> PMM Server --remote write–\> Victoria metrics server(external)

Is the above understanding correct?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ademidoff](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/ademidoff/32/14234_2.png) [@ademidoff](https://forums.percona.com/u/ademidoff)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 9:04am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/pmm-with-external-victoria-metrics-server/31090/4 "2024-06-19T09:04:02Z")

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Your understanding is correct for the push model.

For the pull model I suggest you take a look at [PMM Architecture diagram](https://github.com/percona/pmm?tab=readme-ov-file#architecture), particularly at “Component Based View” of PMM Client.

The difference between two models is in the presence of `vmagent`. It acts as an intermediary and pushes data to VictoriaMetrics in push mode. When a database is monitored in pull mode, it’s the external VictoriaMetrics who is going to pull metrics directly from exporters.

Alex