Slides from my lightning talk at PromCon 2018.

1. @bob_cotton
Chronomancer: Using Cortex to Control
Time Between Series
PromCon 2018 Lightning Talk
Bob Cotton

2. @bob_cotton
Definitions
● Prometheus: Automatic generator of
rewrite rule questions
● Cortex: Multi-tenant and horizontally
scalable Prometheus as a service
● Chronomancy: A school of magic
involving supernatural manipulation of
time
● Chronomancer: An individual who can
manipulate time
● Time: ...

3. @bob_cotton
● Time flows faster/slower based on elevation
● There is no one shared universal “now”
Time, as we know it is wholly a construct of the evolution of
the human brain.
Why should Prometheus be any different?
Things About Time

4. @bob_cotton
Time Begins at the Scrape
Target
Prometheus
Metric
T0
T1
T0
T1

5. @bob_cotton
Timestamp Preserved in Remote Write
Prometheus
T0 T0 T0 T0 T0 T0 T0TN
remote_write

6. @bob_cotton
Time Out of Sync
Prometheus
ML Data
Processor
Query
Scrape
T0
Series timestamp is now scrape
interval + processing time
T’0

7. @bob_cotton
Getting Data in (and hence controlling time)
● For Prometheus, scrape is the only option
● For Cortex, push is the only way
Prometheus
Scrape
remote write

8. @bob_cotton
Time Out of Sync
Prometheus
ML Data
Processor
Query
remote write
T0
T’0
Target
Metric
T0 T0 T0 T0TN
remote_write

9. @bob_cotton
info@freshtracks.io
@FreshTracksio
Thanks