ClickHouse

As explained in Cloud Observability in Action

ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database management system designed for analytical query workloads.

ClickHouse is an open-source columnar database designed for analytical queries over hundreds of millions of rows in subsecond time frames. It supports logs, metrics, and traces on single machines or distributed deployments with sharding and replication. section 5.5

Use ClickHouse when analytical observability storage requires:

• Column-oriented storage for high-volume query workloads. section 5.5
• A backend for any signal type, from a single machine to sharded and replicated clusters. section 5.5
• Kubernetes operation supported by the Altinity Operator, with Apache ZooKeeper coordinating distributed deployments. section 5.5

OpenTelemetry logs with ClickHouse

A Docker Compose stack runs ClickHouse beside an OpenTelemetry Collector. The Collector receives Fluent Forward logs, batches them, exports them through a ClickHouse DSN, and applies a three-day TTL. SQL can then extract trace IDs from JSON bodies and search recent payloads.

Figure 5.5 Row-oriented vs. column-oriented storage

Compare row-oriented and column-oriented storage before choosing ClickHouse for analytical workloads. section 5.5

How Cloud Observability in Action covers it

How deep it goes

Defines columnar storage and deployment choices, but defers detailed database implementation internals.

Examples

Uses Docker Compose, an OpenTelemetry Collector pipeline, ClickHouse SQL, JSON extraction, and a three-day log retention policy.

What you can do after

Operate a Docker Compose observability stack that exports and queries recent logs in ClickHouse.

How it connects

Connects columnar storage with OpenTelemetry, Kubernetes, sharding, replication, and Apache ZooKeeper.

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Related concepts

• Jaegerused by · Jaeger is an open-source distributed tracing system for collecting, storing, querying, and visualizing trace data to monitor and troubleshoot distributed applications.
• columnar datakind of · Columnar data is tabular data organized and stored by column rather than by complete row, enabling efficient access to selected fields and data compression.
• cardinality explosionaddresses · Cardinality explosion is a rapid and potentially unbounded increase in the number of metric time series caused by many distinct dimension values or combinations.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Cloud Observability in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.