Export PMM data with PMM Dump

PMM data dumps are compressed tarball files containing a comprehensive export of your PMM metrics and QAN data collected by PMM Server.

You can download these dataset files locally, or share them with Percona Support via an SFTP server. This enables you to share PMM data securely, which is especially useful when you need to troubleshoot PMM issues without providing access to your PMM instance.

PMM3 enables you to generate datasets straight from PMM UI. PMM 2.41 or older use the standalone PMM Dump utility instead.

Access requirements

PMM Dump access is restricted based on user roles:

User role	Can access PMM Dump	Can create datasets
Admin (with or without Grafana Admin)	Yes	Yes
Editor with Grafana Admin	Yes	Yes
Editor without Grafana Admin	No	No
Viewer with Grafana Admin	Yes	Yes
Viewer without Grafana Admin	No	No

If you cannot see the PMM Dump option in the Help menu or receive access errors when trying to access it directly, check that your user account has the necessary permissions.

Dump contents

The dump.tar.gz dump file is a .TAR archive compressed via Gzip. Here’s what’s inside the folders it contains:

• meta.json: metadata about the data dump
• vm: Victoria Metrics data chunks in native VM format, organized by timeframe
• ch: Query Analytics (QAN) data stored in ClickHouse format, organized by row count
• log.json: logs detailing the export and archive creation process

Create a data dump

To create a dump of your dataset:

1. From the top-right corner of the PMM home page, click the question mark icon and select Help > PMM Dump. If you don’t see PMM Dump in the menu, your user account may not have sufficient permissions.
2. Click Create dataset to go to the Export new dataset page.
3. Choose the service for which you want to create the dataset or leave it empty to export all data.
4. Define the time range for the dataset.
5. Enable Export QAN to include Query Analytics (QAN) metrics alongside the core metrics.
6. Click Create dataset. This will generate a data dump file and automatically record an entry in the PMM Dump table. From there, you can use the options available in the Options menu to send the dump file to Percona Support or download it locally for internal usage.

Send a data dump to Percona Support

If you are a Percona Customer, you can securely share PMM data dumps with Percona Support via SFTP.

1. From the top-right corner of the PMM home page, go to Help > PMM Dump.
2. Select the PMM dump entry which you want to send to Support.
3. In the Options column, expand the table row to check the PMM Service associated with the dataset, click the ellipsis (three vertical dots) and select Send to Support.
4. Fill in the details of the SFTP server, then click Send.
5. Update your Support ticket to let Percona know that you’ve uploaded the dataset on the SFTP server.

Troubleshoot access issues

If you experience issues accessing or using PMM Dump, consider the following:

• Cannot see PMM Dump in the Help menu: Verify that you have Admin role or Grafana Admin privileges. Editor and Viewer roles without Grafana Admin cannot access this feature.
• Error when creating dump datasets: If you encounter errors such as Failed to compose meta error when creating datasets, make sure that the Ignore load option is enabled on the PMM Dump > Export new datasheet.
• Access denied messages: your user account lacks the necessary permissions to access PMM Dump.