KairosDB
Time series databases
Database software
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What is KairosDB
KairosDB is an open-source time series database designed for storing and querying time-stamped metrics at scale. It runs on Apache Cassandra (or H2 for evaluation) and exposes HTTP and Telnet-style APIs for ingest and query. Typical use cases include infrastructure monitoring, application metrics, and IoT telemetry where data is naturally time-indexed. Its architecture emphasizes horizontal scalability by delegating storage and replication to Cassandra.
Built on Cassandra scalability
KairosDB uses Cassandra as its primary storage engine, inheriting Cassandra’s horizontal scaling and replication model. This can fit environments that already operate Cassandra clusters and want to reuse operational practices. It also supports multi-node deployments without relying on a single host for storage. The design aligns with high-ingest metric workloads where write throughput matters.
Simple HTTP-based APIs
KairosDB provides straightforward HTTP endpoints for writing datapoints and running queries, which simplifies integration from custom services and collectors. A Telnet-style interface is also available for certain ingestion patterns. The API model is easy to automate and can be placed behind standard reverse proxies and auth gateways. This makes it practical for teams building their own ingestion pipelines.
Metric-oriented data model
The data model centers on metrics, tags, and datapoints, which maps well to monitoring and telemetry use cases. Tag-based filtering supports common operational queries such as slicing by host, service, or region. Retention and rollup patterns can be implemented using Cassandra TTL and schema choices. This focus reduces impedance mismatch compared with general-purpose databases for time series metrics.
Requires Cassandra operations
Running KairosDB in production typically implies operating Cassandra, including capacity planning, compaction tuning, and repair processes. This increases operational complexity compared with time series systems that ship with an integrated storage engine. Performance and cost characteristics depend heavily on Cassandra schema and cluster configuration. Teams without Cassandra expertise may face a longer time-to-production.
Project maturity and activity risk
As an open-source project, release cadence and long-term maintenance depend on community activity rather than a commercial roadmap. Organizations may need to self-support upgrades, security patching, and compatibility testing. Ecosystem integrations (dashboards, collectors, alerting) may require more custom work than platforms with broader vendor-backed tooling. This can be a constraint for enterprises that require formal support SLAs.
Limited advanced analytics features
KairosDB focuses on metric storage and retrieval rather than advanced analytics workloads. Complex time series functions, high-cardinality optimization features, and integrated query acceleration may be less comprehensive than in some specialized time series platforms. Users often pair it with external systems for visualization, alerting, or long-term analytics. This can increase overall system complexity for end-to-end observability stacks.
Plan & Pricing
Summary (official sources): KairosDB is distributed as open‑source, self‑hosted software. The official project website and GitHub repository do not list any paid/subscription plans or commercial pricing.
Details (from official sources):
- Pricing model: Self‑hosted open‑source (no vendor-hosted paid plans listed).
- License: Apache License 2.0 (project repository).
- How to obtain: Download releases from the official GitHub repository and follow the official documentation for installation and configuration.
(Official sources checked: kairosdb.github.io documentation and the kairosdb GitHub repository/releases.)
