Vihren

Vihren is a lightweight backend for Intel gProfiler, for easier deployment, suitable for small setups.

Note

Vihren is the highest peak in the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria.

Motivation

Intel gProfiler is a great continuous profiling agent and is easy to run in local environments or Kubernetes. However, its backend, Intel Performance Studio, requires additional infrastructure such as a database, S3, SQS, and other services.

Vihren is a lightweight backend for Intel gProfiler, designed for simpler deployments. It is based on Intel Performance Studio, but replaces external dependencies with a local queue and embedded chdb, making it easier to run in homelabs, local environments, and small Kubernetes setups.

Features

• Embedded ClickHouse — no external database to manage; data is stored locally via chdb
• Multi-resolution aggregation — raw, hourly, and daily rollups with configurable retention
• Docker & Helm ready — single container deployment, Helm chart included
• Built for Intel gProfiler — works with the Intel gProfiler agent out of the box

UI Example

Quick Start

docker run -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/timson/vihren

Open http://localhost:8080/ui in your browser.

Point a gProfiler agent at the server:

docker run --name granulate-gprofiler -d --restart=on-failure:10 --pid=host --userns=host 
--privileged intel/gprofiler:latest -cu --token="1234" --service-name=<server_name>
--server-host=http://<ip:port> --glogger-server=http://<ip:port> --no-verify

Helm

Install into a Kubernetes cluster using the bundled Helm chart:

helm install vihren ./charts/vihren -n vihren --create-namespace

This uses the cluster's default storage class with a 5Gi volume. To customize, override values:

helm install vihren ./charts/vihren -n vihren --create-namespace \
  --set storage.size=10Gi

See charts/vihren/values.yaml for all available options.

Deploy gProfiler as a DaemonSet to send profiles to Vihren:

helm install gprofiler ./charts/gprofiler -n vihren \
  --set gprofiler.token="1234" \
  --set gprofiler.serviceHost=http://vihren.vihren.svc:8080 \
  --set gprofiler.serviceName="my-service"

See charts/gprofiler/values.yaml for all available options.

Configuration

All settings are configured via environment variables with the VIHREN_ prefix.

Variable	Default	Description
VIHREN_SERVER_PORT	8080	HTTP server port
VIHREN_DB_FILENAME	flamedb	chdb session directory (data storage path)
VIHREN_DB_WRITE_BATCH_SIZE	100000	Batch size for ClickHouse bulk inserts
VIHREN_INDEXER_WORKERS	2	Number of indexer worker goroutines

Note: All profiling data has a TTL of 7 days. Older data is automatically removed by ClickHouse.

API for FlameDB status

curl -s http://localhost:8080/api/v1/flamedb/status | jq

Returns storage stats for each ClickHouse table: row counts, disk usage, compression ratio, and the time range of stored data.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.

This project includes code from Intel's gprofiler-performance-studio. See NOTICE for details.