<p>Prometheus can run in agent mode. In this mode it doesn't store data locally - it just sends the scraped samples to the configured remote storage systems. See <a href="https://prometheus.io/blog/2021/11/16/agent/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article</a> for details.</p>
<p>P.S. see also the project I work on -  <a href="https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">vmagent</a> - this is lightweight  Prometheus-compatible agent, which understands Prometheus scrape configs. It usually requires lower amounts of memory and CPU comparing to Prometheus when scraping the same targets.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-29T21:13:51.307Z
2022-06-29T21:13:51.307Z
valyala
<p>I configured Prometheus to push metrics using <code>remote_write</code> but the local storage is still in use and keeps growing</p>
<p>How could Prometheus be configured to stop storing locally and only push metrics or to minimize the retention policy from the local storage?</p>

<prometheus>
How to purge / prevent using the prometheus local storage when using remote_write
nbari
# How to purge / prevent using the prometheus local storage when using remote_write

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-22)

I configured Prometheus to push metrics using `remote_write` but the local storage is still in use and keeps growing

How could Prometheus be configured to stop storing locally and only push metrics or to minimize the retention policy from the local storage?

**Tags:** prometheus


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-06-29. Score: 0

Prometheus can run in agent mode. In this mode it doesn't store data locally - it just sends the scraped samples to the configured remote storage systems. See [this article](https://prometheus.io/blog/2021/11/16/agent/) for details.

P.S. see also the project I work on - [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html) - this is lightweight Prometheus-compatible agent, which understands Prometheus scrape configs. It usually requires lower amounts of memory and CPU comparing to Prometheus when scraping the same targets.


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