Valerter

Getting Started

This guide covers installing and running Valerter for the first time.

Requirements

• VictoriaLogs instance (v1.0+) accessible via HTTP
• Linux (amd64 or arm64) - systemd recommended for production

Installation

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

# Download and install the latest release
curl -LO https://github.com/fxthiry/valerter/releases/latest/download/valerter_latest_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i valerter_latest_amd64.deb

For ARM64 systems, use valerter_latest_arm64.deb instead.

The .deb package will:

1. Install binary to /usr/bin/valerter
2. Create valerter system user and group
3. Install systemd service to /lib/systemd/system/
4. Create config directory /etc/valerter/ with example configuration

Static Binary (any Linux)

For non-Debian systems, containers, or quick testing:

# Download (x86_64, or aarch64 for ARM)
curl -LO https://github.com/fxthiry/valerter/releases/latest/download/valerter-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

# Optional: Verify checksum
curl -LO https://github.com/fxthiry/valerter/releases/latest/download/checksums-sha256.txt
sha256sum -c checksums-sha256.txt --ignore-missing

# Extract and run
tar -xzf valerter-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd valerter-linux-x86_64
./valerter --validate -c config.example.yaml
./valerter -c config.example.yaml

The tarball contains a statically-linked musl binary that runs on any Linux distribution (Alpine, Arch, RHEL, containers, etc.). For systemd integration, see systemd/valerter.service in the repository.

From Source

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/fxthiry/valerter.git
cd valerter

# Build static binary (requires musl target)
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

# Run directly
./target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/valerter -c config/config.example.yaml

# Or copy binary to PATH
sudo cp ./target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/valerter /usr/local/bin/

Post-Installation

1. Configure

Edit the configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/valerter/config.yaml

Minimal configuration:

victorialogs:
  url: "http://victorialogs:9428"

notifiers:
  mattermost-ops:
    type: mattermost
    webhook_url: "https://mattermost.example.com/hooks/your-webhook-id"

defaults:
  throttle:
    count: 5
    window: 60s

templates:
  default_alert:
    title: ""
    body: ""
    body_html: "<p></p>"

rules:
  - name: "error_alert"
    query: '_stream:{app="myapp"} level:error'
    parser:
      regex: '(?P<message>.*)'
    notify:
      template: "default_alert"
      destinations:
        - "mattermost-ops"

2. Validate Configuration

valerter --validate

3. Start the Service

sudo systemctl start valerter
sudo systemctl enable valerter  # Enable at boot

4. Verify

# Check status
sudo systemctl status valerter

# View logs
journalctl -u valerter -f

Updating

.deb Package

curl -LO https://github.com/fxthiry/valerter/releases/latest/download/valerter_latest_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i valerter_latest_amd64.deb
sudo systemctl restart valerter

Note: Configuration is preserved during upgrades - dpkg will prompt if you’ve modified /etc/valerter/config.yaml.

Uninstalling

sudo dpkg -r valerter        # Remove (keeps config)
sudo dpkg --purge valerter   # Purge (removes everything)

Next Steps

• Configuration Reference - Full configuration options
• Notifiers - Configure Mattermost, Email, Webhook
• Metrics - Prometheus monitoring

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