altinity-expert-clickhouse-overview

Health overview and routing

Answers "is this server healthy, and which area needs a deeper look?" from system.metrics, system.asynchronous_metrics, system.parts, system.disks, system.tables, system.query_log, system.errors and system.text_log. It is single-host by design; per-replica divergence belongs to the specialist skills. Run altinity-expert-clickhouse-connection first if the connection mode, cluster and time window are not yet established.

Query packs

• checks.sql — 14 checks: object counts, memory vs RAM, primary-key and dictionary RAM, disk usage, replication summary, system log TTL and size, hourly query error rate, part_log errors, system.errors top codes, detached parts, recent warnings in text_log, background pool utilization.
• metrics.sql — 13 alert checks (ids A3.0.x) that return rows only when a threshold is breached; an empty result is OK. Checks A3.0.4 and A3.0.5 have two version-specific alternatives (@requires version<26.8 / version>=26.8): run the one matching the server version.
• ddl_queue.sql — 1 check on the ON CLUSTER DDL queue; @requires keeper.

How to run the query packs

1. Read each pack file from this skill's directory (the skill loader prints the directory path).
2. Run statements one at a time, never a whole file. Statements end with ; and start with a -- @check <id> <title> header; keep the id with its result.
3. Honor -- @requires: skip the statement when the named table is missing, when keeper is required and the server has no Keeper/ZooKeeper, or when the version condition is not met. List skipped ids with the reason.
4. Keep {cluster} as written when a cluster macro exists; otherwise apply the connection skill's rewrite rule. Any other {placeholder} is a template variable: substitute a real value first or skip the statement.
5. On an error, record the check id and the first line of the error, then continue. Only for UNKNOWN_IDENTIFIER, run DESCRIBE TABLE system.<table> and drop the missing column.
6. A severity column is the verdict for that row. Copy it; do not re-grade.

Interpretation rules

• metrics.sql checks that return no rows are OK; list their ids in the OK line. Minor rows are informational, not findings.
• A system log table without TTL (overview-07) is a finding; quote its size from overview-08 next to it. Route to the logs skill only when the largest untended table exceeds a few GiB or the disk is above 70 percent.
• Error rate (overview-09): say whether failures are steady or a spike, and name the top error codes from overview-11. Ignore codes caused by this diagnostic session itself (UNKNOWN_IDENTIFIER, UNKNOWN_TABLE, SYNTAX_ERROR).
• Object counts (overview-01) and part counts are server-wide. When the largest part counts or sizes come from system.* tables, say so instead of blaming user tables.
• Detached parts (overview-12) with reasons broken*, unexpected*, ignored* indicate replication or disk problems; clone and covered-by-broken are usually safe to remove.
• Background pool utilization (overview-14) above 90 percent for MergesAndMutations means merges are throttled by capacity, not necessarily by data volume.
• With has_keeper = 0, mark replication and DDL queue checks as not applicable rather than OK.

Report format

1. Header: connection mode, cluster or "single node", ClickHouse version, time window.
2. Findings: table with columns check, severity, object, evidence, recommendation; one row per finding, Critical first. Evidence quotes the numbers from the result rows.
3. OK checks: one line listing the check ids that returned no problem rows.
4. Skipped and failed checks: id and reason or first error line. Never omit this section.
5. Next steps: skills to load next and immediate actions.

Next skills

• Read-only replicas, replica delay, replication queue growth, Keeper errors in text_log → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-replication
• Memory above 80 percent of RAM, large primary-key or dictionary RAM, MEMORY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED errors → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-memory
• Disk above 80 percent or large system log tables → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-storage (disk) or altinity-expert-clickhouse-logs (log TTL)
• Many parts per partition, TOO_MANY_PARTS, saturated MergesAndMutations pool, part_log merge errors → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-merges
• High query error rate or slow SELECTs → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-reporting
• Slow or failing INSERTs, high NewPart rate → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-ingestion
• Kafka consumers above pool size or Kafka warnings in text_log → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-kafka
• Dictionary load failures or high dictionary RAM → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-dictionaries
• Stuck or failing mutations in part_log errors → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-mutations
• ACCESS_DENIED or authentication errors in system.errors → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-grants
• Load, connection or pool saturation over time → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-metrics
• Schema anti-patterns suspected (partitioning, ORDER BY, materialized views) → load skill altinity-expert-clickhouse-schema