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Useful queries for troubleshooting

· 4 min read

In no particular order, here are some handy queries for troubleshooting ClickHouse and figuring out what is happening. We also have a great blog with some essential queries for monitoring ClickHouse.

View which settings have been changed from the default​

SELECT
    name,
    value
FROM system.settings
WHERE changed

Get the size of all your tables​

SELECT table,
    formatReadableSize(sum(bytes)) as size
    FROM system.parts
    WHERE active
GROUP BY table

The response looks like:

┌─table───────────┬─size──────┐
│ stat            │ 38.89 MiB │
│ customers       │ 525.00 B  │
│ my_sparse_table │ 40.73 MiB │
│ crypto_prices   │ 32.18 MiB │
│ hackernews      │ 6.23 GiB  │
└─────────────────┴───────────┘

Row count and average day size of your table​

SELECT
    table,
    formatReadableSize(size) AS size,
    rows,
    days,
    formatReadableSize(avgDaySize) AS avgDaySize
FROM
(
    SELECT
        table,
        sum(bytes) AS size,
        sum(rows) AS rows,
        min(min_date) AS min_date,
        max(max_date) AS max_date,
        max_date - min_date AS days,
        size / (max_date - min_date) AS avgDaySize
    FROM system.parts
    WHERE active
    GROUP BY table
    ORDER BY rows DESC
)

Compression columns percentage as well as the size of primary index in memory​

You can see how compressed your data is by column. This query also returns the size of your primary indexes in memory - useful to know because primary indexes must fit in memory.

SELECT
    parts.*,
    columns.compressed_size,
    columns.uncompressed_size,
    columns.compression_ratio,
    columns.compression_percentage
FROM
(
    SELECT
        table,
        formatReadableSize(sum(data_uncompressed_bytes)) AS uncompressed_size,
        formatReadableSize(sum(data_compressed_bytes)) AS compressed_size,
        round(sum(data_compressed_bytes) / sum(data_uncompressed_bytes), 3) AS compression_ratio,
        round(100 - ((sum(data_compressed_bytes) * 100) / sum(data_uncompressed_bytes)), 3) AS compression_percentage
    FROM system.columns
    GROUP BY table
) AS columns
RIGHT JOIN
(
    SELECT
        table,
        sum(rows) AS rows,
        max(modification_time) AS latest_modification,
        formatReadableSize(sum(bytes)) AS disk_size,
        formatReadableSize(sum(primary_key_bytes_in_memory)) AS primary_keys_size,
        any(engine) AS engine,
        sum(bytes) AS bytes_size
    FROM system.parts
    WHERE active
    GROUP BY
        database,
        table
) AS parts ON columns.table = parts.table
ORDER BY parts.bytes_size DESC

Number of queries sent by client in the last 10 minutes​

Feel free to increase or decrease the time interval in the toIntervalMinute(10) function:

SELECT
    client_name,
    count(),
    query_kind,
    toStartOfMinute(event_time) AS event_time_m
FROM system.query_log
WHERE (type = 'QueryStart') AND (event_time > (now() - toIntervalMinute(10)))
GROUP BY
    event_time_m,
    client_name,
    query_kind
ORDER BY
    event_time_m DESC,
    count() ASC

Number of parts in each partition​

SELECT
    concat(database, '.', table),
    partition_id,
    count()
FROM system.parts
WHERE active
GROUP BY
    database,
    table,
    partition_id

Finding long running queries​

This can help find queries that are stuck:

SELECT
    elapsed,
    initial_user,
    client_name,
    hostname(),
    query_id,
    query
FROM clusterAllReplicas(default, system.processes)
ORDER BY elapsed DESC

Using the query id of the worst running query, we can get a stack trace that can help when debugging.

SET allow_introspection_functions=1;

SELECT
    arrayStringConcat(
        arrayMap(
            x,
            y -> concat(x, ': ', y),
            arrayMap(x -> addressToLine(x), trace),
            arrayMap(x -> demangle(addressToSymbol(x)), trace)
        ),
        '\n'
    ) as trace
FROM
    system.stack_trace
WHERE
    query_id = '0bb6e88b-9b9a-4ffc-b612-5746c859e360';

View the most recent errors​

SELECT *
FROM system.errors
ORDER BY last_error_time DESC

The response looks like:

┌─name──────────────────┬─code─┬─value─┬─────last_error_time─┬─last_error_message──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─last_error_trace─┬─remote─┐
│ UNKNOWN_TABLE         │   60 │     3 │ 2023-03-14 01:02:35 │ Table system.stack_trace doesn't exist                                                                                                              │ []               │      0 │
│ BAD_GET               │  170 │     1 │ 2023-03-14 00:58:55 │ Requested cluster 'default' not found                                                                                                               │ []               │      0 │
│ UNKNOWN_IDENTIFIER    │   47 │     1 │ 2023-03-14 00:49:12 │ Missing columns: 'parts.table' 'table' while processing query: 'table = parts.table', required columns: 'table' 'parts.table' 'table' 'parts.table' │ []               │      0 │
│ NO_ELEMENTS_IN_CONFIG │  139 │     2 │ 2023-03-14 00:42:11 │ Certificate file is not set.                                                                                                                        │ []               │      0 │
└───────────────────────┴──────┴───────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────┴────────┘

Top 10 queries that are using the most CPU and memory​

SELECT
    type,
    event_time,
    initial_query_id,
    formatReadableSize(memory_usage) AS memory,
    `ProfileEvents.Values`[indexOf(`ProfileEvents.Names`, 'UserTimeMicroseconds')] AS userCPU,
    `ProfileEvents.Values`[indexOf(`ProfileEvents.Names`, 'SystemTimeMicroseconds')] AS systemCPU,
    normalizedQueryHash(query) AS normalized_query_hash
FROM system.query_log
ORDER BY memory_usage DESC
LIMIT 10

How much disk space are my projection using​

SELECT
    name,
    parent_name,
    formatReadableSize(bytes_on_disk) AS bytes,
    formatReadableSize(parent_bytes_on_disk) AS parent_bytes,
    bytes_on_disk / parent_bytes_on_disk AS ratio
FROM system.projection_parts

Show disk storage, number of parts, number of rows in system.parts and marks across databases​

SELECT
    database,
    table,
    partition,
    count() AS parts,
    formatReadableSize(sum(bytes_on_disk)) AS bytes_on_disk,
    formatReadableQuantity(sum(rows)) AS rows,
    sum(marks) AS marks
FROM system.parts
WHERE (database != 'system') AND active
GROUP BY
    database,
    table,
    partition
ORDER BY database ASC

List details of recently written new parts​

The details include when they got created, how large they are, how many rows, and more:

SELECT
    modification_time,
    rows,
    formatReadableSize(bytes_on_disk),
    *
FROM clusterAllReplicas(default, system.parts)
WHERE (database = 'default') AND active AND (level = 0)
ORDER BY modification_time DESC
LIMIT 100