# Querying Metrics with OxQL

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2024-10-02
- Length: 1h 35m
- Episode: 26
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/41bb2f81

## Summary

Ben Naecker from Oxide explains the development of OxQL, a custom query language for their telemetry system, and the decision to use ClickHouse as the underlying database. The team discusses why standard options like PromQL and OpenTelemetry were rejected due to limitations in handling histograms, typed data, and complex aggregations required for rack-scale debugging. Naecker details the normalized data model, ClickHouse's compression and performance characteristics, and the implementation of the DSL using Rust's PEG crate.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=0) Introduction and AI Podcasts
- [3:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=202) Why Not SQL or PromQL?
- [8:12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=492) Selecting ClickHouse and Data Types
- [12:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=723) Telemetry Data Model and OpenTelemetry
- [30:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=1815) The Case for Histograms and Distributions
- [37:12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=2232) ClickHouse Internals and Compression
- [48:43](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=2923) OxQL Implementation and Tooling
- [1:00:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql#t=3615) Alerting, API Design, and Future Iteration

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- OxQL (product)
- ClickHouse (tool)
- PromQL (tool)
- OpenTelemetry (tool)
- InfluxDB (tool)
- CockroachDB (tool)
- Victoria Metrics (tool)
- Ratatouille (tool)
- PEG (tool)
- Pest (tool)
- ANTLR (tool)
- Data Fusion (tool)
- Arrow (tool)
- Humility Dashboard (product)
- Crucible (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Unlocking the Power of Time Series Databases for Industrial and Robotic Systems](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-robot-report-podcast/2026-07-24-unlocking-the-power-of-time-series-databases-for-industrial-and-robotic-systems) (The Robot Report Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2024-10-02-querying-metrics-with-oxql. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.