Building a fault-tolerant metrics storage system at Airbnb

382 · Airbnb · April 21, 2026, 5:32 p.m.
Summary
This blog post describes the engineering challenges faced while developing a fault-tolerant metrics storage system at Airbnb, which manages an enormous volume of time series data. It details the technical strategies for achieving reliability and performance, including multi-tenant architecture and operational complexities. Key techniques such as shuffle sharding and automation in tenant onboarding are discussed, along with lessons learned in managing a multi-cluster environment. The focus is on optimizing both writing and querying metrics while ensuring scalability and resilience in the observability platform.