A Production-Ready Guide: Mastering Metrics Collection with Prometheus and Grafana

In modern infrastructure and application management, visibility into system performance is non-negotiable. Prometheus and Grafana form a powerhouse duo for metrics collection, storage, and visualization. This guide provides a production-ready walkthrough of setting up Prometheus and Grafana, complete with security best practices, service management, and advanced configurations. Whether you’re monitoring a single server or a distributed system, this guide will equip you with actionable steps to build a robust monitoring stack.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Tools

   • What is Prometheus?
   • What is Grafana?
   • How They Work Together

2. Setting Up Prometheus

   • Installing Prometheus
   • Configuring Scrape Targets
   • Running as a Systemd Service

3. Monitoring Host Metrics with Node Exporter

   • Installing Node Exporter
   • Systemd Service Setup
   • Verifying Metrics

4. Installing Grafana Securely

   • Adding the Grafana Repository
   • HTTPS Configuration with Let’s Encrypt
   • Enabling Authentication

5. Integrating Prometheus with Grafana

   • Adding Prometheus as a Data Source
   • Building a Dashboard: CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network

6. Advanced Configurations

   • Setting Up Alerts in Grafana
   • Remote Storage with Thanos
   • Dynamic Service Discovery

7. Security Best Practices

   • Securing Prometheus with Reverse Proxies
   • Grafana User Permissions

8. Troubleshooting Common Issues

• Firewall and Port Conflicts
• Permission Errors

Read more »