Observability with prometheus (installation)

 

How to Install Prometheus 3.0: A Beginner-Friendly Guide

Prometheus 3.0 is a robust tool for monitoring and alerting, providing insights into your system's performance. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you install and set up Prometheus on a Linux-based server.

---

Step 1: Prepare Your Environment

1. Update Your System Make sure your system is up-to-date:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
   

2. Install Required Tools Ensure you have wget or curl installed to download Prometheus:

   sudo apt install wget curl -y
   

---

Step 2: Download Prometheus 3.0

1. Visit the official Prometheus downloads page. Alternatively, you can use wget to download the binary directly:

   wget https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v3.0.0/prometheus-3.0.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
   

2. Extract the downloaded file:

   tar -xvzf prometheus-3.0.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
   cd prometheus-3.0.0.linux-amd64
   

---

Step 3: Move Prometheus to a Suitable Location

1. Move Prometheus and its files to /usr/local/bin/:

   sudo mv prometheus /usr/local/bin/
   sudo mv promtool /usr/local/bin/
   

2. Move the default configuration and libraries to /etc/prometheus:

   sudo mkdir /etc/prometheus
   sudo mv prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/
   
   

---

Step 4: Create a Prometheus User

To enhance security, run Prometheus under a dedicated user:

sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false prometheus

Update ownership of Prometheus directories:

sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /etc/prometheus
sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /usr/local/bin/prometheus
sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /usr/local/bin/promtool

---

Step 5: Configure Prometheus as a Service

1. Create a systemd service file:

   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service
   

2. Add the following configuration:

   [Unit]
   Description=Prometheus Monitoring System
   Wants=network-online.target
   After=network-online.target
   
   [Service]
   User=prometheus
   Group=prometheus
   Type=simple
   ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prometheus \
     --config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
     --storage.tsdb.path=/var/lib/prometheus/ 
   
   [Install]
   
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Reload systemd to apply the new service:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   

4. Start and enable the Prometheus service:

   sudo systemctl start prometheus
   sudo systemctl enable prometheus
   

---

Step 6: Verify Installation

1. Check the status of the Prometheus service:

   sudo systemctl status prometheus
   

2. Access the Prometheus web interface: Open your browser and go to:

   Replace <your-server-ip> with your server’s IP address.

3. http://<your-server-ip>:9090

---

Step 7: Configure Prometheus Targets

1. Open the Prometheus configuration file:

   sudo nano /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
   

2. Add or modify the scrape_configs section to include your monitoring targets:

   scrape_configs:
     - job_name: 'example-job'
       static_configs:
         - targets: ['localhost:9090']
   

3. Restart Prometheus to apply changes:

   sudo systemctl restart prometheus