Get started with Grafana and Prometheus

    Download Prometheus and node_exporter

    Prometheus, like Grafana, can be installed on many different operating systems. Refer to the , which lists all stable versions of Prometheus components. Download the following components:

    Install Prometheus node_exporter

    Prometheus node_exporter is a widely used tool that exposes system metrics. Install node_exporter on all hosts you want to monitor. For instructions on how to install node_exporter, refer to the section in Prometheus documentation.

    Install and configure Prometheus

    1. Configure Prometheus to monitor the hosts where you installed node_exporter. In order to do this, modify Prometheus’s configuration file. By default, Prometheus looks for the file in the current working directory. This behavior can be changed via the command line flag. For example, some Prometheus installers use it to set the configuration file to . Here is an example of the code you will need to add.

    2. Start the Prometheus service:

    Check Prometheus metrics in Grafana Explore view

    Start building dashboards

    Now that you have a curated list of queries, create to render system metrics monitored by Prometheus. When you install Prometheus and node_exporter or windows_exporter, you will find recommended dashboards for use.

    The following image shows a dashboard with three panels showing some system metrics.

    To learn more: