Prometheus: Introduction & Getting Started

Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit designed for reliability and scalability. It is widely used for collecting metrics and powering observability in cloud-native environments.

Why Use Prometheus?

• Collect and store time-series metrics
• Powerful query language (PromQL)
• Integrates with Grafana and alerting systems

How Prometheus Works

• Scrapes metrics from targets via HTTP endpoints
• Stores data in a time-series database
• Supports service discovery and dynamic environments

Quick Start Example

1. Run Prometheus (Docker):

   docker run -d -p 9090:9090 prom/prometheus
   

2. Access the UI:
3. Open http://localhost:9090 in your browser
4. Add a scrape target (edit prometheus.yml):

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

5. Reload Prometheus config:
6. Use the UI or send a SIGHUP to the container

Learn More

• Prometheus Documentation
• Getting Started Guide