Setting Up Grafana and Prometheus on an AWS Ubuntu 18.04 LTS EC2 Instance

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Prometheus is a robust open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit created at SoundCloud. Grafana complements it as a powerful open-source visualization and analytics tool. This guide will take you through installing and configuring Prometheus, Grafana, and Node_Exporter on two separate Ubuntu 18.04 LTS EC2 instances.

Setup Details

Node_Exporter will export metrics from Node2 to Prometheus on Node1. Prometheus scrapes these metrics, and Grafana is configured to fetch them from Prometheus for visualization.

Pre-requisites

  1. AWS Account (Create if you don’t have one).
  2. Two Ubuntu 18.04 LTS VMs or EC2 Instances (Click here to learn how to create an EC2 Instance).
  3. Root access to the servers.

Note: EC2 instances may incur charges. Delete them from your account when no longer needed.

What We Will Do

  1. Install Prometheus
  2. Install Grafana
  3. Install Node-Exporter
  4. Integrate Grafana with Prometheus

Install Prometheus

Install the Package

Run the following commands to install Prometheus:

wget https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/deb.robustperception.io/41EFC99D.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install prometheus prometheus-node-exporter prometheus-pushgateway prometheus-alertmanager -y

Start Prometheus

Start Prometheus using:

sudo systemctl start prometheus

Enable Prometheus at Boot

Run the following command:

sudo systemctl enable prometheus

Check Prometheus Status

Use this command to verify its status:

sudo systemctl status prometheus

Access Prometheus

Access it on port 9090 using the following URL format:

http://IP-Of-Prometheus-Instance:9090/

Install Grafana

Install the Package

Run these commands to install Grafana:

sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common wget
wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grafana
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start Grafana

Use this command:

sudo systemctl start grafana-server

Enable Grafana at Boot

To enable:

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server.service

Check Grafana Status

Verify the status:

sudo systemctl status grafana-server

Access Grafana

Access the UI at:

http://IP-of-Grafana:3000/

Log in with the default credentials (admin/admin) and change your password upon login.

Post-login screen:

Install Node-Exporter

Install the Package

Download and install Node_Exporter:

cd /tmp/
wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.0.0-rc.0/node_exporter-1.0.0-rc.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -zxvf node_exporter-1.0.0-rc.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
cp node_exporter-1.0.0-rc.0.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/

Configure Node-Exporter

Edit the systemd service file:

vim /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service
[Unit]
Description=Prometheus Node Exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=root
Group=root
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload Configurations

systemctl daemon-reload

Start Node-Exporter

systemctl start node_exporter.service

Enable Node-Exporter at Boot

systemctl enable node_exporter.service

Check Node-Exporter Status

systemctl status node_exporter.service

Access Node-Exporter

Access it on port 9100:

http://IP-of-Node-Exporter:9100/

Integrate Grafana with Prometheus

Add the IP of Node_Exporter in Prometheus’s configuration file:

vim /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Restart Prometheus

sudo systemctl start prometheus

Access Prometheus

Execute the “up” query on Prometheus:

http://IP-of-Prometheus:9090/

If the result shows “1”, both localhost and Node_Exporter are up.

Configure Grafana

Add Prometheus as a data source in Grafana:

http://Ip-of-Grafana:3000/

Select ‘Add data source’ and then Prometheus.

Configure Prometheus URL:

Execute Queries on Grafana

Now, it’s time to run queries on Grafana to check the metrics exported by Node_Exporter.

Example Queries:

  1. node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="nice"}
  2. up{instance="15.188.50.16:9100",job="grafana_node"}

Visualize metrics on Grafana:

Conclusion

This guide detailed the installation and configuration of Prometheus, Grafana, and Node_Exporter on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. These tools work together to provide robust monitoring and visualization capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What are the default ports for Prometheus and Grafana?
    Prometheus uses port 9090, and Grafana uses port 3000 by default.
  • How can I secure my Grafana dashboard?
    It’s recommended to change the default admin password and enable authentication using LDAP, OAuth, or any other preferred method.
  • Do I need root privileges for installation?
    Yes, root access is required to install these software applications and configure system services.
  • Can I deploy Grafana and Prometheus on a single server?
    Yes, they can be deployed on a single server, especially for smaller environments or testing purposes.