Prometheus Concepts

Internal

• Prometheus

Overview

Prometheus is a time series database plus tools to collect metrics to be stored in the database. Prometheus is a solution for system monitoring.

Target

Prometheus will monitor targets. A target can be a server, database, virtual machine, etc.

Pull vs. Push

Prometheus will actively pull (scrap) metrics, by connecting to targets. The retrieval is done by invoking HTTP into endpoints, which are defined in the configuration.

Advantages of pull vs. push:

• Centralized control - the configuration is done on Prometheus and not on individual targets.
• Adjustable pull rate - the system has control over pull rate, and avoids being overloaded.

Sources of Metrics

Instrumented Applications

Prometheus pulls metrics from instrumented applications. An instrumented application exposes Prometheus metrics on a given URL. Such an application will be identified by Prometheus as a target and scrapped at regular periods.

Exporters

An alternative are prebuilt exporters. Examples: node exporter, SQL exporter, HAProxy exporter.

Push Gateway

Push gateways are used in case of applications or short-lived jobs that do not export metrics directly.