MyObservability

Prometheus

Prometheus is a system monitoring and alerting system. Prometheus stores all metrics data as time series, optional key-value pairs called as labels can also be stored along with metrics.

Time series

Time-series metrics are data points collected and stored over time.

Aggregating time series

• Average returns the sum of all values divided by the total number of values.
• Min and Max return the smallest and largest value in the collection.
• Sum returns the sum of all values in the collection.
• Count returns the number of values in the collection.

Time series databases

A time series database (TSDB) is a database explicitly designed for time series data.

Another feature of a TSDB is the ability to filter measurements using tags. Each data point is labeled with a tag that adds context information, such as where the measurement was take

Collecting time series data

To collect time series data, you’d typically install a collector on the device, machine, or instance you want to monitor. Some collectors are made with a specific database in mind, and some support different output destinations.

Here are some examples of collectors:

• collectd
• statsd
• Prometheus exporters
• Telegraf

A collector either pushes data to a database or lets the database pull the data from it.

Labels

Each time series in Grafana optionally has labels. Labels are a set of key/value pairs for identifying dimensions.

To identify unique series within a set of time series, Grafana stores dimensions in labels.