Prometheus is a powerful monitoring tool that allows you to collect and store time-series data from various sources. It offers flexibility through its query language, PromQL, which enables you to retrieve and analyze the collected data.

In this tutorial, we will focus on installing Prometheus on AlmaLinux 9, a popular Linux distribution. Prometheus can be installed on traditional Unix/Linux servers using pre-compiled packages, container technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, or configuration management tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and Saltstack.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

• Two AlmaLinux 9 servers – one for the Prometheus server and another for the Node Exporter.
• A non-root user with sudo privileges on both servers.
• Basic knowledge of Linux command-line interface (CLI).

Now that we have everything we need, let’s proceed with the installation.

Installing Prometheus

Setting Up User and Directories

To start, we need to create a new system user and directories on your AlmaLinux server. This user will be used to run Prometheus, and the directories will store the configuration files and data.

Run the following command to create a new system user named prometheus:

sudo adduser -M -r -s /sbin/nologin prometheus

Next, create the necessary directories:

sudo mkdir /etc/prometheus
sudo mkdir /var/lib/prometheus

Change the ownership of the directories to the prometheus user:

sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /etc/prometheus
sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /var/lib/prometheus

Downloading Prometheus

Now, let’s download and install Prometheus on your AlmaLinux server.

First, install the wget package if it’s not already installed:

sudo dnf install wge t -y

Move to the /usr/src directory and download the pre-compiled binary file of Prometheus:

cd /usr/src
wget https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.44.0/prometheus-2.44.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract the downloaded file:

tar -xf prometheus-2.44.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Copy the default Prometheus configuration file, console templates, and console libraries to the appropriate directories:

sudo cp /usr/src/prometheus-*/prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/
sudo cp -r /usr/src/prometheus-*/consoles /etc/prometheus/
sudo cp -r /usr/src/prometheus-*/console_libraries /etc/prometheus/

Change the ownership of the /etc/prometheus directory:

sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus/etc/prometheus

Copy the Prometheus binary files to the /usr/bin directory:

sudo cp /usr/src/prometheus-*/prometheus /usr/bin/
sudo cp /usr/src/prometheus-*/promtool /usr/bin/

Verify the installation:

which prometheus
prometheus --version
which promtool
promtool --version

Configuring Prometheus

Now that Prometheus is installed, let’s configure it.

Open the Prometheus configuration file using a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Add the following configuration to scrape the Prometheus server itself:

scrape_configs:
- job_name: "prometheus"
static_configs:
- targets: ["localhost:9090"]

Save and close the file.

Running Prometheus as a Systemd Service

To run Prometheus as a systemd service, create a new service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service

Add the following configuration:

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/prometheus \
    --config.file /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
    --storage.tsdb.path /var/lib/prometheus/ \
    --web.console.templates=/etc/prometheus/consoles \
    --web.console.libraries=/etc/prometheus/console_libraries

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and close the file.

Reload the systemd manager to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start and enable the Prometheus service:

sudo systemctl start prometheus
sudo systemctl enable prometheus

Verify the status of the Prometheus service:

sudo systemctl status prometheus

Verifying Prometheus Installation

To verify the Prometheus installation, open your web browser and visit the Prometheus server’s IP address followed by port 9090 (e.g., http://yourserverip:9090/).

You should see the Prometheus web interface, where you can explore the available metrics and create custom queries using PromQL.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to install Prometheus on AlmaLinux 9. We started by setting up user and directories, downloading Prometheus, configuring it, and running it as a systemd service. Finally, we verified the installation by accessing the Prometheus web interface.

Prometheus is a powerful monitoring tool that can help you gain insights into your server’s performance and troubleshoot issues. Combined with other components like the Node Exporter, you can create a comprehensive monitoring system for your infrastructure.

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Happy monitoring with Prometheus!

Christian Wells