Grafana with Prometheus Node Exporter

• Grafana is a multi-platform open-source analytics and interactive visualization web application. It provides charts, graphs, and alerts for the web when connected to supported data sources. Prometheus Node Exporter is a Prometheus exporter for hardware and OS metrics exposed by *NIX kernels, written in Go with pluggable metric collectors. In this guide, we will install and configure Grafana and Prometheus Node Exporter

Step 1: Install Prometheus and Node Exporter

• The first step, we need to install Prometheus and Node Exporter. We will install it from the official repository. Run the following commands to install them:

  • For Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install prometheus-node-exporter prometheus
    

  • For CentOS/RHEL:

    sudo yum install epel-release
    sudo yum install golang-github-prometheus-node-exporter golang-github-prometheus
    

  • For Fedora:

    sudo dnf install node-exporter golang-github-prometheus
    

    • 

• After installing this packages, start and enable the services:

  sudo systemctl enable --now prometheus-node-exporter prometheus
  

  • 

Step 2: Install Grafana

Method 1: Install Grafana from Repository

• In the next step, we will install Grafana from the official repository. If you want to use Grafana in Docker, you can skip this method. Run the following commands to install Grafana:

  • For Debian/Ubuntu:

    • First, install the required packages:

      sudo apt update
      sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common wget
      

    • Then, add the Grafana repository key and repository:

      sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings/
      wget -q -O - https://apt.grafana.com/gpg.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.gpg > /dev/null
      echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/grafana.gpg] https://apt.grafana.com stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
      sudo apt-get update 
      sudo apt-get install grafana
      

  • For CentOS/RHEL:

    • First, install the required packages:

      sudo yum install -y wget
      

    • Then, add the Grafana repository key:

      wget -qO gpg.key https://rpm.grafana.com/gpg.key
      sudo rpm --import gpg.key
      

      • 

    • Create a file called grafana.repo in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory and add the following content:

      sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/grafana.repo
      

      [grafana]
      name=grafana
      baseurl=https://rpm.grafana.com
      repo_gpgcheck=1
      enabled=1
      gpgcheck=1
      gpgkey=https://rpm.grafana.com/gpg.key
      sslverify=1
      sslcacert=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
      

      • 

    • Then, install Grafana:

      sudo yum update
      sudo yum install grafana
      

      • 
      • 

Method 2: Install Grafana in Docker

• If you want to use Grafana in Docker, you can follow this step. Run the following commands to install Grafana in Docker:

  • First, install Docker:

    curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo bash
    

    • 

  • Then, start and enable the Docker service:

    sudo systemctl enable --now docker
    

    • 

  • After installing Docker, create a data directory for Grafana:

    sudo mkdir -p /opt/grafana/data
    

  • Change the directory to /opt/grafana and create a file called docker-compose.yml:

    cd /opt/grafana
    sudo vim docker-compose.yml
    

    services:
      grafana:
        image: grafana/grafana:latest
        container_name: grafana
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
          - 3000:3000
        volumes:
          - /opt/grafana/data:/var/lib/grafana
    

  • Save the file and set the ownership of the directory:

    sudo chown -R 472:472 /opt/grafana
    

  • Then run the following command to start Grafana:

    sudo docker compose up
    

    • 
    • 

  • If all the steps are successful, you can detach from the container by pressing Ctrl + C and run the following command to start Grafana in the background:

    sudo docker compose up -d
    

Step 3: Access Grafana

• Once you have installed Grafana, you can access it by opening your web browser and navigating to http://<server-ip>:3000. The default user name and password are admin. You will be asked to change the password after logging in.

Method 1: Using IP Address

• If you are not using a reverse proxy and are using a firewall, you can access Grafana using the IP address of the server. Run the following command to allow port 3000

  • For UFW:

    sudo ufw allow 3000/tcp
    

  • For FirewallD:

    sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=$(firewall-cmd --get-default-zone) --add-service=grafana
    sudo firewall-cmd --reload
    

    • 

Method 2: Using Reverse Proxy

• To use Grafana behind a reverse proxy, you need to configure your web server to forward requests to the Grafana service. Here is a sample configuration for web servers:

Apache

• Create a new Apache configuration file for your domain:

  sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-domain.com.conf
  

• Add the following configuration to the file:

  <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName your-domain.com
      Redirect permanent / https://your-domain.com/
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost *:443>
      ServerName your-domain.com
  
      SSLEngine on
      SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem
      SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem
  
      ProxyPass / http://localhost:3000/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:3000/
  
      ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
      CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
  </VirtualHost>
  

• Save the configuration file and reload Apache:

  sudo systemctl reload apache2
  

Caddy

• Note: If you don’t have Caddy installed, you can follow this guide to install it.

• Open the Caddyfile for editing:

  sudo vim /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
  

• Add the following configuration to the file:

  your-domain.com {
      ...
      reverse_proxy localhost:3000
  }
  

  • Note: Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain name.

  • Note: If you want to use authorization with Caddy, you can follow this guide.

  • 

• Save the Caddyfile and reload Caddy:

  sudo systemctl reload caddy
  

Nginx

• Create a new Nginx configuration file for your domain:

  sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/your-domain.com
  

• Add the following configuration to the file:

  server {
      listen 80;
      listen [::]:80;
  
      server_name your-domain.com;
  
      rewrite ^ https://$host$request_uri? permanent;
  }
  
  server {
      listen 443 ssl http2;
      listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
  
      server_name your-domain.com;
  
      ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem;
      ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem;
      ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
  
      location / {
          proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
          proxy_set_header Host $host;
          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
      }
  }
  

• Save the configuration file and enable the site:

  sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your-domain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
  sudo systemctl reload nginx
  

Step 4: Add Prometheus Node Exporter to Grafana

• After accessing Grafana, you can add Prometheus Node Exporter as a data source.

• Click on the left sidebar and navigate to Connection > Data Sources.

  • 

• Then click Add data source and select Prometheus from the list.

  • 

• In the Connection section, enter the URL of the Prometheus Node Exporter. The default URL is http://localhost:9090.

• Note: If you are using the docker method, you can use http://<MACHINE-IP>:9090 as the URL.

  • 

• Then click Save & Test to save the data source.

  • 

• After adding the data source, back to the Dashboard and click on Create Dashboard.

  • 

• Then click Import and enter 1860 in the Grafana.com Dashboard field.

  • 

• Then click Load and select the Prometheus data source from the list.

  • 

• Then click Import to import the dashboard. You can now see the metrics of Prometheus Node Exporter in Grafana.

  • 

• You can customize the dashboard by adding more panels and changing the settings.

Conclusion

• By using Grafana and the Prometheus Node Exporter, you can monitor your system performance in real time, identify potential problems early and make data-driven decisions. This powerful duo makes it easier than ever to improve operational efficiency. In addition, customisable dashboards allow you to visualise your systems according to your specific needs.

References

• Grafana
• Prometheus Node Exporter