prometheus-configuration

Complete guide to Prometheus setup, metric collection, scrape configuration, and recording rules.

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Repository: BEKO2210/Firstbrain
Last source activity: May 17, 2026 at 12:40
Detected SKILL.md language: English
Stars: 15
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name	prometheus-configuration
description	Complete guide to Prometheus setup, metric collection, scrape configuration, and recording rules.
type	skill
created	2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z
domain	cloud-infrastructure
category	monitoring
risk	unknown
source	community
tags	["skill","cloud-infrastructure","monitoring","prometheus","configuration"]

Prometheus Configuration

Complete guide to Prometheus setup, metric collection, scrape configuration, and recording rules.

Do not use this skill when

The task is unrelated to prometheus configuration
You need a different domain or tool outside this scope

Instructions

Clarify goals, constraints, and required inputs.
Apply relevant best practices and validate outcomes.
Provide actionable steps and verification.
If detailed examples are required, open resources/implementation-playbook.md.

Purpose

Configure Prometheus for comprehensive metric collection, alerting, and monitoring of infrastructure and applications.

Use this skill when

Set up Prometheus monitoring
Configure metric scraping
Create recording rules
Design alert rules
Implement service discovery

Prometheus Architecture

┌──────────────┐
│ Applications │ ← Instrumented with client libraries
└──────┬───────┘
       │ /metrics endpoint
       ↓
┌──────────────┐
│  Prometheus  │ ← Scrapes metrics periodically
│    Server    │
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ├─→ AlertManager (alerts)
       ├─→ Grafana (visualization)
       └─→ Long-term storage (Thanos/Cortex)

Installation

Kubernetes with Helm

helm repo add prometheus-community https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

helm install prometheus prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack \
  --namespace monitoring \
  --create-namespace \
  --set prometheus.prometheusSpec.retention=30d \
  --set prometheus.prometheusSpec.storageVolumeSize=50Gi

Docker Compose

version: '3.8'
services:
  prometheus:
    image: prom/prometheus:latest
    ports:
      - "9090:9090"
    volumes:
      - ./prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
      - prometheus-data:/prometheus

global:
  scrape_interval: 15s
  evaluation_interval: 15s
  external_labels:
    cluster: 'production'
    region: 'us-west-2'

# Alertmanager configuration
alerting:
  alertmanagers:
    - static_configs:
        - targets:
          - alertmanager:9093

# Load rules files
rule_files:
  - /etc/prometheus/rules/*.yml

# Scrape configurations
scrape_configs:
  # Prometheus itself
  - job_name: 'prometheus'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9090']

  # Node exporters
  - job_name: 'node-exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets:
        - 'node1:9100'
        - 'node2:9100'
        - 'node3:9100'
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__address__]
        target_label: instance
        regex: '([^:]+)(:[0-9]+)?'
        replacement: '${1}'

  # Kubernetes pods with annotations
  - job_name: 'kubernetes-pods'
    kubernetes_sd_configs:
      - role: pod
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape]
        action: keep
        regex: true
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_path]
        action: replace
        target_label: __metrics_path__
        regex: (.+)
      - source_labels: [__address__, __meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_prometheus_io_port]
        action: replace
        regex: ([^:]+)(?::\d+)?;(\d+)
        replacement: $1:$2
        target_label: __address__
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_namespace]
        action: replace
        target_label: namespace
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_pod_name]
        action: replace
        target_label: pod

  # Application metrics
  - job_name: 'my-app'
    static_configs:
      - targets:
        - 'app1.example.com:9090'
        - 'app2.example.com:9090'
    metrics_path: '/metrics'
    scheme: 'https'
    tls_config:
      ca_file: /etc/prometheus/ca.crt
      cert_file: /etc/prometheus/client.crt
      key_file: /etc/prometheus/client.key

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'static-targets'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['host1:9100', 'host2:9100']
        labels:
          env: 'production'
          region: 'us-west-2'

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'file-sd'
    file_sd_configs:
      - files:
        - /etc/prometheus/targets/*.json
        - /etc/prometheus/targets/*.yml
        refresh_interval: 5m

[
  {
    "targets": ["app1:9090", "app2:9090"],
    "labels": {
      "env": "production",
      "service": "api"
    }
  }
]

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'kubernetes-services'
    kubernetes_sd_configs:
      - role: service
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scrape]
        action: keep
        regex: true
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_scheme]
        action: replace
        target_label: __scheme__
        regex: (https?)
      - source_labels: [__meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_prometheus_io_path]
        action: replace
        target_label: __metrics_path__
        regex: (.+)

# /etc/prometheus/rules/recording_rules.yml
groups:
  - name: api_metrics
    interval: 15s
    rules:
      # HTTP request rate per service
      - record: job:http_requests:rate5m
        expr: sum by (job) (rate(http_requests_total[5m]))

      # Error rate percentage
      - record: job:http_requests_errors:rate5m
        expr: sum by (job) (rate(http_requests_total{status=~"5.."}[5m]))

      - record: job:http_requests_error_rate:percentage
        expr: |
          (job:http_requests_errors:rate5m / job:http_requests:rate5m) * 100

      # P95 latency
      - record: job:http_request_duration:p95
        expr: |
          histogram_quantile(0.95,
            sum by (job, le) (rate(http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m]))
          )

  - name: resource_metrics
    interval: 30s
    rules:
      # CPU utilization percentage
      - record: instance:node_cpu:utilization
        expr: |
          100 - (avg by (instance) (rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{mode="idle"}[5m])) * 100)

      # Memory utilization percentage
      - record: instance:node_memory:utilization
        expr: |
          100 - ((node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes / node_memory_MemTotal_bytes) * 100)

      # Disk usage percentage
      - record: instance:node_disk:utilization
        expr: |
          100 - ((node_filesystem_avail_bytes / node_filesystem_size_bytes) * 100)

# /etc/prometheus/rules/alert_rules.yml
groups:
  - name: availability
    interval: 30s
    rules:
      - alert: ServiceDown
        expr: up{job="my-app"} == 0
        for: 1m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: "Service {{ $labels.instance }} is down"
          description: "{{ $labels.job }} has been down for more than 1 minute"

      - alert: HighErrorRate
        expr: job:http_requests_error_rate:percentage > 5
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High error rate for {{ $labels.job }}"
          description: "Error rate is {{ $value }}% (threshold: 5%)"

      - alert: HighLatency
        expr: job:http_request_duration:p95 > 1
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High latency for {{ $labels.job }}"
          description: "P95 latency is {{ $value }}s (threshold: 1s)"

  - name: resources
    interval: 1m
    rules:
      - alert: HighCPUUsage
        expr: instance:node_cpu:utilization > 80
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High CPU usage on {{ $labels.instance }}"
          description: "CPU usage is {{ $value }}%"

      - alert: HighMemoryUsage
        expr: instance:node_memory:utilization > 85
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High memory usage on {{ $labels.instance }}"
          description: "Memory usage is {{ $value }}%"

      - alert: DiskSpaceLow
        expr: instance:node_disk:utilization > 90
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: "Low disk space on {{ $labels.instance }}"
          description: "Disk usage is {{ $value }}%"

# Validate configuration
promtool check config prometheus.yml

# Validate rules
promtool check rules /etc/prometheus/rules/*.yml

# Test query
promtool query instant http://localhost:9090 'up'

curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets

curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/config

curl 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=up'