Description

Introduction

Grafana and Prometheus are two powerful open-source tools that work seamlessly together for real-time monitoring and visualization. This course is designed to help you master both tools, empowering you to monitor, analyze, and visualize your system and application metrics effectively. Whether you are a DevOps engineer, system administrator, or data engineer, this course will help you leverage the power of Grafana and Prometheus to build robust monitoring solutions for your infrastructure and applications.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of monitoring and metrics
• Familiarity with containerization (e.g., Docker) and cloud environments (helpful but not required)
• Experience with Linux or Unix systems
• Familiarity with web-based tools and dashboards

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Monitoring and Observability
   1.1 What is Monitoring and Why is it Important?
   1.2 Key Concepts in Observability (Metrics, Logs, Traces)
   1.3 Overview of Grafana and Prometheus
   1.4 The Importance of Real-Time Monitoring and Visualization
2. Setting Up Prometheus
   2.1 Installing and Configuring Prometheus
   2.2 Understanding Prometheus Architecture (Prometheus Server, Exporters, and Targets)
   2.3 Collecting Metrics with Prometheus
   2.4 Working with Prometheus Query Language (PromQL)
   2.5 Configuring Prometheus for Distributed Systems and High Availability
3. Setting Up Grafana
   3.1 Installing and Configuring Grafana
   3.2 Grafana Data Sources: Connecting Prometheus
   3.3 Understanding Grafana Dashboards and Panels
   3.4 Building Basic Dashboards in Grafana
   3.5 Customizing Grafana with Themes, Variables, and Alerts
4. Working with Metrics in Prometheus
   4.1 Types of Metrics in Prometheus (Counters, Gauges, Histograms, Summaries)
   4.2 Metric Collection via Prometheus Exporters (Node Exporter, Blackbox Exporter, etc.)
   4.3 Writing Custom Exporters for Application Metrics
   4.4 Using Prometheus for Time-Series Data Analysis
   4.5 Best Practices for Collecting and Storing Metrics
5. Advanced Prometheus Features
   5.1 Prometheus Query Language (PromQL) – Advanced Techniques
   5.2 Using PromQL for Complex Metric Aggregations
   5.3 Creating Alerts and Notifications in Prometheus
   5.4 Scaling Prometheus for Large-Scale Environments
   5.5 Integrating Prometheus with Kubernetes and Cloud-Native Environments
6. Advanced Grafana Dashboarding
   6.1 Creating Advanced Dashboards and Panels in Grafana
   6.2 Using Multiple Data Sources in Grafana Dashboards
   6.3 Configuring Dynamic Dashboards with Variables
   6.4 Advanced Visualization Techniques (Heatmaps, Histograms, Tables)
   6.5 Grafana Plugins and Custom Visualizations
7. Alerting and Notifications in Grafana
   7.1 Setting Up Alerting in Grafana(Ref: Microsoft Azure AI-900: Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence on Azure)
   7.2 Configuring Alert Rules and Notifications
   7.3 Best Practices for Alerting (Thresholds, Severity Levels, Alert Fatigue)
   7.4 Integrating Alerts with External Systems (Slack, Email, Webhooks)
   7.5 Troubleshooting Alerts and Notifications
8. Integrating Prometheus with External Tools
   8.1 Integrating Prometheus with Grafana for Visualization
   8.2 Prometheus Integration with Alertmanager for Complex Alerting
   8.3 Using Prometheus with Kubernetes for Containerized Monitoring
   8.4 Leveraging Prometheus and Grafana for Cloud Monitoring (AWS, GCP, Azure)
   8.5 Extending Prometheus with Third-Party Exporters (Databases, Application Servers)
9. Best Practices for Real-Time Monitoring
   9.1 Building Effective Dashboards for Real-Time Monitoring
   9.2 Implementing Data Retention and Storage Policies for Prometheus
   9.3 Optimizing Prometheus and Grafana for Performance and Scalability
   9.4 Troubleshooting Common Issues in Prometheus and Grafana
   9.5 Maintaining a Monitoring System: Backup, Security, and Updates
10. Case Studies and Use Cases
    10.1 Monitoring System Health with Prometheus and Grafana
    10.2 Real-Time Application Monitoring for Performance Optimization
    10.3 Monitoring Cloud Infrastructure with Prometheus
    10.4 Observability for Microservices and Distributed Systems
    10.5 Practical Use Cases in DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
11. Conclusion and Certification
    11.1 Recap of Key Concepts
    11.2 Hands-on Project: Building a Full Monitoring Solution with Prometheus and Grafana
    11.3 Resources for Further Learning
    11.4 Certification Exam (if applicable)
    11.5 Career Path and Next Steps

Conclusion

By the end of this course, you will have the skills to design, implement, and optimize real-time monitoring systems using Prometheus and Grafana. You’ll be able to leverage Prometheus for collecting and storing metrics, while Grafana empowers you to create visually impactful dashboards and alerts. Whether you are working with cloud infrastructure, containers, or large-scale enterprise systems, this course will help you gain proficiency in monitoring and observability—key components for building high-performance systems.

Reference