Installing & configuring Prometheus

Download and install Prometheus

Download the latest version of Prometheus and run the checksum verification process to ensure that the downloaded file has not been tampered with.

cd
curl -LO https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.55.0/prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
echo "7a6b6d5ea003e8d59def294392c64e28338da627bf760cf268e788d6a8832a23 prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz" | sha256sum --check

Each downloadable file comes with it's own checksum. Replace the actual checksum and URL of the download link in the code block above.

Make sure to choose the amd64 version. Right click on the linked text and select "copy link address" to get the URL of the download link to curl.

Expected output: Verify output of the checksum verification

prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz: OK

If checksum is verified, extract the files and move them into the /usr/local/bin and /etc/prometheus directories for neatness and best practice. Then, clean up the duplicated copies.

tar xvf prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo cp prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64/prometheus /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64/promtool /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp -r prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64/consoles /etc/prometheus
sudo cp -r prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64/console_libraries /etc/prometheus
sudo rm -r prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64 prometheus-2.55.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Configure Prometheus

Create an account (prometheus) without server access for Prometheus to run as a background service. This restricts potential attackers to only the Prometheus service in the unlikely event that they manage to infiltrate via a compromised client update.

sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false prometheus

Create a directory for Prometheus to store the monitoring data. Then set the owner of this and the /etc/prometheus directory to prometheus so that this user can read and write to the directories.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/prometheus
sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /var/lib/prometheus
sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /etc/prometheus

Create a configuration file so that Prometheus knows where to pull data from.

sudo nano /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Paste the configuration parameters below into the file:

1) General + execution client parameters:

global:
  scrape_interval: 15s
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: prometheus
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - localhost:9090
  - job_name: node_exporter
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - localhost:9100
  - job_name: nethermind
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - localhost:8009

2) Consensus client parameters:

According to your selected consensus client, append the following block to the general + execution client parameters above.

  - job_name: "teku_beacon" #for consensus client
    scrape_timeout: 10s
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scheme: http
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:8009"]
      
  - job_name: "teku_validator" #for validator client
    scrape_timeout: 10s
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scheme: http
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:8108"]

Once you're done, save with Ctrl+O and Enter, then exit with Ctrl+X.

Next, create a systemd configuration file for the Prometheus service to run in the background.

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

Paste the configuration parameters below into the file:

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
ExecStart=/usr/local/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

Once you're done, save with Ctrl+O and Enter, then exit with Ctrl+X.

Start the Prometheus service

Reload the systemd daemon to register the changes made, start Prometheus, and check its status to make sure its running.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start prometheus.service
sudo systemctl status prometheus.service

Expected output: The output should say Prometheus is “active (running)”. Press CTRL-C to exit and Prometheus will continue to run.

Use the following command to check the logs for any warnings or errors:

sudo journalctl -fu prometheus -o cat | ccze -A

Expected output:

Press CTRL-C to exit.

If the Prometheus service is running smoothly, we can now enable it to fire up automatically when rebooting the system.

sudo systemctl enable prometheus.service

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