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Using Alertmanager with Prometheus

Prometheus does not just limit us to recording metrics. One of Prometheus's core functionalities is the ability to define and route alerts to any alert management endpoint we define — or, in the case of this hands-on lab, Prometheus's own sideproject, Alertmanager. Once we have our desired alerting thresholds defined, we need to set up our routes and receivers for the Alertmanager, ensuring our notifications are going to the right end user at the correct frequency and with the right information.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Published
Clock icon Apr 05, 2019

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Add a Rules File

    1. Add a rules file configuration to the Prometheus config:

      sudo $EDITOR /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

rule_files:
  - "rules.yml"

    2. Save and exit.

    3. Create and open the rules.yml file:

      sudo $EDITOR /etc/prometheus/rules.yml

  2. Challenge

    Add an Alert to Track Uptime

    1. Before creating the alert itself, create a recording of the desired metric:

      groups:
  - name: uptime
    rules:
      - record: job:uptime:average:ft
        expr: avg without (instance) (up{job="forethought"})

    2. Create an alert based on this recording:

      groups:
  - name: uptime
    rules:
      - record: job:uptime:average:ft
        expr: avg without (instance) (up{job="forethought"})
      - alert: ForethoughtApplicationDown
        expr: job:uptime:average:ft < .75
        for: 30s
        labels:
          severity: page
          team: devops

    3. Save and exit.

    4. Restart Prometheus:

      sudo systemctl restart prometheus
sudo systemctl status prometheus

  3. Challenge

    Configure Alertmanager to Use an SMTP Smarthost

    1. Open the Alertmanager configuration file:

      sudo $EDITOR /etc/alertmanager/alertmanager.yml

    2. Define the global settings:

      global:
  resolve_timeout: 5m
  smtp_smarthost: 'localhost:25'
  smtp_from: 'prometheus'

  4. Challenge

    Set up Alertmanager Routing

    1. Set up the backup route:

      route:
  receiver: 'email_backup'
  group_by: ['alertname']
  group_wait: 10s
  group_interval: 10s
  repeat_interval: 1m

    2. Set up the route for critical alerts:

      route:
  receiver: 'email_backup'
  group_by: ['alertname']
  group_wait: 10s
  group_interval: 10s
  repeat_interval: 1m
  routes:
    - match:
        severity: 'critical'
      group_by: ['team']
      receiver: 'email_pager'

    3. Set up the route for team alerts:

      route:
  receiver: 'email_backup'
  group_by: ['alertname']
  group_wait: 10s
  group_interval: 10s
  repeat_interval: 1m
  routes:
    - match:
        severity: 'critical'
      group_by: ['team']
      receiver: 'email_pager'
      routes:
        - match:
            team: devops
            receiver: 'email_devops'
``

  5. Challenge

    Create the Needed Receivers

    1. Create the receivers:

      receivers:
- name: 'email_backup'
  email_configs:
    - to: '[email protected]'
- name: 'email_pager'
  email_configs:
    - to: '[email protected]'
- name: 'email_devops'
  email_configs:
    - to: '[email protected]'

    2. Save and exit.

    3. Restart Alertmanager:

      sudo systemctl restart alertmanager
A Cloud Guru - Labs - Using Alertmanager with Prometheus
Author
A Cloud Guru

The Cloud Content team comprises subject matter experts hyper focused on services offered by the leading cloud vendors (AWS, GCP, and Azure), as well as cloud-related technologies such as Linux and DevOps. The team is thrilled to share their knowledge to help you build modern tech solutions from the ground up, secure and optimize your environments, and so much more!

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