Lab
Cloud

Building a Prometheus Server

Prometheus is a powerful tool for monitoring your infrastructure. Getting started with Prometheus is as easy as setting up a single Prometheus server. There are multiple ways to install Prometheus. In this lab, you will have the opportunity to set up a Prometheus server by installing Prometheus from pre-compiled binaries made available by the Prometheus team.

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Path Info

Level

Intermediate

Duration

45m

Last updated

Aug 30, 2025

Challenge

Download and Install Prometheus

Create the prometheus user and directories:

sudo useradd -M -r -s /bin/false prometheus

sudo mkdir /etc/prometheus /var/lib/prometheus

Download and extract the pre-compiled binaries:

wget https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.16.0/prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

tar xzf prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64/

Move the files from the downloaded archive to the appropriate locations, and set ownership on these files and directories to the prometheus user:

sudo cp prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64/{prometheus,promtool} /usr/local/bin/

sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /usr/local/bin/{prometheus,promtool}

sudo cp -r prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64/{consoles,console_libraries} /etc/prometheus/

sudo cp prometheus-2.16.0.linux-amd64/prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /etc/prometheus

sudo chown prometheus:prometheus /var/lib/prometheus

Run Prometheus in the foreground to make sure everything is set up correctly so far:
```
prometheus --config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
```

Challenge

Configure Prometheus as a `systemd` Service

Create a systemd unit file for Prometheus:

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

Define the Prometheus service in the unit file:

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus Time Series Collection and Processing Server
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
Type=simple
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

Start and enable the Prometheus service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

sudo systemctl start prometheus

sudo systemctl enable prometheus

Verify the Prometheus service is healthy:
```
sudo systemctl status prometheus
```
Make an HTTP request to Prometheus to verify it is able to respond:
```
curl localhost:9090
```
You can also access Prometheus in a browser using the server's public IP address: http://<PROMETHEUS_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:9090.

Author

Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

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We will provide the credentials and environment necessary for you to practice right within your browser.

Guided walkthrough

Follow along with the author’s guided walkthrough and build something new in your provided environment!

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