Prometheus — Prerequisites

What to Know Before Starting Prometheus

Prometheus collects metrics from your infrastructure and applications. These foundations help.

Required

1. Basic Linux

Prometheus runs on Linux servers (or in Docker/Kubernetes). You should know:

systemctl start/stop/status prometheus   # Service management
curl http://localhost:9090               # Test HTTP endpoints
tail -f /var/log/prometheus/prometheus.log  # Read logs

2. Understanding of What Metrics Are

A metric is a number measured over time. Examples:

Before diving into Prometheus, make sure you understand WHY you'd monitor these numbers and what you'd do when they spike.

3. Basic Networking

Prometheus uses HTTP to scrape metrics from targets. You should understand:

4. YAML Syntax

Prometheus configuration is YAML:

global:
  scrape_interval: 15s

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'node-exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9100']

Nice to Have

Docker Basics

The fastest way to run Prometheus is with Docker Compose. Understanding docker-compose.yml helps tremendously.

Kubernetes (for Production Prometheus)

Most production Prometheus deployments run in Kubernetes using the Prometheus Operator. Kubernetes knowledge is needed for the Advanced section.

SQL or Any Query Language

PromQL (Prometheus Query Language) has similar concepts to SQL — filtering, aggregation, grouping. If you've written SQL queries, PromQL will feel familiar.

Learning Order

Linux basics (if needed)
      ↓
Docker basics (for quick local setup)
      ↓
Prometheus Installation (Docker Compose)
      ↓
Prometheus Fundamentals (scraping, PromQL basics)
      ↓
Intermediate (alerting, AlertManager, recording rules)
      ↓
Advanced (Kubernetes integration, Thanos, production patterns)

Time Estimate