w3resource

Postgres Exporter for Monitoring PostgreSQL


Monitoring PostgreSQL with Postgres Exporter: Complete Guide

Postgres Exporter is a monitoring tool used with Prometheus to collect and expose PostgreSQL metrics. It enables real-time monitoring of performance, connections, queries, and other database activities. Learn how to set it up and use it effectively.

What is Postgres Exporter?

Postgres Exporter is a lightweight monitoring tool that integrates PostgreSQL with Prometheus. It gathers metrics about the database and exposes them via HTTP endpoints for Prometheus to scrape.

Key Features:

  • Connection Monitoring: Track active, idle, and total connections.
  • Query Performance: Analyze query execution times.
  • Database Size: Monitor individual and total database sizes.
  • Transaction Stats: Observe commits, rollbacks, and deadlocks.
  • Custom Metrics: Define and monitor user-specific SQL queries.

How to set up Postgres Exporter?

  • Prerequisites
  • A running PostgreSQL instance
  • Prometheus installed

Docker or Kubernetes (optional for containerized setups)

Step 1: Install Postgres Exporter

Using Docker

Run the Postgres Exporter container:
docker run -d \
  --name=postgres-exporter \
  -e DATA_SOURCE_NAME="postgresql://user:password@hostname:5432/postgres?sslmode=disable" \
  -p 9187:9187 \
  prometheuscommunity/postgres-exporter

Note: Replace user, password, and hostname with your PostgreSQL credentials.

Kubernetes Deployment

Create a postgres-exporter-deployment.yaml file:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: postgres-exporter
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: postgres-exporter
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: postgres-exporter
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: postgres-exporter
        image: prometheuscommunity/postgres-exporter
        ports:
        - containerPort: 9187
        env:
        - name: DATA_SOURCE_NAME
          value: "postgresql://user:password@hostname:5432/postgres?sslmode=disable"
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: postgres-exporter-service
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 9187
    targetPort: 9187
  selector:
    app: postgres-exporter

Apply the YAML configuration:

kubectl apply -f postgres-exporter-deployment.yaml

Step 2: Configure Prometheus

Add the Postgres Exporter endpoint to Prometheus:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'postgres-exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['<exporter-host>:9187']

Note: Restart Prometheus after updating the configuration.

Step 3: Access Metrics

Navigate to the Postgres Exporter metrics endpoint:

http://:9187/metrics

Note: Prometheus will now scrape these metrics, making them available for dashboards and alerts.

Step 4: Visualize Metrics with Grafana

Integrate Grafana with Prometheus to create dashboards for PostgreSQL metrics. You can use predefined templates like PostgreSQL Overview or customize your visualizations.

Additional Tips:

  • Securing Access: Use authentication or network policies to secure the exporter endpoint.
  • Custom Metrics: Extend default metrics by writing SQL queries in a custom configuration file.
  • Alerts: Define Prometheus alerts to get notified for anomalies like high latency or low disk space.

All PostgreSQL Questions, Answers, and Code Snippets Collection.



Become a Patron!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for latest update.

It will be nice if you may share this link in any developer community or anywhere else, from where other developers may find this content. Thanks.

https://www.w3resource.com/PostgreSQL/snippets/postgres-exporter-monitoring.php