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Lab 11.2 - Creating Custom Dashboards

Lab Objectives​

By the end of this lab, you will be able to:

  • Create a custom dashboard in Grafana.
  • Add panels with Prometheus metrics.
  • Use PromQL for queries.
  • Configure basic alerts.

Estimated Duration​

45-60 minutes

Prerequisites​

  • Prometheus and Grafana installed (Lab 11.1).
  • Access to the Grafana interface.

Part 1: Creating a Dashboard​

Step 1.1: Access Grafana​

Port-forward to Grafana:

kubectl port-forward -n monitoring svc/prometheus-grafana 3000:80

Log in at http://localhost:3000.

Step 1.2: Create a New Dashboard​

  1. Click "+" → "Create Dashboard".
  2. Click "Add visualization".
  3. Select "Prometheus" as the data source.

Part 2: Adding Panels​

Step 2.1: CPU Usage Panel​

Create a panel for CPU usage:

  1. In the query field, enter: 
    rate(container_cpu_usage_seconds_total[5m])
  2. Set the title: "CPU Usage".
  3. Save the panel.

Step 2.2: Memory Usage Panel​

Create a panel for memory:

  1. Query: 
    container_memory_usage_bytes
  2. Title: "Memory Usage".
  3. Format: "Bytes".

Part 3: Advanced Configuration​

Step 3.1: Adding Labels​

Use queries with labels:

sum(rate(container_cpu_usage_seconds_total{namespace="default"}[5m])) by (pod)

Step 3.2: Time Series Graphs​

Configure a time series graph to visualize the evolution.

Part 4: Basic Alerts​

Step 4.1: Create an Alert​

  1. In a panel, click "Alert".
  2. Configure the condition (e.g., CPU > 80%).
  3. Define the alert message.

Lab Summary​

In this lab, you created custom dashboards in Grafana with Prometheus metrics. You learned how to use PromQL and configure alerts.

Next Steps​

The next lab will show you how to configure logging with Fluentd/Fluent Bit.

Lab 11.3: Logging Configuration

Lab created on: December 2024