Install Prometheus Windows Exporter Agent EP.3 - Grafana on Windows

Introduction

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install the Prometheus Windows Exporter Agent on your Windows system. This agent allows you to monitor and collect metrics efficiently, making it an essential tool for system administrators and developers. By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional Prometheus Windows Agent set up and ready to collect valuable performance data.

Step 1: Download the Prometheus Windows Exporter

• Go to the Prometheus Windows Exporter Releases page.
• Locate the latest release version.
• Download the appropriate installer for your system (e.g., windows_exporter-*.msi).

Step 2: Install the Prometheus Windows Exporter

• Run the downloaded MSI installer.

Follow the installation wizard prompts

• Accept the license agreement.
• Choose the installation directory (default is usually fine).
• Select the features to install (choose the default settings for a standard setup).
• Complete the installation process.

Step 3: Configure the Windows Exporter

• Open the configuration file for the exporter. This file is typically located in the installation directory.
• You can add or modify the settings in the YAML file. A sample configuration can be found here.
• Save the configuration file after making the necessary changes.

Step 4: Start the Prometheus Windows Exporter

• Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
• Navigate to the installation directory of the Windows Exporter.
• Run the following command to start the exporter:

  windows_exporter.exe
  

• Alternatively, if you installed it as a service, you can start the service by running:

  net start windows_exporter
  

Step 5: Verify the Installation

• Open a web browser.
• Go to the default internal URL for the Windows Exporter: http://localhost:9182.
• You should see a page displaying various metrics collected by the exporter.

Step 6: Set Up Prometheus to Scrape Metrics

• Open your Prometheus configuration file (prometheus.yml).

Add the following job configuration under the scrape_configs section:

scrape_configs

- job_name: 'windows_exporter'

static_configs

- targets: ['localhost:9182']
• Save the changes to the configuration file.

Step 7: Restart Prometheus

• If Prometheus is already running, restart it to apply the new configuration.
• You can usually do this by stopping and starting the service or using the command line.

Step 8: Access Prometheus and Verify Data Collection

• Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:9090.
• Go to the "Targets" page to see the status of the scraping jobs.
• You should see the windows_exporter job listed as UP, indicating that metrics are being collected successfully.

Step 9: Integrate with Grafana

• Install Grafana if you haven't already, following the instructions on the Grafana website.
• Open Grafana in your web browser at http://localhost:3000.
• Add Prometheus as a data source by navigating to the Data Sources section in Grafana.
• Configure the Prometheus URL as http://localhost:9090.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed and configured the Prometheus Windows Exporter Agent on your Windows system. With this setup, you can now monitor crucial system metrics through Prometheus and visualize them in Grafana. As a next step, consider exploring Grafana’s dashboard features to create visual representations of your collected data, or delve deeper into Prometheus queries to extract more meaningful insights from your system metrics.