System monitoring for a new generation with Prometheus
Big Watcher
© Lead Image © Kurhan, 123RF.com
Legacy monitoring solutions are fine for small-to-medium-sized networks, but complex environments benefit from a different approach. Prometheus is an interesting alternative to classic tools like Nagios.
Where monitoring is required, alerting and trending are never far away. Alerting plays a major role in practically any monitoring environment; the idea is to draw the administrator's attention to failures. And, trending is also important. Trending helps the admin detect potential bottlenecks at an early stage.
A quick look at the available monitoring solutions shows why Monitoring, Alerting, and Trending (MAT) are still an issue for many networks, particularly large and complex networks. Nagios, which has dominated the monitoring market for a long time, is a behemoth of complexity and comes with some inherent weaknesses.
Nagios alternatives such as Icinga have attempted to address some of the issues, but their scalability is limited. The ballast of compatibility with Nagios and its plugins aggravates the situation. A state-of-art feature like trending was not exactly designed into the legacy Nagios. PNP4Nagios [1], a performance-tracking Nagios add-on, is one of the few options for useful trending with Nagios (Figure 1).
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
2,000 Vulnerabilities per Linux Release
Thanks to AI bug hunters, the Linux kernel is seeing record numbers of vulnerabilities, and it's overwhelming developers.
-
Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification Law
So long as Linux is distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses, the OS is exempt from being required to verify the age of its users in California.
-
Roll Out the Cake: Linux Turns 35
35 years ago, a Finnish student began a humble project that would forever change the course of technology.
-
China Switching from Windows to Linux
China has ordered several government agencies to drop a Chinese-developed version of Windows 10 in favor of either KylinOS or UOS.
-
Pine64 Halts Production of Linux Devices
With continued DRAM and eMMC shortages, Pine64 has decided to discontinue production of Linux devices.
-
The Bullet-Proof KDE Software Initiative Is Coming
KDE, Techpaladin, and Kubuntu Focus have announced a new initiative that will provide at least three years of support for KDE Plasma 6.6 LTS and related software.
-
Linux Mint Shares a Possible Kernel Cleanup Solution
For those on Linux Mint who like to keep multiple kernels around but don't want them to take up too much space, you might be getting a new automated tool.
-
CachyOS Gets an Update
CachyOS August 2026 release is now available with the latest version of KDE, some new features, and plenty of improvements.
-
The Linux Kernel Dev Staging Area Now Rejects AI-Generated Patches
Unless a kernel patch is a valid security fix, it will be rejected if it was created using AI.
-
Linux Surpasses Double-Digit Market Share
According to two sources, the Linux operating system has hit a major milestone in market share that naysayers thought would never happen.