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
-
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.
-
AI Helped Develop a Linux Exploit
A use-after-free race exploit was discovered and exploited on CentOS Stream 9.
-
Yet Another Linux Kernel Vulnerability Discovered
Affecting millions of systems, a kernel flaw discovered by Qualys could allow users to gain root privileges.
-
Ubuntu 26.10 to Include Ubuntu Certified Hardware Check
If you've ever wondered if your laptop or PC is officially certified to run Ubuntu, that curiosity will soon be met.
-
Substantial Update to IPFire Now Available
The lastest version of IPFire features a fundamental change to how the system handles DNS.
-
Gnome Working on Test Center App to Make Testing Easier
It's now possible to test experimental features on the Gnome desktop without worrying that you'll break things.