How to Install Prometheus on Ubuntu 22.04

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Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit, widely used for metrics collection and analysis.

Prerequisites

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• An Ubuntu 22.04 VPS
• A user with sudo privileges
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands

Update Your System

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sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Create a Prometheus User

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sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false prometheus

Create Directories

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sudo mkdir /etc/prometheus
sudo mkdir /var/lib/prometheus

Download Prometheus

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Check the Prometheus download page for the latest version. Example for v3.4.0:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v3.4.0/prometheus-3.4.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xvf prometheus-3.4.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd prometheus-3.4.0.linux-amd64

Move binaries and set permissions:

sudo mv prometheus promtool /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/
sudo chown -R prometheus:prometheus /usr/local/bin/prometheus /usr/local/bin/promtool /etc/prometheus /var/lib/prometheus

Configure Prometheus Service

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sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service

Paste:

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prometheus \
  --config.file /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
  --storage.tsdb.path /var/lib/prometheus/ \
  --web.console.templates=/etc/prometheus/consoles \
  --web.console.libraries=/etc/prometheus/console_libraries

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and exit.

Start and Enable Prometheus

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now prometheus
sudo systemctl status prometheus

Configure Firewall (Optional)

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If ufw is enabled:

sudo ufw allow 9090/tcp
sudo ufw reload

Prometheus runs by default on port 9090.

Access Prometheus Web UI

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Open your browser and go to:

http://your-server-ip:9090

You should see the Prometheus dashboard.

Configure Targets (Optional)

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Edit /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml to add scrape targets:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'prometheus'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9090']

Reload Prometheus configuration without restarting:

sudo systemctl reload prometheus

Summary

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You now have Prometheus running on Ubuntu 22.04.
For production:

• Use reverse proxy with NGINX for HTTPS access
• Enable firewall rules
• Consider node_exporter or other exporters to monitor system metrics