03. Install Node Exporter and Start as a Service

Now we will install the Prometheus Node Exporter on our existing server and configure it as a Service so that it keeps running in the background.

We will download the node exporter binary from the Prometheus downloads page at https://prometheus.io/download/#node_exporter

Download Prometheus Node Exporter Binary SSH into your Prometheus server, and run

wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v0.18.1/node_exporter-0.18.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Untar it,

tar xzf node_exporter-0.18.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Copy it to the /usr/local/bin/ folder

cp node_exporter-0.18.1.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/node_exporter

Configure Prometheus Node Exporter as a Service, Create a file called node-exporter.service

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/node-exporter.service

Add the script and save

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus Node Exporter Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now start and check the service is running.

systemctl daemon-reload
sudo service node-exporter start
sudo service node-exporter status

Node exporter will now be running on http://[your domain or ip]:9100/metrics

Add the new scrape config for the new node exporter.

sudo vi /usr/local/bin/prometheus/prometheus.yml Scroll down to the bottom and add a new scrape config

  - job_name: 'node-exporter'
    static_configs:
    - targets: ['localhost:9100']

and restart the prometheus service.

sudo service prometheus restart
sudo service prometheus status