How Prometheus Components Communicate

Components in Prometheus communicate primarily through the use of the HTTP protocol. These components include Exporter, Prometheus Server, and Alertmanager. The Exporter collects monitoring data and exposes it to the Prometheus Server, which retrieves data from the Exporter periodically and stores it in a local database. The Alertmanager is responsible for handling alert notifications.

The Exporter exposes metrics through an interface, allowing the Prometheus Server to regularly fetch the Exporter’s metrics data based on the job configuration option in the configuration file. The Prometheus Server stores the fetched data in a local time series database, and uses the PromQL query language for data analysis and display. The Alertmanager periodically retrieves alert information from the Prometheus Server and sends notifications to the relevant personnel based on configured alert rules.

Using the HTTP protocol for inter-component communication, the Prometheus system achieves loose coupling between components while also ensuring reliable data transmission and system scalability.