Goal
This lab built a local monitoring stack on macOS with Docker Compose.
The target workflow was:
node-exporter
-> Prometheus scrape
-> alert rules
-> Alertmanager
-> Gmail SMTP notification
-> Grafana dashboard
Components
node-exporter exposed machine metrics such as CPU, memory, and network values.
Prometheus scraped those metrics and evaluated alert rules.
Alertmanager handled routing and delivery for alerts.
Grafana provided dashboards for visual inspection.
What made it useful
The important part was building the full loop, not only starting containers.
A monitoring stack is only useful when each link is verified:
- the exporter exposes metrics
- Prometheus scrapes successfully
- rules evaluate as expected
- Alertmanager receives fired alerts
- email delivery works
- Grafana reads Prometheus data
Takeaway
End-to-end monitoring needs proof at every stage. A dashboard alone is not monitoring, and an alert rule alone is not notification. The system works only when collection, evaluation, routing, and delivery are all tested together.
