How to Monitor Edge Servers and the Network With Prometheus and Grafana

Step by step

1. Write the stack

   Pin versions and keep data in volumes.

   services:
     prometheus:
       image: prom/prometheus:v2.54.1
       volumes: [./prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:ro, prom:/prometheus]
       ports: ["127.0.0.1:9090:9090"]
       restart: unless-stopped
     node:
       image: prom/node-exporter:v1.8.2
       pid: host
       volumes: [/:/host:ro,rslave]
       command: [--path.rootfs=/host]
       restart: unless-stopped
     snmp:
       image: prom/snmp-exporter:v0.26.0
       restart: unless-stopped
     grafana:
       image: grafana/grafana:11.2.0
       ports: ["3000:3000"]
       volumes: [grafana:/var/lib/grafana]
       restart: unless-stopped
   volumes: { prom: {}, grafana: {} }
   

2. Tell Prometheus what to scrape

   The edge server itself, plus each switch through the SNMP exporter.

   # prometheus.yml
   scrape_configs:
     - job_name: edge
       static_configs: [{ targets: ["node:9100"] }]
     - job_name: switches
       metrics_path: /snmp
       params: { module: [if_mib] }
       static_configs: [{ targets: ["10.1.99.2", "10.1.99.3"] }]
       relabel_configs:
         - { source_labels: [__address__], target_label: __param_target }
         - { source_labels: [__param_target], target_label: instance }
         - { target_label: __address__, replacement: "snmp:9116" }
   

3. Start it

   docker compose up -d && docker compose ps
   

4. Add dashboards

   In Grafana, add Prometheus (http://prometheus:9090) as a data source and import community dashboards for Node Exporter and SNMP interface traffic.

5. Alert on what matters

   Start with a few alerts: edge server disk above 85%, a switch not answering, an uplink above 80% for 15 minutes.

Commands are generic, industry-standard examples. Exact syntax and menu names vary by model and firmware; check your device's manual on the Documentation page.