# Setting Up a Monitoring Stack in Docker Compose

This guide provides instructions on setting up a comprehensive monitoring stack using Grafana, Prometheus, Node Exporter, cAdvisor and Loki. These components are orchestrated with Docker Compose and exposed via an NGINX reverse proxy, making them accessible through a single domain.

## Components

* **Grafana**: The analytics and monitoring solution with support for multiple data sources, including Prometheus.
    
* **Prometheus**: The monitoring and alerting toolkit, collecting metrics from configured targets at specified intervals.
    
* **Node Exporter**: A Prometheus exporter for hardware and OS metrics exposed by \*NIX kernels.
    
* **cAdvisor**: Analyzes resource usage and performance characteristics of running containers.
    
* **Loki**: A horizontally-scalable, highly-available, multi-tenant log aggregation system.
    
* **NGINX**: Used as a reverse proxy to expose Grafana on the internet securely.
    

## Prerequisites

* Docker and Docker Compose installed on your host machine.
    
* Domain name configured to point to the host machine (for NGINX configuration).
    

## Configuration Files Overview

* `docker-compose.yml`: Defines the services, networks, and volumes for the Docker containers.
    
* `prometheus.yml`: Configuration file for Prometheus to define scrape targets and intervals.
    
* `grafana.ini`: Configuration file for Grafana's settings, including SMTP for email notifications.
    
* `loki-config.yml`: Configuration file for Loki to define the storage backend and other settings.
    
* `domain.conf`: NGINX configuration for proxying requests to Grafana and handling WebSocket connections.
    

## Installation Steps

1. **Configure Docker Daemon**: Enable Docker metrics by adding the following to `/etc/docker/daemon.json` and restarting Docker:
    
    ```bash
    {
      "metrics-addr": "127.0.0.1:9323"
    }
    # Then reload Docker configurations:
    sudo systemctl reload docker
    ```
    
2. **Install Loki plugin for Docker**: Install the Loki plugin for Docker to enable log collection:
    
    ```bash
    docker plugin install grafana/loki-docker-driver:latest --alias loki --grant-all-permissions
    ```
    
3. **Clone the Repository**: Clone the repository to your host machine:
    
    ```bash
    git clone https://gist.github.com/398e94fb0aebb994b25223d99e7ae769.git monitoring-stack
    cd monitoring-stack
    ```
    
4. **Start the Services**: Start the monitoring stack using Docker Compose:
    
    ```bash
    docker-compose up -d
    ```
    
5. **Access Grafana**: Access Grafana at `http://<your-domain>` and log in with the default credentials (username: `admin`, password: `admin`).
    

> **Important Notes:**
> 
> * Replace placeholder values in grafana.ini with your SMTP credentials to enable email notifications.
>     
> * Adjust the domain.conf to match your domain and specific requirements.
>     
> * Review Docker and NGINX logs in case of any issues during setup.
>     

6. How to send container logs to loki:
    
    ```dockerfile
    docker run --name nginx-loki -d \
    -p 8080:80 \
    --log-driver=loki \
    --log-opt loki-url=http://localhost:3100/loki/api/v1/push \
    nginx:latest
    ```