--- name: monitoring-prometheus-exporters title: Collecting metrics by using Prometheus exporters description: You can use Prometheus exporters to collect metrics from hosts, services, or apps which do not natively expose Prometheus-formatted metrics. You can monitor these metrics through a Monitoring instance. last-updated: 2025-07-24 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. --- # Collecting metrics by using Prometheus exporters {: #prometheus-exporters} You can use Prometheus exporters to collect metrics from hosts, services, or apps which do not natively expose Prometheus-formatted metrics. You can monitor these metrics through a Monitoring instance. {: shortdesc} See the [IBM support statement](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-agent_support&format=markdown) for the use of Prometheus exporters. {: important} There are different sources for Prometheus exporters: - Official exporters are available in [the official Prometheus GitHub organization](https://github.com/prometheus){: external} and are labelled **official**. - Sysdig curates and maintains [an integrations library](https://docs.sysdig.com/en/docs/sysdig-monitor/integrations/integration-library/){: external}. The integrations library is an enterprise resource catalog where you can find supported Monitoring integrations for Kubernetes platforms and cloud-native services. You can collect metrics from different sources such as: - Hosts for which a Monitoring agent is not available such as Windows systems or VMware ESXi-Host systems. - Hosts for which a Monitoring agent is available, but you need to collect other types of metrics such as IPMI sensor metrics or hardware and kernel-relaed metrics. - Services like MySQL database ![Prometheus integration with Monitoring](images/prometheus.svg "Prometheus integration with Monitoring"){: caption="Prometheus integration with Monitoring" caption-side="bottom"} The following table lists some Prometheus exporters that you can use to monitor your infrastructure: | Exporters | Use case | Source | |--------------------------|----------------------------------------|---------| | `Blackbox Exporter` | Allows blackbox probing of endpoints over HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP and ICMP. The monitoring agent can be used in conjunction with the Blackbox exporter to collect availability metrics. | [Prometheus Blackbox exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter){: external} (official)| | `IPMI Exporter` | Collects Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) device sensor metrics. | [Prometheus IPMI exporter](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter){: external} (opensource) | | `Windows Exporter` | Collects Windows system metrics. | [Windows Exporter](https://docs.sysdig.com/en/docs/sysdig-monitor/integrations/integration-library/windows/){: external} | | `Node Exporter` | Collects hardware and kernel-related metrics that are exposed by *NIX kernels. | [Node exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter){: external} (official) | | `VMware Exporter` | Collects metrics from VMware vCenter deployments. | [VMWare exporter](https://github.com/pryorda/vmware_exporter){: external} (Opensource) | {: caption="Exporters" caption-side="top"} ## Windows exporter {: #prometheus-exporters-wmi} Configure the [Prometheus `windows_exporter`](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter){: external} to collect Windows system metrics. {: note} The Prometheus Windows exporter runs as a Windows service. You configure the metrics that you want to monitor by enabling collectors. The following collectors are supported: | Collector name | Information about metrics collected per collector | |----------------|---------------------------------------------------| | `cpu` | [CPU metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.cpu.md){: external} | | `logical_disk` | [Disk metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.logical_disk.md){: external} | | `os` | [Operating System metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.os.md){: external} | | `system` | [System metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.system.md){: external} | | `net` | [Network interface metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.net.md){: external} | | `memory` | [Memory metrics](https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.memory.md){: external} | {: caption="Collectors" caption-side="top"} To learn how to configure the Windows exporter, see [Monitoring a Windows environment](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-windows&format=markdown). ## IPMI exporter {: #prometheus-exporters-ipmi} In addition to the set of metrics that are automatically collected by the monitoring agent, you might want to collect other metrics such as sensor metrics. Configure the [Prometheus IPMI exporter](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter){: external} to collect Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) device sensor metrics. {: note} * The Prometheus IPMI Exporter exporter supports local IPMI devices and remote devices that can be accessed by using Remote Management Control Protocol (RMCP). * When you use RMCP to access remote devices, you can use an IPMI exporter to monitor multiple IPMI devices. You identify each device by passing the target hostname as a parameter. * The IPMI exporter relies on tools from the FreeIPMI suite. You can collect the following metrics when you configure the IPMI exporter: * IPMI admin metrics The metric `ipmi_up {collector=""}` reports `1` when data from a remote host is collected successfully. It reports `0` for collection of data in a local host. The metric `ipmi_scrape_duration_seconds` reports the amount of time that it takes the collector to retrieve the data. * IPMI System event log (SEL) metrics The metric `ipmi_sel_entries_count` reports the number of entries in the system event log. The metric `ipmi_sel_free_space_bytes` reports the number of free bytes for new ystem event log entries. * IPMI sensor data The IPMI exporter collects 2 metrics per sensor type: state and value. A value of `0` reports a normal state. A value of `1` reports a warning state. A value of `2` reports a critical state. A value of `NaN` reports information not available. For example, see the metrics for different sensors: Temperature sensor metrics: `ipmi_temperature_celsius`, `ipmi_temperature_state` Fan speed sensor metrics: `ipmi_fan_speed_rpm`, `ipmi_fan_speed_state` Voltage sensor metrics: `ipmi_voltage_state`, `ipmi_voltage_volts` * IPMI chassis power state of the machine The metric `ipmi_chassis_power_state` informs about the current state of the chassis of the machine. It has a value of `1` when the power is on. It has a value of `0` when the power is off. * DCMI data The metric `ipmi_dcmi_power_consumption_current_watts` informs about the live power consumption of the machine in Watts. * BMC details The metric ipmi_bmc_info includes information about the firmware revision and manufacturer in labels and has a value of `1`. For more information, see [Prometheus IPMI Exporter](https://github.com/prometheus-community/ipmi_exporter){: external}. To learn how to configure the IPMI exporter, see [Configuring the Prometheus IPMI Exporter to monitor sensor metrics](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-ipmi&format=markdown). You can also check the tutorial: [Configure the Prometheus IPMI Exporter to monitor sensor metrics in a Bare metal](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-baremetal_linux&format=markdown#baremetal_linux_step3). ## Blackbox exporter {: #prometheus-exporters-blackbox} Allows blackbox probing of endpoints over HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP and ICMP. The monitoring agent can be used in conjunction with the Blackbox exporter to collect availability metrics. Configure the [Prometheus Blackbox exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter){: external} to monitor host availability, such as URL sites. {: note} ## Node exporter {: #prometheus-exporters-node} In addition to the set of metrics that are automatically collected by the monitoring agent, you might want to collect other Linux host metrics that are exposed by *NIX kernels. Configure the [Prometheus Node exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter){: external} to collect hardware and kernel metrics that are exposed by *NIX kernels. {: note} For more information, see [Monitoring Linux host metrics with the Node Exporter](https://prometheus.io/docs/guides/node-exporter/){: external}. ## VMWare exporter {: #prometheus-exporters-vmware} For information on configuring a VMWare exporter, see [Monitoring for VMware vCenter Server deployments](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/monitoring?topic=monitoring-vmware-vcenter&format=markdown)