Quick Start - Windows

Create your configuration file

1. Before creating your configuration file (metricshub.yaml), ensure that the required directories exist. If they do not, open a Command Prompt and run the following commands to create them:

   mkdir C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub
   mkdir C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config
   

2. Copy the configuration example metricshub-example.yaml available in C:\Program Files\MetricsHub\config\, paste it into C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config\ and rename the file to metricshub.yaml.

Configure localhost monitoring

The metricshub-example.yaml file you copied already contains the necessary configuration to monitor your localhost through WMI. The relevant section should look like this:

resources:
  localhost:
    attributes:
      host.name: localhost
      host.type: windows
    protocols:
      wmi:
        timeout: 120

Open the C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config\metricshub.yaml file and search for the above section to verify that the configuration is active.

If you wish to use a protocol other than WMI (such as HTTP, PING, SNMP, SSH, IPMI, WBEM, or WinRM), refer to the configuration examples provided in C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config\metricshub.yaml.

Configure Metrics Exporter

In the same configuration file (C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config\metricshub.yaml), add the below configuration under the otel section to push metrics to Prometheus:

otel:
  otel.exporter.otlp.metrics.endpoint: http://localhost:9090/api/v1/otlp/v1/metrics
  otel.exporter.otlp.metrics.protocol: http/protobuf

Start Prometheus

1. Run the below command as administrator to access the directory where Prometheus is installed:

   cd "C:\Program Files\Prometheus"
   

2. Run the below command to start Prometheus:

   prometheus.exe --config.file=prometheus.yml --web.console.templates=consoles --web.console.libraries=console_libraries --storage.tsdb.retention.time=2h --web.enable-lifecycle --web.enable-remote-write-receiver --web.route-prefix=/ --enable-feature=exemplar-storage --enable-feature=otlp-write-receiver
   

3. Type localhost:9090^[3] in your Web browser.

Start the MetricsHub Agent

Run the below command as administrator to start the MetricsHub Agent:

cd "C:\Program Files\MetricsHub"
MetricsHubServiceManager.exe

Verify that metrics are sent to Prometheus

In Prometheus^[3], search for any metrics starting with metricshub_ or hw_ to confirm that data is actually received.

Check Logs

Several log files are created under C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\metricshub\logs as soon as the MetricsHub Agent is started:

• a global MetricsHub log file
• one log file per configured host.

You can configure the log level in the C:\ProgramData\MetricsHub\config\metricshub.yaml file by setting the loggerLevel parameter to:

• info for high level information
• warn for logging warning messages that indicate potential issues which are not immediately critical
• all, trace, or debug for more comprehensive details
• error or fatal for identifying critical issues.

The most common errors you may encounter are:

1. Incorrect Indentation

   An incorrect indentation in the metricshub.yaml file prevents the MetricsHub Agent from starting and generates the following exception in the metricshub-agent-global-error-{timestamp}.log file:

   [2024-04-30T15:56:16,944][ERROR][o.s.m.a.MetricsHubAgentApplication] Failed to start MetricsHub Agent.
   com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.yaml.snakeyaml.error.MarkedYAMLException: mapping values are not allowed here in 'reader', line 29, column 16:
       host.type:windows
   

2. Wrong Host Configuration

   The following entry will be created in the metricshub-agent-{hostname}-{timestamp}.log file if the host configured cannot be reached:

   [o.s.m.e.c.h.NetworkHelper] Hostname {hostname} - Could not resolve the hostname to a valid IP address. The host is considered remote.
   

   If the host is correctly configured, ensure it is reachable by pinging it and testing your network.

3. Failure to export metrics

The following error occurs if a local OTLP receiver is unavailable to collect MetricsHub logs:

Feb 27, 2024 1:24:26 PM io.opentelemetry.sdk.internal.ThrottlingLogger doLog WARNING: Failed to export metrics. 
Server responded with gRPC status code 2. Error message: Failed to connect to localhost/[0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1]:4317

To solve this problem, ensure that the OTLP receiver and more specifically the otel.exporter.otlp.metrics.endpoint and otel.exporter.otlp.logs.endpoint parameters are correctly set in the metricshub.yaml configuration file.