🎯 What It Is

Prometheus collects metrics (CPU, memory, HTTP requests), and Grafana visualizes them in dashboards — giving you real-time visibility into your k3s cluster.

✅ Why Helm?

It automates complex setups (RBAC, PVCs, Services) in one command.

💡 Real-World Analogy

Like installing a home security system:

• Prometheus = sensors (collect data)
• Grafana = monitoring screen (show alerts, trends)

🧪 Step-by-Step: Install on k3s

🔧 Step 1: Create a Monitoring Namespace

kubectl create namespace monitoring

🔧 Step 2: Add Prometheus Helm Repo

helm repo add prometheus-community <https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts>
helm repo update

🔧 Step 3: Install Prometheus + Grafana (All-in-One)

💡 We’ll use the kube-prometheus-stack chart (includes Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and pre-built dashboards).

helm install prometheus prometheus-community/kube-prometheus-stack \\\\
  --namespace monitoring \\\\
  --set grafana.adminPassword="admin123" \\\\
  --set prometheus.prometheusSpec.storageSpec.volumeClaimTemplate.spec.resources.requests.storage="10Gi"

✅ What this does:

• Deploys Prometheus (with 10Gi persistent storage)
• Deploys Grafana (admin user: admin, password: admin123)
• Includes pre-configured dashboards for k3s

🔧 Step 4: Verify Installation

kubectl get pods -n monitoring
# Wait until all are Running (may take 2-3 mins)

kubectl get svc -n monitoring
# Note the Grafana service (usually `prometheus-grafana`)

🔧 Step 5: Access Grafana Dashboard

# Port-forward to Grafana
kubectl port-forward svc/prometheus-grafana 3000:80 -n monitoring

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