Install and Configure Prometheus MySQL Exporter

Step 1 – Add Prometheus system user and group:

$ sudo groupadd --system prometheus
$ sudo useradd -s /sbin/nologin --system -g prometheus prometheus

# This user will manage the exporter service.

Code language: PHP (php)

Step 2 – Download and install Prometheus MySQL Exporter

This should be done on MySQL / MariaDB servers, both slaves and master servers. You may need to check Prometheus MySQL exporter releases page for the latest release, then export the latest version.

• https://github.com/prometheus/mysqld_exporter/releases

$ curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/prometheus/mysqld_exporter/releases/latest   | grep browser_download_url   | grep linux-amd64 | cut -d '"' -f 4   | wget -qi -
$ tar xvf mysqld_exporter*.tar.gz
$ sudo mv  mysqld_exporter-*.linux-amd64/mysqld_exporter /usr/local/bin/
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mysqld_exporter

# Confirm installation by checking version of mysqld_exporter
$ mysqld_exporter  --versionCode language: PHP (php)

Step 3 – Create Prometheus exporter database user

$ mysql -u root -p

The user should have PROCESS, SELECT, REPLICATION CLIENT grants:

mysql> CREATE USER 'mysqld_exporter'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';
mysql> GRANT PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT, SELECT ON *.* TO 'mysqld_exporter'@'localhost';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> EXIT

# If you have a Master-Slave database architecture, create user on the master servers only.
# WITH MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS 2 is used to set a max connection limit for the user to avoid overloading the server with monitoring scrapes under heavy load.Code language: PHP (php)

Step 4 – Configure database credentials

# Create database credentials file:
$ sudo vim /etc/.mysqld_exporter.cnf

# Add correct username and password for user create

[client]
user=mysqld_exporter
password=StrongPassword

# Set ownership permissions:
$ sudo chown root:prometheus /etc/.mysqld_exporter.cnfCode language: PHP (php)

Step 5 – Create systemd unit file ( For Systemd systems )

This is for systemd servers, for SysV init system, use Prometheus MySQL exporter init script for SysV init system

Create a new service file:

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/mysql_exporter.service

Add the following content

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus MySQL Exporter
After=network.target
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mysqld_exporter \
--config.my-cnf /etc/.mysqld_exporter.cnf \
--collect.global_status \
--collect.info_schema.innodb_metrics \
--collect.auto_increment.columns \
--collect.info_schema.processlist \
--collect.binlog_size \
--collect.info_schema.tablestats \
--collect.global_variables \
--collect.info_schema.query_response_time \
--collect.info_schema.userstats \
--collect.info_schema.tables \
--collect.perf_schema.tablelocks \
--collect.perf_schema.file_events \
--collect.perf_schema.eventswaits \
--collect.perf_schema.indexiowaits \
--collect.perf_schema.tableiowaits \
--collect.slave_status \
--web.listen-address=0.0.0.0:9104

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

If your server has a public and private network, you may need to replace 0.0.0.0:9104 with private IP, e.g. 192.168.4.5:9104

Step 6 – When done, reload systemd and start mysql_exporter service

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable mysql_exporter
$ sudo systemctl start mysql_exporter

Step 7 – Configure MySQL endpoint to be scraped by Prometheus Server

Login to your Prometheus server and Configure endpoint to scrape. Below is an example for two MySQL database servers.

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: server1_db
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['10.10.1.10:9104']
        labels:
          alias: db1

  - job_name: server2_db
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['10.10.1.11:9104']
        labels:
          alias: db2

The first server has the IP address 10.10.1.10 and the second one is 10.10.1.11. Add other targets using the similar format. Job names should be unique for each target.
Code language: CSS (css)

Create / Import Grafana Dashboard for MySQL Prometheus exporter

Let’s download MySQL_Overview dashboard which has a good overview of database performance.

$ mkdir ~/grafana-dashboards
$ cd ~/grafana-dashboards
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/grafana-dashboards/master/dashboards/MySQL_Overview.json

Upload Prometheus MySQL dashboard(s) to grafana
Go to Dashboards > Import > Upload .json file 
Locate the directory with dashboard file and import
Metrics collected should start showing.

You need to restart Grafana server to import these dashboards.

sudo systemctl restart grafana-server
sudo service grafana-server restart
You can then start using the dashboards on Grafana. I’ll do a guide for how to Monitor Linux server with Prometheus, for OS metrics, before then, check similar guides below:

How to monitor Linux systems with Grafana, telegraf, and InfluxDB.
Monitor Linux Server Performance with Prometheus and Grafana in 5 minutes
Monitor Apache Web Server with Prometheus and Grafana in 5 minutes
Your support is our everlasting motivCode language: PHP (php)

Ubuntu 18.04 & CentOS 7

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.