Monitoring Dashboard Example Setup

Deployment model: This setup guide applies to VM and bare-metal deployments where Fabric, Cassandra, and Kafka run as native processes on virtual machines or physical servers. For Kubernetes deployments on AKS, GKE, or EKS, see Deploying the K2view Monitoring Stack on Kubernetes and K2view Kubernetes Monitoring Stack for Fabric.

This guide explains how to set up the components that support the Monitoring Dashboard Example. It covers each Fabric workload node and the dedicated monitoring machine.

Components

| Component | Runs on | Purpose | | ------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | JMX Exporter | Each Fabric node | Exposes Fabric and JVM metrics at port 7170 | | Node Exporter | Each Fabric/Cassandra/Kafka node | Exposes host metrics at port 9100 | | Promtail | Each Fabric/Cassandra/Kafka node | Tails log files and ships them to Loki | | Prometheus | Monitoring machine | Scrapes and stores metrics | | Loki | Monitoring machine | Receives and stores log streams | | Grafana | Monitoring machine | Queries Prometheus and Loki; hosts the dashboard |

Step 1 — Enable the JMX Exporter on Each Fabric Node

The JMX Exporter must be running on every Fabric node before Prometheus can scrape it.

Follow the procedure in How to Enable the JMX Exporter for Fabric. The exporter is bundled with Fabric at:

$K2_HOME/monitor/jmx_exporter/jmx_prometheus_javaagent-1.5.0.jar

Once enabled, validate that the endpoint is responding on each node:

curl http://localhost:7170/metrics

A successful response returns Prometheus-format text. If it does not respond, resolve this before proceeding. See How to Verify That Fabric Is Exposing Metrics.

Step 2 — Install and Start Node Exporter on Each Node

Node Exporter must run on every machine hosting Fabric, Cassandra, or Kafka. It exposes host-level metrics (CPU, memory, filesystem, network) at port 9100.

Start Node Exporter as a background process:

nohup $K2_HOME/monitor/node_exporter/node_exporter >/dev/null 2>&1 &

Validate it is running:

curl http://localhost:9100/metrics

Step 3 — Configure Prometheus on the Monitoring Machine

Install Prometheus on the dedicated monitoring machine. Configure it to scrape the JMX Exporter and Node Exporter endpoints on each Fabric node.

A representative prometheus.yml scrape configuration:

scrape_configs:

  # Fabric JMX Exporter — one entry per Fabric node
  - job_name: fabric-jmx
    metrics_path: /metrics
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - <FABRIC_NODE_1_IP>:7170
          - <FABRIC_NODE_2_IP>:7170

  # Node Exporter — one entry per Fabric/Cassandra/Kafka node
  - job_name: node-exporter
    metrics_path: /metrics
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - <FABRIC_NODE_1_IP>:9100
          - <FABRIC_NODE_2_IP>:9100
          - <CASSANDRA_NODE_IP>:9100
          - <KAFKA_NODE_IP>:9100

Replace each <..._IP> placeholder with the actual IP address or hostname of that node. Add one entry per host.

After saving the configuration, start or reload Prometheus:

curl -X POST http://localhost:9090/-/reload

Step 4 — Validate Prometheus Is Scraping

Before importing the dashboard, confirm that Prometheus can reach all targets.

Open the Prometheus Targets UI:

http://<MONITORING_MACHINE_IP>:9090/targets

All targets should show State: UP. If any target shows State: DOWN, check:

• The JMX Exporter or Node Exporter is running on that node
• The port is reachable from the monitoring machine (firewall rules)
• The IP address in the scrape configuration is correct

Do not proceed to Grafana setup until all targets are healthy.

Step 5 — Configure Log Shipping (Promtail and Loki)

Loki (monitoring machine)

Install Loki on the monitoring machine. A configuration example is available here:

loki-local-config-example.yaml

After adjusting the configuration for your deployment, place the file in the Loki installation directory and name it loki-local-config.yaml. Start Loki before starting any Promtail instances.

Promtail (each Fabric node)

Install Promtail on each node hosting Fabric, Cassandra, or Kafka. Configuration examples for a two-node Fabric cluster:

• Node 1: promtail-config-example-fabric1.yaml
• Node 2: promtail-config-example-fabric2.yaml

For each config file, update the following before deploying:

• Line 7 — the IP address of the monitoring machine (where Loki is running)
• Line 24 — the IP address of the Fabric node this Promtail instance is running on

The dashboard assumes Fabric log files are located at:

/opt/apps/k2view/logs/k2fabric.log

If your deployment uses a different path, update the __path__ value in the Promtail configuration and the corresponding log query in the Grafana dashboard panels.

After adjusting the configuration, place it in the Promtail installation directory as promtail-fabric-config.yaml and start Promtail.

Step 6 — Configure Grafana

Install Grafana on the monitoring machine (tested on version 8.3.4 and above).

Add two data sources:

1. Prometheus — point to http://localhost:9090 (or the monitoring machine IP if Grafana is on a separate host)
2. Loki — point to http://localhost:3100

Then import the dashboard:

1. In Grafana, go to Dashboards > Import
2. Upload or paste the contents of the dashboard JSON
3. Select the Prometheus and Loki data sources when prompted

Step 7 — Validate the Dashboard

After importing, open the dashboard and confirm that panels are showing data:

• Fabric Health panels should show node count, CPU, memory, and heap
• Fabric Logs panel should show recent entries from k2fabric.log
• Node panels should show host-level CPU and memory from Node Exporter

If panels show "No data":

• Confirm the correct data source is selected for each panel
• Confirm Prometheus targets are UP (Step 4)
• Confirm Promtail is running and Loki is receiving logs
• Allow one full scrape interval (default 30–60 seconds) after starting Prometheus before expecting data

Further Reading

• How to Enable the JMX Exporter for Fabric
• How to Verify That Fabric Is Exposing Metrics
• How to Configure the Collection Layer to Scrape Fabric Metrics
• How to Control Metric Volume with Filtering and Relabeling
• K2view VM / Bare-Metal Monitoring Stack for Fabric
• Monitoring Dashboard Example