ELK vs Prometheus

July 22, 2023 | Author: Michael Stromann
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ELK
ELK is the acronym for three open source projects: Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana. Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine. Logstash is a server‑side data processing pipeline that ingests data from multiple sources simultaneously, transforms it, and then sends it to a "stash" like Elasticsearch. Kibana lets users visualize data with charts and graphs in Elasticsearch.
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Prometheus
An open-source monitoring system with a dimensional data model, flexible query language, efficient time series database and modern alerting approach.

ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana) and Prometheus are two distinct yet complementary tools widely used in the realm of monitoring and log management. ELK is an open-source stack that combines Elasticsearch for scalable and distributed search and analytics, Logstash for data processing and enrichment, and Kibana for data visualization and dashboard creation. It excels in handling and analyzing log data from various sources, making it ideal for log management and real-time analysis. On the other hand, Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit specifically designed for time-series data, primarily used for collecting and storing metrics from different components of modern IT infrastructures.

See also: Top 10 IT Monitoring software
ELK vs Prometheus in our news:

2019. Zabbix 4.2 adds built-in support of Prometheus data collection



Zabbix Team has recently unveiled the launch of Zabbix 4.2. This latest version introduces a comprehensive monitoring system equipped with cutting-edge features, including data collection and processing, distributed monitoring, real-time problem and anomaly detection, alerting and escalations, visualization, and more. Zabbix 4.2 significantly enhances data collection capabilities, supporting diverse methods such as push and pull from various sources like JMX, SNMP, WMI, HTTP/HTTPS, RestAPI, XML Soap, SSH, Telnet, agents, scripts, and more. Notably, the integration with Prometheus has been added as a new feature, allowing native support for the PromQL language. Additionally, the utilization of dependent metrics empowers the Zabbix team to efficiently gather a vast amount of Prometheus metrics. By making a single HTTP call, all the required data can be retrieved and subsequently reused for relevant dependent metrics.

Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com