📊 InfluxDB + Grafana | Monitor Proxmox Cluster in EASY MODE! 🚀

Welcome to the Proxmox Home Server Series! This guide walks you through the easiest way to monitor your Proxmox cluster using InfluxDB and Grafana—no Telegraf required. Perfect for your home lab or small-scale virtualization setup. 🖥️📈

🎯 Overview

This monitoring solution provides enterprise-grade observability for your Proxmox cluster with minimal complexity. By leveraging native Proxmox metrics collection, we eliminate the need for additional agents while maintaining comprehensive monitoring coverage.

✨ Key Benefits

• 🚀 Zero Agent Overhead - Native Proxmox metrics collection
• 📊 Real-time Dashboards - Beautiful Grafana visualizations
• 🔍 Comprehensive Coverage - CPU, Memory, Storage, Network, VM metrics
• 🛡️ Production Ready - Scalable and reliable architecture
• 💡 Easy Maintenance - Simple setup and configuration

🔧 Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Proxmox VE    │───▶│    InfluxDB     │───▶│     Grafana     │
│   (v7.x/v8.x)   │    │   (Time Series) │    │  (Dashboards)   │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘
        │                       │                       │
        │                       │                       │
   Metrics Push            Data Storage          Visualization

📋 Requirements

🖥️ System Requirements

• Proxmox VE: v7.x or v8.x (single node or cluster)
• Monitoring Host: Ubuntu 20.04+ / Debian 11+ (VM or container)
• Resources:
  • CPU: 2 cores minimum
  • RAM: 4GB minimum
  • Storage: 50GB+ (SSD recommended)
• Network: Stable connectivity between Proxmox and monitoring host

🔧 Prerequisites

• ✅ Root or sudo access on monitoring host
• ✅ Basic command-line proficiency
• ✅ Network access to Proxmox nodes
• ✅ Internet connectivity for package installation

🛠️ Installation Guide

Step 1: Install InfluxDB 2.x

# Add InfluxData repository
wget -qO- https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/influxdb.gpg
echo "deb https://repos.influxdata.com/debian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdb.list

# Update package list and install InfluxDB
sudo apt update && sudo apt install influxdb2

# Enable and start InfluxDB service
sudo systemctl enable --now influxdb

# Verify installation
sudo systemctl status influxdb

🔗 Access InfluxDB: Navigate to http://<influxdb-ip>:8086

📝 Initial Setup:

1. Create an Organization (e.g., "homelab")
2. Create a Bucket (e.g., "proxmox-metrics")
3. Generate an API Token with write permissions
4. Save the token - you'll need it for Proxmox configuration

Step 2: Install Grafana

# Add Grafana repository
sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common
wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list

# Install Grafana
sudo apt update && sudo apt install grafana

# Enable and start Grafana service
sudo systemctl enable --now grafana-server

# Verify installation
sudo systemctl status grafana-server

🔗 Access Grafana: Navigate to http://<grafana-ip>:3000

📝 Initial Login: Username: admin / Password: admin (Change password on first login)

Step 3: Configure Proxmox Metrics Collection

3.1 Edit Proxmox Configuration

# Edit the status configuration file
sudo nano /etc/pve/status.cfg

3.2 Add InfluxDB Configuration

# InfluxDB Metrics Configuration
influxdb:
  server YOUR_INFLUXDB_IP
  port 8086
  org YOUR_ORG_NAME
  bucket YOUR_BUCKET_NAME
  token YOUR_API_TOKEN
  verify-ssl false
  max-body-size 25M

🔧 Configuration Parameters:

3.3 Apply Configuration

# Restart Proxmox services to apply changes
sudo systemctl restart pveproxy
sudo systemctl restart pvedaemon

# Verify metrics are being sent
sudo journalctl -u pvedaemon -f

📊 Metrics Overview

🖥️ System Metrics

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Metrics Not Appearing in Grafana

# Check InfluxDB connectivity
curl -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN" \
     "http://YOUR_INFLUXDB_IP:8086/api/v2/buckets?org=YOUR_ORG"

# Verify Proxmox configuration
sudo cat /etc/pve/status.cfg

# Check Proxmox logs
sudo journalctl -u pvedaemon -n 50

2. Data Retention

# Set retention policy (30 days for homelab)
influx bucket update --name proxmox-metrics --retention 30d

🔒 Security Considerations

Network Security

# Configure firewall rules
sudo ufw allow from PROXMOX_IP to any port 8086
sudo ufw allow from PROXMOX_IP to any port 3000

# Use reverse proxy for external access
sudo apt install nginx

📈 Maintenance

Backup Procedures

# Backup InfluxDB data
influx backup /backup/influxdb --bucket proxmox-metrics

# Backup Grafana configuration
sudo tar -czf grafana-backup.tar.gz /etc/grafana/

Log Aggregation

# Configure log forwarding
sudo journalctl -u influxdb -f | logger -t influxdb
sudo journalctl -u grafana-server -f | logger -t grafana

📚 References

Official Documentation

• 📖 Proxmox VE Documentation
• 📖 InfluxDB Documentation
• 📖 Grafana Documentation

Community Resources

• 🎯 Proxmox Community Forums
• 🎯 Grafana Community Dashboards
• 🎯 InfluxDB Community

Found this helpful? Share it with your homelab community! 🚀