prometheus-alertmanager Installation Guide Installation Guide

prometheus-alertmanager is a free and open-source alert handling component for Prometheus. Part of the Prometheus ecosystem, Alertmanager handles alerts sent by Prometheus server and routes them to receivers like email, Slack, or PagerDuty

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 128MB minimum (512MB+ recommended)

Storage: 1GB for data

Network: HTTP API access

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 9093 (default prometheus-alertmanager port)

Port 9094 for cluster peers

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install prometheus-alertmanager
sudo dnf install -y alertmanager

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now alertmanager

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9093/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install prometheus-alertmanager
sudo apt install -y alertmanager

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now alertmanager

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 9093

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Install prometheus-alertmanager
sudo pacman -S alertmanager

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now alertmanager

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Install prometheus-alertmanager
apk add --no-cache alertmanager

# Enable and start service
rc-update add alertmanager default
rc-service alertmanager start

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Install prometheus-alertmanager
sudo zypper install -y alertmanager

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now alertmanager

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9093/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install alertmanager

# Start service
brew services start alertmanager

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install alertmanager

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'alertmanager_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service alertmanager start

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install alertmanager

# Or using Scoop
scoop install alertmanager

# Verify installation
alertmanager --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/alertmanager

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
alertmanager --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable alertmanager

# Start service
sudo systemctl start alertmanager

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop alertmanager

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart alertmanager

# Check status
sudo systemctl status alertmanager

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u alertmanager -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add alertmanager default

# Start service
rc-service alertmanager start

# Stop service
rc-service alertmanager stop

# Restart service
rc-service alertmanager restart

# Check status
rc-service alertmanager status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'alertmanager_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service alertmanager start

# Stop service
service alertmanager stop

# Restart service
service alertmanager restart

# Check status
service alertmanager status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start alertmanager
brew services stop alertmanager
brew services restart alertmanager

# Check status
brew services list | grep alertmanager

powershell

# Start service
net start alertmanager

# Stop service
net stop alertmanager

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service alertmanager
Stop-Service alertmanager
Restart-Service alertmanager

# Check status
Get-Service alertmanager

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream alertmanager_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:9093;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name alertmanager.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name alertmanager.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/alertmanager.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/alertmanager.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://alertmanager_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName alertmanager.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://alertmanager.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName alertmanager.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/alertmanager.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/alertmanager.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9093/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9093/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend alertmanager_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/alertmanager.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend alertmanager_backend

backend alertmanager_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server alertmanager1 127.0.0.1:9093 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R alertmanager:alertmanager /etc/alertmanager
sudo chmod 750 /etc/alertmanager

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9093/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status alertmanager

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u alertmanager -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep alertmanager)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/alertmanager"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/alertmanager-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/alertmanager /var/lib/alertmanager

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/alertmanager-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop alertmanager

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/alertmanager/alertmanager-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start alertmanager

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u alertmanager -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/alertmanager/alertmanager.log

# Check configuration
alertmanager --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/alertmanager

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 9093

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 9093

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep alertmanager)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep alertmanager)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 9093

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  alertmanager:
    image: alertmanager:latest
    ports:
      - "9093:9093"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/alertmanager
      - ./data:/var/lib/alertmanager
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update alertmanager

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade alertmanager

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu alertmanager

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade alertmanager

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update alertmanager

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade alertmanager

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/alertmanager-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/alertmanager

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart alertmanager

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/alertmanager

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/alertmanager -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/alertmanager

Official Documentation: https://docs.alertmanager.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/alertmanager/alertmanager

Community Forum: https://forum.alertmanager.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.alertmanager.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources