Getting Started With Homelab Observability

A homelab is a low-risk place to practice production observability patterns.

Minimal Stack #

1. Prometheus for metrics collection
2. Grafana for dashboards
3. Alertmanager for routing alerts
4. Node Exporter on every host

First Milestones #

• Track CPU, memory, disk pressure, and service uptime
• Create one dashboard per service boundary
• Configure a small alert set with clear ownership

The goal is not to alert on everything. Start with high-signal indicators and iterate.