Deployment Overview of Percona Monitoring on Server¶

Prerequisites and Basic Requirements¶

The application requires a server running the Ubuntu operating system. The following requirements must be met for a successful deployment:

Privileges: Root or sudo access is required to perform package updates and manage Docker containers.
Package Manager: apt must be available for updating system packages.
Docker Engine: Docker must be installed on the host system to run the application and the proxy service.
Ports:
Port 443 (HTTPS) is required for external access via the Nginx proxy.
Port 8080 is used internally for communication between the proxy and the PMM server.

FQDN of the final panel on the hostkey.in domain¶

The application is accessible via a specific subdomain template based on the unique Server ID.

Parameter	Value
Prefix	`percona`
Domain	`hostkey.in`
Full template	`percona{Server_ID}.hostkey.in`

File and Directory Structure¶

The following directories are used for configuration, certificates, and data persistence:

/root/nginx/: Contains the Nginx Docker Compose configuration file (compose.yml).
/data/nginx/user_conf.d/: Stores custom Nginx user configurations.
/data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env: Environment file for Certbot settings.
pmm-data (Docker Volume): Persistent storage for Percona Monitoring and Alerting data.

Application installation process¶

The installation is performed through a series of system updates and container deployments:

System Update: The package manager is updated, and all existing packages are upgraded to their latest versions via apt.
Docker Installation: Docker engine is installed on the host system.
Proxy Setup: A Certbot-enabled Nginx proxy is configured using a dedicated containerized setup.
Data Volume Creation: A Docker volume named pmm-data is created to ensure data persistence for the monitoring server.
PMM Server Deployment: The Percona Monitoring and Alerting (PMM) version 3 image is pulled from Docker Hub and executed as a standalone container.

Access Rights and Security¶

Firewall: Only necessary ports should be open; the Nginx proxy handles secure HTTPS traffic on port 443.
Internal Communication: The PMM server is bound to 127.0.0.1:8080 to prevent direct external access, ensuring all traffic must pass through the Nginx proxy.
Container Security: The PMM container is configured with specific ulimits (nofile=1000000) to handle high numbers of open files required for monitoring tasks.

Databases¶

The application uses an internal database system (ClickHouse) managed within the PMM server container. Data is stored in a persistent Docker volume named pmm-data located at /srv inside the container.

Docker Containers and Their Deployment¶

Nginx Proxy Container¶

This container manages SSL certificates via Certbot and handles incoming web traffic.

Image: jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest
Network Mode: host
Volumes:
nginx_secrets:/etc/letsencrypt (External volume for SSL certificates)
/data/nginx/user_conf.d:/etc/nginx/user_conf.d (Custom Nginx configurations)
Environment Variables:
CERTBOT_EMAIL: The email address used for Let's Encrypt notifications.

PMM Server Container¶

The core monitoring application.

Image: percona/pmm-server:3
Container Name: pmm-server
Ports: 127.0.0.1:8080:8080
Volumes: pmm-data:/srv
Restart Policy: unless-stopped
Environment Variables:
PMM_CLICKHOUSE_CONFIG=low-memory
PMM_ENABLE_UPDATES=0
PMM_ENABLE_TELEMETRY=0

Application Update Instructions¶

To update the main application, perform the following steps:

Pull the latest image:
```
docker pull percona/pmm-server:3
```
Restart the container: If using Docker Compose for the proxy or if manual updates are required, use:
```
docker compose up -d
```

Location of configuration files and data¶

Component	Path / Resource
Nginx Compose File	`/root/nginx/compose.yml`
PMM Data Volume	`pmm-data`
Custom Nginx Configs	`/data/nginx/user_conf.d`

Available ports for connection¶

HTTPS (External): 443
PMM Web UI (Internal): 8080

Starting and Stopping the application¶

The following commands are used to manage the PMM server service:

Start the container:
```
docker start pmm-server
```
Stop the container:
```
docker stop pmm-server
```