Data Backup Digest

As open source projects continue to gain momentum among mainstream computer users, it's no surprise that the format is making its way to the cloud. Prometheus, One of the most popular open source tools on the cloud to date, is a monitoring system for Docker-style containers – and it's recently gained a ton of functionality thanks the latest update.

Prometheus 2.0

System administrators relied on Prometheus 1.x throughout the majority of 2017, but Prometheus 2.0 was officially released in late 2017. As such, IT officials are already making the switch to the newest, updated version. It includes numerous improvements, including a brand new storage format, improved data handling and greater snapshot efficiency.

All of these changes amount to a significant upgrade in terms of performance and stability. It also quells some of the major criticisms by addressing some key issues in past versions. A recent blog post on Prometheus' site mentioned a 20 – 40% reduction in CPU usage and a 33 – 50% reduction in disk space usage when compared to Prometheus 1.8.

The blog post continued on to mention some other details of Prometheus 2.0: "Over the past six months we have been busy stabilizing this work as an independent time series database and re-integrating this into Prometheus itself. The result is a significantly better performing Prometheus 2.0 with improvements along virtually all dimensions. Query latency is more consistent and it especially scales better in the face of high series churn. Resource consumption, as measured in different real-world production scenarios, also decreased significantly."

Updated Storage Format

Prometheus 2.0 features an updated storage format that uses a new partitioning method – which organizes data according to time instead of the original source – to accommodate datasets of increasing size and scope. Since Prometheus is, by design, a time-series database, the new method vastly reduces the strain on system CPUs and disk drives.

Improved Data Handling

In its simplest form, the term "stale data"'' describes outdated, irrelevant or unnecessary data within a system's cache. If left unchecked, it's an issue that can have severe repercussions on system performance and stability. While Prometheus has always dealt with stale data in a highly efficient manner, Prometheus 2.0 features improved logic that is meant to handle this data quickly and even more efficiently. Much of it is also automated, so system administrators won't have to learn any new tricks or processes.

Greater Snapshot Efficiency

Prometheus 2.0 also provides the ability to initiate a point-in-time snapshot of any database system just by hitting the appropriate API endpoint. Although accurate and complete, the snapshot is only a fractional percentage of the database's original size – so it can easily be offloaded to an offline server or uploaded to a remote location for additional safety and security.

Find Out More

To find out more information about Prometheus, including details on the latest version and any future updates, please visit their official website at {{https://prometheus.io/|prometheus.io}}. You can also view the company's official blog, receive technical support, access their extensive community of users and much more.