updated README for the monitoring stack

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,138 @@
-# docker-monitoring
-Docker Monitoring Setup 
+# 🔭 Observability Stack with Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Promtail, and Node Exporter
+
+This project sets up a complete monitoring and logging stack using Docker Compose.
+
+## 🚀 Stack Components
+
+- **Prometheus** – Metrics collection and alerting
+- **Grafana** – Visualization and dashboarding
+- **Loki** – Log aggregation system by Grafana
+- **Promtail** – Log shipping agent for Loki
+- **Node Exporter** – Host-level metrics for Prometheus
+
+---
+
+## 📦 Getting Started
+
+### 1. Clone the Repository
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/yourusername/docker-monitoring.git
+cd docker-monitoring
+```
+
+
+### 2. Start All Services
+
+```
+docker compose up -d
+```
+
+This will pull all required images and start the containers in the background.
+
+---
+
+## 🌐 Accessing the Services
+
+| Service | URL | Default Credentials |
+|---|---|---|
+| Grafana | [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) | **admin / admin** | 
+| Prometheus | [http://localhost:9090](http://localhost:9090) | N/A | 
+| Loki | [http://localhost:3100](http://localhost:3100) | N/A | 
+| Node Exporter | [http://localhost:9100](http://localhost:9100) | N/A | 
+
+---
+
+## 📊 Grafana Dashboards
+
+### 1. Log in to Grafana
+
+Visit [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) and log in with:
+
+```
+Username: admin
+Password: admin
+```
+
+### 2. Add Data Sources
+
+If not auto-provisioned, configure the following:
+
+* **Prometheus** at `http://prometheus:9090`
+
+* **Loki** at `http://loki:3100`
+
+### 3. Import Dashboards
+
+You can import dashboards from Grafana.com:
+
+* **Node Exporter Full** (ID: `1860`)
+
+* **Loki Logs Dashboard** (ID: `13665`)
+
+---
+
+## 🔧 Configuration Files
+
+* `prometheus/prometheus.yml` – Prometheus scrape configuration
+
+* `promtail/config.yml` – Promtail log collection rules
+
+* `grafana/provisioning/` – Optional folder to auto-provision data sources/dashboards
+
+---
+
+## 📥 Logs and Metrics Locations
+
+* Promtail reads logs from `/var/log` and `/var/lib/docker/containers`
+
+* Node Exporter reads system metrics from host via `/proc`, `/sys`, and root FS
+
+---
+
+## 🧼 Stop and Cleanup
+
+```
+docker compose down
+```
+
+To remove all volumes and start fresh:
+
+```
+docker compose down -v
+```
+
+---
+
+## 🧠 Tip
+
+Make sure Docker has access to system folders (`/var/log`, `/var/lib/docker`, `/proc`, etc.) and your user has permission to bind to these files on macOS/Linux.
+
+---
+
+## 🛠️ Troubleshooting
+
+* Check logs:
+
+```
+docker compose logs -f
+```
+
+* Verify Prometheus targets:
+* Go to **Status > Targets** in Prometheus UI
+
+* Grafana dashboards not showing data? Check:
+
+  * Data source config
+
+  * Time range in dashboard
+
+  * Prometheus targets scraping successfully
+
+---
+
+## 📎 License
+Apache 2
+
+
+#courses/docker/labs-v2