Top metrics in PostgreSQL monitoring with Prometheus

PostgreSQL monitoring with Prometheus is facilitated by the PostgreSQL Exporter, which provides an accessible way to track the health and performance of PostgreSQL instances, whether self-hosted or on AWS RDS. Key metrics for effective monitoring include checking if PostgreSQL is running, postmaster service uptime, replication lag, database size, available storage, number of available connections, latency, cache hit rate, memory availability, and requested buffer checkpoints. These metrics help in creating alerts for potential issues like server downtime, unexpected restarts, storage limitations, and performance bottlenecks. The article also suggests downloading a cheat sheet for deeper insights and offers pre-configured PostgreSQL monitoring dashboards to integrate with tools like Grafana or Sysdig Monitor.