Tag: observability

ClickHouse for Self-Hosted Logs

ClickHouse can store TB of logs on one node, query in seconds, and outscale Loki and Elasticsearch in raw cost. Here's how to wire it up with Vector and Grafana.

TIG: Telegraf + InfluxDB + Grafana

When Prometheus is overkill: a push-based metrics stack for IoT, smart home, and homelab data. Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana, working together end-to-end.

SigNoz vs Uptrace Self-Hosted Observability

Two OpenTelemetry-first observability platforms backed by ClickHouse. Here's how SigNoz and Uptrace compare for self-hosted homelab and small-team use.

Promtail to Alloy Migration: A Practical Diff

Promtail is deprecated. Here's how to migrate your scrape configs, pipeline stages, and Docker log setups to Grafana Alloy without losing your mind or data.

LibreNMS for SNMP-Heavy Home Networks

LibreNMS auto-discovers your switches, APs, and UPS over SNMP with zero MIB hunting. Here's how to deploy it and stop abusing Prometheus for this job.

SmokePing for Internet Connection Sanity

SmokePing turns your ISP no-issue-detected excuse into a documented lie. Set it up in Docker and get clear visual proof of latency spikes and packet loss.

Riemann: The Forgotten Event-Stream Monitor for Home Labs

Riemann processes events as streams, not time-series. Here is why that distinction matters and when Clojure-based stream alerting still beats Prometheus rules.

Glances vs Netdata: Two Free-Tier Monitors Compared

Glances vs Netdata: which free monitor wins for your home lab? We compare install effort, UI quality, alerting, and when to ditch both for Prometheus.

Sentry Self-Hosted for Application Errors

Run Sentry on your own hardware to catch real application errors — stack traces, source maps, release tracking, alerts, and when you should just pay for SaaS.

Heimdall vs Homepage vs Homer: Status Dashboards

Heimdall, Homepage, or Homer? Pick the right self-hosted dashboard for your homelab — real configs, Docker auto-discovery, and live API status widgets included.

cAdvisor + Prometheus: Per-Container Metrics Done Right

Stop guessing which container is eating your RAM. Set up cAdvisor + Prometheus to get real per-container CPU, memory, and network metrics in your homelab.

Grafana Alloy: Replacing the Agent After Deprecation

Grafana Agent hit EOL in November 2025. Here is how to migrate all your monitoring nodes to Alloy without losing your mind, your metrics, or your dashboards.