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Technology Templates

NthLayer includes built-in templates for common technology dependencies. Each template generates dashboard panels and alerts for the specified technology.

Supported Technologies

Technology Template Status
PostgreSQL postgresql ✅ Complete
Redis redis ✅ Complete
Elasticsearch elasticsearch ✅ Complete
Kafka kafka 📋 Planned
MongoDB mongodb 📋 Planned
RabbitMQ rabbitmq 📋 Planned

Usage

Add dependencies to your service.yaml:

name: checkout-service
tier: 1
type: api

dependencies:
  - postgresql
  - redis

NthLayer automatically generates:

  • Dashboard panels for each dependency
  • Alerts for common failure modes
  • Recording rules for SLO calculations

Prometheus Exporters Required

Technology templates expect metrics from Prometheus exporters. When nthlayer verify reports missing metrics, install the appropriate exporter:

Technology Exporter Repository Key Metrics
PostgreSQL postgres_exporter prometheus-community/postgres_exporter pg_stat_*, pg_database_*
Redis redis_exporter oliver006/redis_exporter redis_*
Elasticsearch elasticsearch_exporter prometheus-community/elasticsearch_exporter elasticsearch_*
Kafka kafka_exporter danielqsj/kafka_exporter kafka_*
MongoDB mongodb_exporter percona/mongodb_exporter mongodb_*
RabbitMQ Built-in plugin RabbitMQ Prometheus rabbitmq_*

Template Details

PostgreSQL

Exporter: postgres_exporter

Panels generated:

Panel Intent Metrics Used
Connections postgresql.connections pg_stat_database_numbackends, pg_stat_activity_count
Cache Hit Ratio postgresql.cache_hit pg_stat_database_blks_hit, pg_stat_database_blks_read
Transactions postgresql.transactions_committed pg_stat_database_xact_commit, pg_stat_database_xact_rollback
Database Size postgresql.database_size pg_database_size_bytes
Query Duration postgresql.query_duration pg_stat_statements_mean_exec_time_seconds_bucket
Deadlocks postgresql.deadlocks pg_stat_database_deadlocks
Replication Lag postgresql.replication_lag pg_replication_lag_seconds
Table Bloat postgresql.table_bloat pg_stat_user_tables_n_dead_tup

Redis

Exporter: redis_exporter

Panels generated:

Panel Intent Metrics Used
Memory Usage redis.memory redis_memory_used_bytes, redis_used_memory
Connected Clients redis.connections redis_connected_clients, redis_clients_connected
Keys redis.keys redis_db_keys, redis_keys_total
Hit Rate redis.hits / redis.misses redis_keyspace_hits_total, redis_keyspace_misses_total
Evictions redis.evicted_keys redis_evicted_keys_total
Expired Keys redis.expired_keys redis_expired_keys_total
Commands/sec redis.commands redis_commands_processed_total

Elasticsearch

Exporter: elasticsearch_exporter

Panels generated:

Panel Intent Metrics Used
Cluster Health elasticsearch.cluster_health elasticsearch_cluster_health_status
Shards elasticsearch.shards elasticsearch_cluster_health_active_shards
Search Rate elasticsearch.search_rate elasticsearch_indices_search_query_total
Search Latency elasticsearch.search_latency elasticsearch_indices_search_query_time_seconds_bucket
Indexing Rate elasticsearch.indexing_rate elasticsearch_indices_indexing_index_total
Index Size elasticsearch.index_size elasticsearch_indices_store_size_bytes
JVM Heap elasticsearch.jvm_heap elasticsearch_jvm_memory_used_bytes
GC Time elasticsearch.gc_time elasticsearch_jvm_gc_collection_seconds_sum

Troubleshooting Missing Metrics

When nthlayer verify reports missing metrics for a dependency:

$ nthlayer verify services/checkout-service.yaml

Verifying checkout-service...
Missing metrics for postgresql dependency:
  - pg_stat_database_numbackends
  - pg_stat_database_blks_hit

Missing metrics for redis dependency:
  - redis_memory_used_bytes

Resolution Steps

  1. Check exporter is installed and running 

    # For postgres_exporter
curl http://localhost:9187/metrics | grep pg_

# For redis_exporter
curl http://localhost:9121/metrics | grep redis_

  2. Verify Prometheus is scraping the exporter 

    # prometheus.yml
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'postgres'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['postgres-exporter:9187']

  - job_name: 'redis'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['redis-exporter:9121']

  3. Confirm metric labels match

NthLayer templates expect a service label. Configure relabeling if needed: 

relabel_configs:
  - source_labels: [__address__]
    target_label: service
    replacement: 'checkout-service'

  1. Check exporter version

Some metrics require specific exporter versions. Refer to the exporter's documentation for metric availability.

Intent Resolution

NthLayer uses an intent system to handle metric variability:

  1. Intent defined - e.g., postgresql.connections
  2. Candidates listed - Multiple metric names that satisfy the intent
  3. Discovery - NthLayer queries Prometheus to find which candidates exist
  4. Resolution - Uses the first available metric, or shows guidance if none found

This allows templates to work across different exporter versions and configurations.

Custom Overrides

Override default metrics in your service.yaml:

dependencies:
  - postgresql

resources:
  - kind: Dashboard
    name: custom-postgres
    spec:
      panels:
        - title: "Custom Connections"
          query: |
            my_custom_pg_connections_metric{service="$service"}