Observability Platform Implementation (ELK Stack / Prometheus & Grafana)

Basic Monitoring Setup:

Overview:

This package provides a foundational monitoring and logging solution for a single application or a small set of servers, enabling basic visibility into system health and performance. Ideal for startups or projects requiring quick setup.

Deliverables:

• Installation and basic configuration of either ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or Prometheus & Grafana.
• r collecting logs and metrics from up to 5 servers/VMs.
• Creation of 3-5 essential dashboards for key metrics (CPU, Memory, Disk, Network) and log overview.
• Configuration of 3-5 basic alerts for critical issues (e.g., server down, high resource utilization).
• Basic documentation for accessing dashboards and understanding alerts.
• Full installation, configuration, and optimization of a scalable ELK Stack or Prometheus & Grafana cluster.
• Agent deployment for collecting logs and metrics from up to 20 servers/VMs or a small Kubernetes cluster.
• Implementation of advanced log parsing, filtering, and metric aggregation.
• Development of 10-15 custom, actionable dashboards tailored to application and infrastructure needs.
• Configuration of 10-15 advanced alerting rules with integration to notification channels (e.g., Slack, PagerDuty).
• Basic distributed tracing setup (e.g., Jaeger/OpenTelemetry integration).
• Detailed documentation including architecture, configuration, and operational runbooks.
• One-day training session for your operations team.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 3+ years of hands-on experience in implementing and managing large-scale monitoring and logging solutions, with at least 3 years specifically with either ELK Stack or Prometheus/Grafana.
• Deep expertise in Elasticsearch cluster management, Logstash pipeline configuration, and Kibana dashboarding, OR profound knowledge of Prometheus metric collection, PromQL, Alertmanager, and Grafana dashboarding.
• Strong understanding of logging best practices, metric collection strategies, and distributed tracing concepts.
• Proficiency in Linux server administration and scripting (Bash, Python) for automation and data collection.
• Experience with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes) and collecting metrics/logs from them.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their native monitoring services.
• Excellent analytical skills to interpret complex data and identify root causes of issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work with diverse technical teams.

Key Skills:

• Observability
• Monitoring
• Logging
• Alerting
• ELK Stack
• Elasticsearch
• Logstash
• Kibana
• Prometheus
• Grafana
• Alertmanager
• PromQL
• Distributed Tracing (Jaeger, OpenTelemetry)
• Metrics
• Logs
• Dashboards
• Cloud Monitoring (CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Google Cloud Monitoring)

 Expectations for Support from Freelancer:

• Responsiveness: Prompt communication and response to inquiries (within 24 hours on weekdays).
• Availability: Willingness to be available for urgent issues or critical updates, potentially outside standard business hours, with prior arrangement.
• Troubleshooting: Ability to quickly diagnose and resolve any post-implementation issues that may arise.
• Documentation Updates: Keep documentation current with any changes or optimizations made during the support phase.
• Advisory: Provide expert advice on future scaling, security enhancements, or new feature implementations.

Project Goals:

• Enhanced Visibility: Provide real-time, actionable insights into system health, performance, and operational issues.
• Proactive Problem Detection: Enable early identification of issues before they impact users.
• Faster Incident Response: Streamline troubleshooting and reduce Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR).
• Improved System Reliability: Support data-driven decisions for system optimization and stability.
• Operational Efficiency: Reduce manual effort in monitoring and alerting.