Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA)Cloud Native ObservabilityHard

A large enterprise with multiple development teams and Kubernetes clusters needs a highly scalable, multi-tenant solution for long-term storage and querying of Prometheus metrics. They want to avoid managing individual Prometheus servers for each cluster and enable cross-cluster querying. Which CNCF-graduated project addresses these specific requirements?

  1. APrometheus Operator
  2. BThanos
  3. CKube-state-metrics
  4. DPushgateway
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Thanos

Thanos is a set of components that can be composed into a highly available metric system with unlimited historical data retention for Prometheus. It enables global query views across multiple Prometheus servers, long-term storage in object storage, and high availability, making it ideal for large-scale, multi-tenant environments.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. Prometheus Operator simplifies Prometheus deployment on Kubernetes but doesn't inherently provide global views or long-term storage.
  • C. Kube-state-metrics exposes metrics about the state of Kubernetes objects, not a solution for long-term storage or global querying.
  • D. Pushgateway is for pushing metrics from ephemeral jobs, not for scaling Prometheus storage or querying.

Thanos

A set of components that extend Prometheus to provide global query views, unlimited historical data retention, and high availability.

  • Enables global view across multiple Prometheus instances.
  • Integrates with object storage for long-term data retention.
  • Provides high availability for Prometheus deployments.

Memory trick: Thanos extends Prometheus' reach, making it Infinite.

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