Prometheus

The Prometheus source scrapes one or more HTTP endpoints that expose metrics in the Prometheus exposition format and collects the exposed metrics. It builds a Prometheus scrape job from the configured targets, polls each target's /metrics path on a fixed interval, and converts the scraped counters, gauges, histograms, and summaries to OpenTelemetry metrics using the Prometheus receiver.

Supported Telemetry Types

Platform	Metrics	Logs	Traces
macOS	✓
Linux	✓
Windows	✓
Kubernetes Deployment	✓
OpenShift Deployment	✓

Prerequisites

You need one or more reachable scrape targets that expose metrics in the Prometheus exposition format. Each target must serve metrics over HTTP (or HTTPS when TLS is enabled) at the configured metrics path, and the collector host must be able to reach every target address and port. If a target requires authentication, have the bearer token or Basic auth credentials available. If a target serves metrics over HTTPS with a private certificate authority, have the CA certificate (and any client certificate and key) available on the collector host.

Configuration

Metrics

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Targets	strings	Yes	(empty)	List of endpoints to scrape.
Job Name	string	Yes	(empty)	The name of the scraper job. Will be set as the service.name resource label.

Advanced

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Enable TLS	bool	No	false	Whether to use TLS.
Skip TLS Certificate Verification	bool	No	false	Enable to skip TLS certificate verification. Shown when Enable TLS is true.
TLS Certificate Authority File	string	No	(empty)	Certificate authority used to validate TLS certificates. Shown when Enable TLS is true.
TLS Client Certificate File	string	No	(empty)	A TLS certificate used for client authentication, if TLS is enabled. Shown when Enable TLS is true.
TLS Client Private Key File	string	No	(empty)	A TLS private key used for client authentication, if TLS is enabled. Shown when Enable TLS is true.
Authorization Type	enum	No	None	The authorization scheme. One of None, Bearer, or Basic.
Credentials Source	enum	No	inline	How to provide the authorization credentials. One of inline or file. Shown when Authorization Type is Bearer.
Bearer Token	string	Yes	(empty)	The bearer token or credentials value to include in the Authorization header. Sensitive. Shown when Authorization Type is Bearer and Credentials Source is inline.
Bearer Token File	string	Yes	(empty)	Path to a file containing the bearer token or credentials value. Shown when Authorization Type is Bearer and Credentials Source is file.
Username	string	Yes	(empty)	The username for Basic authentication. Shown when Authorization Type is Basic.
Password	string	Yes	(empty)	The password for Basic authentication. Sensitive. Shown when Authorization Type is Basic.
Metrics Path	string	No	/metrics	HTTP resource path on which to fetch metrics from targets.
Collection Interval	int	No	60	How often (seconds) to scrape for metrics.

Examples

Scrape a single application endpoint

Scrape a service exposing Prometheus metrics on the default /metrics path every 30 seconds.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: prometheus-app
spec:
  type: prometheus
  parameters:
    - name: job_name
      value: my-application
    - name: static_targets
      value:
        - localhost:9100
    - name: collection_interval
      value: 30

Scrape an HTTPS endpoint with Basic authentication

Scrape a target over HTTPS using a private certificate authority and Basic auth credentials.

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: prometheus-secure
spec:
  type: prometheus
  parameters:
    - name: job_name
      value: secure-exporter
    - name: static_targets
      value:
        - exporter.internal:9443
    - name: enable_tls
      value: true
    - name: ca_file
      value: /etc/otel/certs/ca.crt
    - name: authorization_type
      value: Basic
    - name: basic_auth_username
      value: scraper
    - name: basic_auth_password
      value: my-password

Configuration Tips

• Set a unique Job Name per source. It is applied as the service.name resource attribute, so reusing the same job name across sources makes downstream metrics harder to distinguish.
• Each entry in Targets is a host:port address, not a full URL. Set the path with the Metrics Path parameter and the scheme with Enable TLS rather than embedding them in the target string.
• The Collection Interval is set in seconds and applied to every target in the source. Keep it aligned with how frequently the targets update their metrics to avoid scraping stale samples or adding unnecessary load.

Troubleshooting

No metrics from a target

Symptom: The source produces no metrics, or metrics are missing for one target.

Solution: Confirm the collector host can reach the target's host:port and that the target serves the Prometheus exposition format at the configured Metrics Path. A common cause is a non-default metrics path; set Metrics Path to match the target (for example /actuator/prometheus).

TLS certificate verification fails

Symptom: Scrapes over HTTPS fail with a certificate verification error.

Solution: When Enable TLS is on and the target uses a private certificate authority, set TLS Certificate Authority File to the CA certificate. For testing only, Skip TLS Certificate Verification bypasses verification, but leave it off in production.

Authentication rejected (401/403)

Symptom: The target returns 401 Unauthorized or 403 Forbidden.

Solution: Verify Authorization Type matches what the target expects. For Bearer, confirm the token value (or token file path) and Credentials Source. For Basic, confirm the Username and Password.

Standalone Source

apiVersion: bindplane.observiq.com/v1
kind: Source
metadata:
  name: prometheus
spec:
  type: prometheus
  parameters:
    - name: job_name
      value: prometheus-scrape
    - name: static_targets
      value:
        - localhost:9100
        - localhost:8888
    - name: metrics_path
      value: /metrics
    - name: collection_interval
      value: 60

Related Resources

• Prometheus receiver (OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib)
• Prometheus exposition formats