Last updated Jun 3, 2026

Monitoring#

The home server uses a Prometheus + Grafana stack running in a dedicated Docker LXC. It collects metrics from all VMs and LXCs via node_exporter, queries the Proxmox API via pve-exporter, and sends alerts to a Telegram bot when something goes wrong.

Architecture#

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Proxmox Host (192.168.1.50)         │
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────┐  │
│  │  Plex LXC    │  │  n8n LXC     │  │ Docker VM │  │
│  │  :9100       │  │  :9100       │  │  :9100    │  │
│  └──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘  └─────┬─────┘  │
│         │                 │                │         │
│  ┌──────▼─────────────────▼────────────────▼──────┐  │
│  │            Monitoring LXC (Docker)              │  │
│  │                                                  │  │
│  │  pve-exporter ◄── Proxmox API :8006             │  │
│  │  Prometheus ◄── node_exporter (each VM/LXC)     │  │
│  │  Grafana ──── Alerts ──► Telegram               │  │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Components#

Service	Port	Role
Prometheus	9090	Metrics collection and storage
Grafana	3000	Dashboards and alert rules
pve-exporter	9221	Proxmox API metrics
node_exporter	9100	Per-VM/LXC system metrics

All ports are LAN-only. Do not expose them to the internet — use a Cloudflare Tunnel in front of Grafana if you need remote access.

Proxmox API access#

A dedicated read-only Proxmox user is used for pve-exporter:

Property	Value
Username	`pve-exporter@pve`
Role	`PVEAuditor` (read-only)
Auth method	API Token
Token name	`monitoring-token`

Using a dedicated user avoids using root credentials in the monitoring stack.

node_exporter#

node_exporter runs on each VM and LXC, exposing system metrics on port :9100. Prometheus scrapes it every 30 seconds.

Install on Debian/Ubuntu:

apt install -y prometheus-node-exporter
systemctl enable --now prometheus-node-exporter

Add each host to the Prometheus scrape config:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'node'
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - '192.168.1.x:9100'  # Plex LXC
          - '192.168.1.y:9100'  # Docker VM
          - '192.168.1.z:9100'  # n8n LXC

Grafana alerts#

Alerts are configured in Grafana and delivered via a Telegram bot. When an alert fires (high CPU, disk nearly full, service down), a message appears in the Telegram channel.

To set up the Telegram contact point in Grafana:

Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather and copy the token
Get your chat ID from @userinfobot
Go to Grafana → Alerting → Contact Points → Add and configure Telegram

VM / LXC reference#

ID	Type	Service
lxc/103	LXC	Plex Media Server
lxc/104	LXC	n8n
qemu/102	VM	Docker host
node/proxmox	Host	Proxmox VE node