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Runbook: Investigate a Missing Metric
1 · Prerequisites
Confirm every item is in place before any state change.
- Prometheus server
- The metric in question
2 · Pre-checks
Read-only diagnostic commands. If any of these don't match expected output, stop and investigate further.
- · Determine the metric name
- · Determine the expected source
3 · Procedure
Execute each step in order. Verify the expected output of a step before moving to the next.
- 1curl /api/v1/series?match[]=metric_name
- 2If empty: check exporter is up and /metrics responds
- 3If exporter is up: check relabel keeps the metric
- 4Check Prometheus scrape logs
- 5Verify the metric is not filtered by metric_relabel_configs
4 · Verification
Confirm the procedure actually fixed the problem.
- ✓The series is present in /api/v1/series
- ✓The metric appears in /api/v1/query
5 · Rollback
If verification fails, undo the procedure in reverse order.
- ↶Revert relabel or configuration changes
6 · Escalation
When the runbook isn't enough, contact:
- · Escalate if the missing metric is a critical SLO input
Purpose
Investigate a Missing Metric
When to use this runbook
Use this runbook when the operator needs a guided procedure to handle the situation described above.
Pre-checks
Before starting the procedure, confirm the prerequisites and pre-checks are met. The structured lists are rendered from the frontmatter by the page layout.
Procedure
Follow the steps from the frontmatter procedure steps. The page layout renders the steps as a checklist with copy-to-clipboard affordances.
Verification
After the procedure, the structured verification items from the frontmatter are rendered as a checklist.
Rollback
If the procedure fails or makes things worse, follow the structured rollback steps from the frontmatter.
Escalation
The structured escalation path is rendered from the frontmatter. Use it if the operator cannot complete the procedure safely.