Introspection is invaluable to gather data about a system, but sometimes we're required to measure from the point of view of a user of that system. In such cases, probing is a good option to simulate user interaction. As probing is made from the outside and without knowledge regarding the inner workings of the system, this is classified as blackbox monitoring, as discussed in Chapter 1, Monitoring Fundamentals.
Blackbox monitoring
Blackbox exporter
blackbox_exporter is one of the most peculiar of all the currently available exporters in the Prometheus ecosystem. Its usage pattern is ingenious and usually, newcomers are puzzled by it. We'll be going to dive into this exporter with the hope of making its use as straightforward...