Integrating Micrometer, Prometheus, and Grafana into a Spring Boot Application

In this guide a senior architect walks through the process of adding Micrometer monitoring to a Spring Boot backend, exposing metrics through Actuator, and then visualizing them with Prometheus and Grafana.

1. Spring Boot Project Integration with Micrometer

1.1 Add Dependencies

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>
  <artifactId>micrometer-registry-prometheus</artifactId>
</dependency>

1.2 Configuration

management.server.port=9003
management.endpoints.web.exposure.include=*
management.endpoint.metrics.enabled=true
management.endpoint.health.show-details=always
management.endpoint.health.probes.enabled=true
management.endpoint.prometheus.enabled=true
management.metrics.export.prometheus.enabled=true
management.metrics.tags.application=voice-qc-backend

The management.endpoints.web.exposure.include=* line enables all Actuator endpoints, including the /actuator/prometheus endpoint that Prometheus will scrape.

The management.metrics.tags.application property adds an application tag to all exported metrics, making it easier to differentiate services in Prometheus.

1.3 Monitor JVM Information

Add a bean in the main application class to expose common tags:

@SpringBootApplication
public class GatewayDatumApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(GatewayDatumApplication.class, args);
    }
    @Bean
    MeterRegistryCustomizer<MeterRegistry> configurer(@Value("${spring.application.name}") String applicationName) {
        return registry -> registry.config().commonTags("application", applicationName);
    }
}

1.4 Create Custom Metrics

Define a component that registers a counter and a timer for a specific business operation:

package com.lianxin.gobot.api.monitor;

import io.micrometer.core.instrument.Counter;
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.MeterRegistry;
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.Timer;
import lombok.Getter;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;

@Component
public class PrometheusCustomMonitor {
    @Getter
    private Counter reportDialRequestCount;
    @Value("${lx.call-result-report.url}")
    private String callReportUrl;
    @Getter
    private Timer reportDialResponseTime;
    private final MeterRegistry registry;
    @Autowired
    public PrometheusCustomMonitor(MeterRegistry registry) {
        this.registry = registry;
    }
    @PostConstruct
    private void init() {
        reportDialRequestCount = registry.counter("go_api_report_dial_request_count", "url", callReportUrl);
        reportDialResponseTime = registry.timer("go_api_report_dial_response_time", "url", callReportUrl);
    }
}

1.5 Add Business‑Level Monitoring

Instrument the business code to count requests and record response time:

// Increment request counter
prometheusCustomMonitor.getReportDialRequestCount().increment();
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
String company = HttpUtils.post(companyUrl, "");
// Record response time
long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
prometheusCustomMonitor.getReportDialResponseTime().record(endTime - startTime, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);

After starting the application, visit http://127.0.0.1:9001/actuator/prometheus to see metrics such as jvm_memory_used_bytes , jvm_gc_memory_promoted_bytes_total , and the custom go_api_report_dial_request_count .

2. Integrate Prometheus

2.1 Installation

docker pull prom/prometheus

mkdir /usr/local/prometheus

vi prometheus.yml

# my global config
global:
  scrape_interval: 15s  # Every 15 seconds
  evaluation_interval: 15s

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'prometheus'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['192.168.136.129:9090']
  - job_name: "metricsLocalTest"
    metrics_path: "/actuator/prometheus"
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:9003"]

docker run -d --name prometheus -p 9090:9090 -v /usr/local/prometheus/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml prom/prometheus

2.2 Configuration

The localhost:9003 target points to the Spring Boot Actuator endpoint that exposes Micrometer metrics. Adding labels (e.g., application name) helps differentiate metrics when querying with PromQL.

3. Visualize Metrics with Grafana Dashboard

3.1 Install Grafana

docker pull grafana/grafana

docker run -d --name grafana -p 3000:3000 -v /usr/local/grafana:/var/lib/grafana grafana/grafana

Default login is admin/admin .

3.2 Configure Prometheus Data Source

In Grafana UI, add a new data source of type Prometheus pointing to http://localhost:9090 .

3.3 Add JVM Dashboard

Import dashboard template ID 4701 to display JVM metrics.

3.4 Add Business Interface Monitoring Panel

Create custom panels that query the custom counters and timers, such as go_api_report_dial_request_count and go_api_report_dial_response_time .

With Micrometer, Prometheus, and Grafana fully integrated, the Spring Boot service now provides comprehensive observability for JVM health and business‑level performance.