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docs: Issue with "First steps with Prometheus" #3032
Describe the issue:
My overall goal is to capture Opentelemetry data and display it. I'm an experienced mainframe person, but have only just started using prometheus.
I've been through the getting started, and I'm stuck on what next. I'm looking for the step after getting started.
From status -> health I believe I have connected opentelemetry to Prometheus both running in docker, but I do not know if any data is flowing
It would be good if you could provide instructions on the second step
For example
Provide some sample data in a file.
Explain how I know what data I can query. For example the documentation mentions promhttp_metric_handler_requests_total. How do I list the available fields, so I can use them in a query. In the OTEL records, there are many fields.
I issued a curl query and got a list of fields, but it does not have any records from OTEL. How am I meant to know what fields are available?
Provide a metric records_processed and it shows all the scrapers - their status and how many records they have processed ( and perhaps last read time)
Then as part of the second step say issue the query.... to show how many records you have read from which source.
Third step.
Im not sure if I can provide saved queries to save me having to type long queries every time.
The third step should provide an example of creating/editing/deleting a saved rule on the sampled data provided
This information may already exist - I just can't find it.
Hi @colinpaicemq! I'd love to help address these gaps. As someone who also prefers hands-on, project-based learning, I think your suggestion for a 'Second Step' guide that walks through verifying data flow and exploring available metrics via the UI/API would be incredibly helpful. I'd like to take a crack at drafting this 'Second Step' section. Would the team be open to a PR that adds this?
Activity
Atharva-Ramawat commentedon Jul 9, 2026
Hi @colinpaicemq! I'd love to help address these gaps. As someone who also prefers hands-on, project-based learning, I think your suggestion for a 'Second Step' guide that walks through verifying data flow and exploring available metrics via the UI/API would be incredibly helpful. I'd like to take a crack at drafting this 'Second Step' section. Would the team be open to a PR that adds this?
colinpaicemq commentedon Jul 10, 2026
I've written some posts at the first steps level. See here https://colinpaice.blog/2026/07/10/configuring-opentelemetry-jaeger-prometheus-grafana-101
I'd welcome any comments. I have not got Prometheus to display my data yet - so I've got a long way to go in my kindergarden journey.