31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana.

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Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice

with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1]
Collins Onyemaobi · Follow
4 min read · Feb 2, 2022

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a match made in Software heaven

Executive Summary
1. Build a simple bored endpoint that consumes an API that informs one “to find
something to do by getting suggestions for random activities using” …

2. A modern, fast (high-performance), Python web framework that’s perfect for

building RESTful APIs based on standard Python type hints. — FastAPI

3. We’ll also be able to view the interactive API documentation, powered by

Swagger UI, at http://host:port/docs:

4. We shall use docker to spine up containers for FastAPI, Prometheus and Grafana

5. Deploy Grafana and Prometheus, both to help us monitor and visualize complex
data in a simplified manner. Through the use of METRICS for example CPU
Load, Current Memory, common error output, a web service response and
request etc.

Stack
Dependencies:

1. FastAPI

2. Docker

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31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

3. Python

4. Prometheus

5. Grafana

FastAPI
FastAPI is a modern, fast (high-performance), Python web framework that’s perfect
for building RESTful APIs based on standard Python type hints.

It can handle both synchronous and asynchronous requests and has built-in support
for data validation, JSON serialization, authentication and authorization, and
OpenAPI documentation.

Highlights (FastAPI)
1. FastAPI has surged in popularity since 2019 since it supports async out-of-the-
box and has an advanced data validation feature based on Python type hints.

2. it is a lightweight microframework

3. It takes advantage of Python type hints for parameter declaration which enables
data validation (via Pydantic) and OpenAPI/Swagger documentation.

4. Built on top of Starlette. Starlette + Uvicorn offers async capability which

supports the development of asynchronous APIs.

5. It’s fast. Since async is much more efficient than the traditional synchronous
threading model, it can compete with Node and Go with regard to performance.

6. Because it’s based on and fully compatible with OpenAPI and JSON Schema, it
supports a number of powerful tools, like Swagger UI (allows testing the API
from the docs) and ReDoc

7. It has amazing automatic documentation.

8. Security and Authentication with HTTP Basic, OAuth2 and passing of api keys

Sample Code
FastAPI does not have a built-in development server, so an ASGI server like Uvicorn
or Daphne is required.

https://medium.com/@ct.onyemaobi/build-and-monitor-your-fastapi-microservice-with-docker-prometheus-and-grafana-part-1-7e69a2e5fb67 2/13
31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

DATA MONITORING AND VISUALIZATION

System Data monitoring and visualization are as crucial as maintaining a
system. It allows companies to understand application and user behavior
quickly and effect proactive response, identify bugs, and scale an application
due to usage as needed.

Grafana and Prometheus, both help us monitor and visualize complex data in a
simplified manner. They do these through the use of METRICS

Understanding Metrics
In layperson terms, metrics are numeric measurements and time-series mean
that changes as being recorded over time.

What users want to measure differs from application to application.

for a web server, it might be request times

for a database it might be the number of active connections or number of active

queries, etc.

Metrics play an important role in understanding why your application is

working in a certain way.
For example, your application can become slow when the number of requests

https://medium.com/@ct.onyemaobi/build-and-monitor-your-fastapi-microservice-with-docker-prometheus-and-grafana-part-1-7e69a2e5fb67 3/13
31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

are high. If you have the request count metric you can spot the reason and
increase the number of servers to handle the load.

Prometheus and Grafana is a software combo that is gaining traction because they are
simple to use and effective complementary services that,together, provide robust time-series
database with excellent data visualization — Tim Hildred (Red Hat) — 07 May 2020

Prometheus
Prometheus is an open-source system monitoring and alerting toolkit. It collects
and stores its metrics as time-stamp data i.e metrics info is stored with the
timestamp at which it is recorded alongside key-value pairs called labels.

Key Features of Prometheus includes;

Provides time-series data

Flexible query language, PromQL allows users to select data in real-time.

Multidimensional data model.

No reliance on distributed storage; single server nodes are autonomous

Grafana
While Prometheus collects and stores query data, Grafana visualizes it.

https://medium.com/@ct.onyemaobi/build-and-monitor-your-fastapi-microservice-with-docker-prometheus-and-grafana-part-1-7e69a2e5fb67 4/13
31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

Grafana is an easy to use Third party app that helps visualize data from data
sources such as Prometheus.

Grafana opens up data collected in prometheus to a whole lot of visualization

possibilities such as graphs, charts, histograms, and tables.

Prometheus aggregates all metrics collected as time-stamp data into a single

graph while grafana allows you to present the metrics collected as you wish

Key Features of Grafana includes;

Easy Visualization

Alert systems

Unifies data from different data sources

Dashboard sharing

FastAPI Visualization with Grafana

The final build

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31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

Fastapi Docker Prometheus Grafana Plugin

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Written by Collins Onyemaobi

23 Followers

Software Engineer / Electoral Technology Consultant. I have developed and supported technology solutions
for West African sponsored by (UNDP, ECOWAS, INEC, etc)

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31/10/2023, 11:59 Build and monitor your FastAPI microservice with Docker, Prometheus and Grafana. [Part-1] | by Collins Onyemaobi | Medium

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