MongoDB Atlas provides rich cluster and shard-level metrics, but
using the mongodb-exporter alone does not capture metrics at the same level of detail as the Atlas UI.
Even if you connect exporters to all shards, the result is still not fully aligned with the Atlas-native view.
If your team is accustomed to the Atlas metrics dashboard and wants deeper, more proactive monitoring,
you can enhance observability by directly integrating Atlas metrics into Prometheus and visualizing them in Grafana.
Here’s how to set it up step by step.
Atlas-Prometheus Integration Steps
1. Log in to Atlas
Log into your MongoDB Atlas account.
2. Navigate to Project Integrations
From the Atlas UI, go to Project Integrations.
3. Configure Prometheus Integration
- Create a username and password.
- Select HTTP SD as the integration method.
- Click Generate Scrape Configurations.
4. Add to Prometheus scrape_configs
Copy the generated scrape_configs snippet into your Prometheus configuration file.
Restart Prometheus to begin scraping Atlas metrics.
5. Verify metrics in Prometheus
Open the Prometheus UI and check that metrics are being collected successfully.
If you see an error like “Error scraping target: server returned HTTP status 429 Too Many Requests”,
note that Atlas imposes a 100 requests per minute limit. You must adjust your scrape_interval accordingly.
5-1. Validate configuration
You can also verify that the configuration has been properly registered in Atlas.
6. Build Grafana dashboards
Once Prometheus is scraping Atlas metrics,
you can build Grafana dashboards using the example JSON files provided:
- MongoDB Metrics Dashboard.json
- Hardware Dashboard.json
This enables a unified view of Atlas metrics directly in Grafana.
Conclusion
By integrating Atlas Metrics with Prometheus and Grafana, you can:
- Access the same rich metrics you are used to in the Atlas UI directly from Prometheus
- Build customized dashboards and alerts in Grafana
- Achieve a unified observability stack without losing Atlas-specific visibility
This approach strengthens monitoring for teams relying on Atlas while ensuring consistent observability across environments.