# Start monitoring stack components

This page describes how to start each of the monitoring stack components after you install and configure them. The components described here include the Aerospike Prometheus Exporter, Prometheus, and the Grafana server.

1.  On the system where Prometheus is installed, start the Aerospike Prometheus Exporter with the following command:
    
    ```plaintext
    systemctl start aerospike-prometheus-exporter.service
    ```
    
2.  Start Prometheus. We recommend running it as a service, though you can also run it as a binary file.
    
    -   [Prometheus as a service](#tab-panel-1003)
    -   [Run binary file](#tab-panel-1004)
    
    1.  Create a `systemd` unit file.
        
    2.  Create the file `/usr/lib/systemd/system/prometheus.service` and include the following content:
        
        ```plaintext
        # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/prometheus.service
        
        [Unit]
        
        Description=Prometheus Service
        
        Documentation=https://prometheus.io/docs/introduction/overview/
        
        Wants=network.target
        
        After=network-online.target
        
        [Service]
        
        ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prometheus --config.file /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml --storage.tsdb.path /var/lib/prometheus/
        
        [Install]
        
        WantedBy=multi-user.target
        ```
        
    3.  Reload daemons with the following command:
        
        ```plaintext
        systemctl daemon-reload
        ```
        
    4.  Start Prometheus with the following command:
        
        ```plaintext
        systemctl start prometheus.service
        ```
        
    
    Assuming the binary is located at `/usr/local/bin/prometheus`, run the following command:
    
    ```plaintext
    /usr/local/bin/prometheus --config.file /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
    
                              --storage.tsdb.path /var/lib/prometheus/
    ```
    
3.  Start the Grafana server with the following command:
    
    ```plaintext
    systemctl start grafana-server
    ```