Merge pull request #9 from brian-brazil/faq

Add an FAQ

content/community.html

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
   <p>
     Prometheus was initially started privately by
     <a href="https://github.com/matttproud">Matt Proud</a> and
-    <a href="https://github.com/juliusv">Julius Volz</a>, the majority of its
+    <a href="https://github.com/juliusv">Julius Volz</a>. The majority of its
     development has been sponsored by <a href="https://soundcloud.com">SoundCloud</a>.
   </p>
 </div>

content/docs/introduction/faq.md

+---
+title: FAQ
+sort_rank: 5
+---
+
+# Frequently Asked Questions
+
+## General
+
+### What is Prometheus?
+Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit,
+with an active ecosystem. See the [overview](../overview).
+
+### How does Prometheus compare against \[other monitoring system\]?
+
+See the [comparison](../comparison) page.
+
+### What dependencies does Prometheus have?
+
+The main Prometheus server runs standalone and has no external dependencies.
+
+### Can Prometheus be made highly available?
+
+Yes, run identical Prometheus servers on two or more separate machines.
+Identical alerts will be deduplicated by the [Alertmanager](https://github.com/prometheus/alertmanager).
+
+The Alertmanager cannot currently be made highly available, but this is a goal.
+
+### What language is Prometheus written in?
+
+Most Prometheus components are written in Go. Some are also written in Java and Ruby.
+
+### Who wrote Prometheus?
+
+Prometheus was initially started privately by
+[Matt Proud](https://github.com/matttproud) and
+[Julius Volz](https://github.com/juliusv). The majority of its
+development has been sponsored by [SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com).
+
+Other companies making active contributions include [Boxever](www.boxever.com)
+and [Docker](https://www.docker.com). A full list can be found in the
+[CONTRIBUTORS](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/master/CONTRIBUTORS.md)
+file in each repository.
+
+### What license is Prometheus released under?
+
+Prometheus is released under the
+[Apache 2.0](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/master/LICENSE) license.
+
+### Can I send alerts?
+
+Yes, with the experimental [Alertmanager](https://github.com/prometheus/alertmanager).
+[PagerDuty](https://www.pagerduty.com/) and email are supported.
+
+### Can I create dashboards?
+
+Yes, with [PromDash](../../visualization/promdash/) and [Console
+templates](visualization/consoles/).
+
+## Instrumentation
+
+### Which languages have instrumentation libraries?
+
+Currently there are client libraries for:
+
+- [Go](https://github.com/prometheus/client_golang)
+- [Java or Scala](https://github.com/prometheus/client_java)
+- [Ruby](https://github.com/prometheus/client_ruby)
+
+If you are interested in contributing a client library for a new language, see
+the [exposition formats](../../instrumenting/exposition_formats/).
+
+### Can I monitor machines?
+
+Yes, the [Node Exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter) exposes
+an extensive set of machine-level metrics on Linux such as CPU usage, memory,
+disk utilization, filesystem fullness and network bandwidth.
+
+### Can I monitor batch jobs?
+
+Yes, using the [Pushgateway](../../instrumenting/pushing). See also the
+[best practices](../../practices/instrumentation/#batch-jobs) for monitoring batch
+jobs.
+
+### Which Java client should I use?
+
+New users are advised to use the
+[simpleclient](https://github.com/prometheus/client_java/tree/master/simpleclient).
+For more information, see the [comparison](https://github.com/prometheus/client_java/wiki).
+
+### Can I monitor JVM applications via JMX?
+
+Yes, for applications that you cannot instrument directly with the Java client
+you can use the [JMX Exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/jmx_exporter)
+either standalone or as a Java Agent.
+
+### What is the performance impact of instrumentation?
+
+Performance across client libraries and languages may vary. For Java,
+[benchmarks](https://github.com/prometheus/client_java/blob/master/benchmark/README.md)
+indicate that incrementing a counter/gauge with the Java client will take
+12-17ns, depending on contention. This is negligible for all but the most
+latency-critical code.