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When choosing metric names and key/value pairs for labels, it’s important to be consistent throughout your organization. Consistent labels reduce confusion across teams. A metric consists of a name and a set of labels, regardless of its metric type. 
node_network_receive_bytes_total{hostname="host1",mode="system"}
The name of a metric is a single word that uniquely identifies the metric. In this example, the name is node_network_receive_bytes_total. A label is a key/value pairs that helps differentiate and give meaning to metric names. In this example, the labels are hostname="host1" and mode="system".

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Metric name

Use these guidelines to name your metrics:
Metric names must follow Prometheus name and label requirements. Metrics that do not meet these requirements can not be queried and are considered invalid. Chronosphere rejects metrics that don’t meet these definitions.
  • Select a metric name that describes a function of the system you’re monitoring (for example, node_memory_usage_bytes). Be as concise as possible.
  • Include a prefix for the metric name that’s relevant to the domain the metric belongs to. For example, adding http to http_request_duration_seconds lets users know this metric belongs to the HTTP domain.
  • Use suffixes to describe the unit in plural form. For example, the seconds in http_request_duration_seconds.
  • Metric names can contain letters, numbers, underscores, or colons, based on the regular expression [a-zA-Z_:][a-zA-Z0-9_:]*.
  • Reserve colons (:) in the name for calculated or aggregated metrics, such as those produced by rollup rules.
  • Don’t use underscores at the beginning of a metric name. Leading underscores are reserved for internal use.
  • Periods (.) convert to underscores (_).

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Label names and values

Labels are a set of comma-separated key/value pairs, contained in curly braces. Labels let you query and alert on these different fields. Use labels to differentiate and give meaning to metric names. For example, http_requests_total refers to the total number of HTTP requests, but isn’t fully descriptive. Using labels, you can break down the number of requests by method, status_code, and endpoint. Here are some best practices and limitations:
  • Label keys
    • Use label keys to add dimensions to your metric name. For example, endpoint:/api/create_user or method:POST).
    • Don’t add unbounded, high-cardinality labels, such as UUIDs or timestamps.
    • Label keys can contain letters, numbers, underscores, or colons, based on the regular expression [a-zA-Z_:][a-zA-Z0-9_:]*.
    • Don’t use underscores at the beginning of a label key. Leading underscores are reserved for internal use.
  • Label values
    • Label values might contain any Unicode characters.
    • A label with an empty label value is equivalent to a label that doesn’t exist.
    • You can use PromQL to filter and aggregate based on these dimensions. Changing any label value, including adding or removing a label, creates a new time series.