Collectors configuration reference

The list of supported collectors can be found in the documentation, and on our website. The documentation of each collector provides all the necessary configuration options and prerequisites for that collector. In most cases, either the charts are automatically generated without any configuration, or you just fulfil those prerequisites and configure the collector.

If the application you are interested in monitoring is not listed in our integrations, the collectors list includes the available options to add your application to Netdata.

If we do support your collector but the charts described in the documentation don't appear on your dashboard, the reason will be one of the following:

• The entire data collection plugin is disabled by default. Read how to enable and disable plugins

• The data collection plugin is enabled, but a specific data collection module is disabled. Read how to enable and disable a specific collection module.

• Autodetection failed. Read how to configure and troubleshoot a collector.

Enable and disable plugins

You can enable or disable individual plugins by opening netdata.conf and scrolling down to the [plugins] section. This section features a list of Netdata's plugins, with a boolean setting to enable or disable them. The exception is statsd.plugin, which has its own [statsd] section. Your [plugins] section should look similar to this:

[plugins]
    # timex = yes
    # idlejitter = yes
    # netdata monitoring = yes
    # tc = yes
    # diskspace = yes
    # proc = yes
    # cgroups = yes
    # enable running new plugins = yes
    # check for new plugins every = 60
    # slabinfo = no
    # python.d = yes
    # perf = yes
    # ioping = yes
    # fping = yes
    # nfacct = yes
    # go.d = yes
    # apps = yes
    # ebpf = yes
    # charts.d = yes
    # statsd = yes

By default, most plugins are enabled, so you don't need to enable them explicitly to use their collectors. To enable or disable any specific plugin, remove the comment (#) and change the boolean setting to yes or no.

Enable and disable a specific collection module

You can enable/disable of the collection modules supported by go.d, python.d or charts.d individually, using the configuration file of that orchestrator. For example, you can change the behavior of the Go orchestrator, or any of its collectors, by editing go.d.conf.

Use edit-config from your Netdata config directory to open the orchestrator primary configuration file:

cd /etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d.conf

Within this file, you can either disable the orchestrator entirely (enabled: yes), or find a specific collector and enable/disable it with yes and no settings. Uncomment any line you change to ensure the Netdata daemon reads it on start.

After you make your changes, restart the Agent with sudo systemctl restart netdata, or the appropriate method for your system.

Configure a collector

Most collector modules come with auto-detection, configured to work out-of-the-box on popular operating systems with the default settings.

However, there are cases that auto-detection fails. Usually, the reason is that the applications to be monitored do not allow Netdata to connect. In most of the cases, allowing the user netdata from localhost to connect and collect metrics, will automatically enable data collection for the application in question (it will require a Netdata restart).

When Netdata starts up, each collector searches for exposed metrics on the default endpoint established by that service or application's standard installation procedure. For example, the Nginx collector searches at http://127.0.0.1/stub_status for exposed metrics in the correct format. If an Nginx web server is running and exposes metrics on that endpoint, the collector begins gathering them.

However, not every node or infrastructure uses standard ports, paths, files, or naming conventions. You may need to enable or configure a collector to gather all available metrics from your systems, containers, or applications.

First, find the collector you want to edit and open its documentation. Some software has collectors written in multiple languages. In these cases, you should always pick the collector written in Go.

Use edit-config from your Netdata config directory to open a collector's configuration file. For example, edit the Nginx collector with the following:

./edit-config go.d/nginx.conf

Each configuration file describes every available option and offers examples to help you tweak Netdata's settings according to your needs. In addition, every collector's documentation shows the exact command you need to run to configure that collector. Uncomment any line you change to ensure the collector's orchestrator or the Netdata daemon read it on start.

After you make your changes, restart the Agent with sudo systemctl restart netdata, or the appropriate method for your system.

Troubleshoot a collector

First, navigate to your plugins directory, which is usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the setting plugins directory. Once you're in the plugins directory, switch to the netdata user.

cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata

The next step is based on the collector's orchestrator.

# Go orchestrator (go.d.plugin)
./go.d.plugin -d -m <MODULE_NAME>

# Python orchestrator (python.d.plugin)
./python.d.plugin <MODULE_NAME> debug trace

# Bash orchestrator (bash.d.plugin)
./charts.d.plugin debug 1 <MODULE_NAME>

The output from the relevant command will provide valuable troubleshooting information. If you can't figure out how to enable the collector using the details from this output, feel free to join our Discord server, to get help from our experts.