Netdata is a seriously impressive server monitoring tool

Every once in a while, I come across a tool that makes me lean back and go, “Wooo, that’s cool!”

Well, I recently had that very thing happen after installing a monitor called Netdata.

According to its site, Netdata is a “Zero-config observability with an on-call AI partner. Per-second metrics that stay on-prem; Netdata AI investigates, explains root cause, and guides fixes in plain English.”

I had no idea what was in store for me upon completing the installation, but I was seriously impressed.

Netdata gives you insights into things like AI troubleshooting, infrastructure, applications, synthetic tests, networks, logs, and metrics. Even better, you don’t have to install a bunch of modules to make this app useful. Once you walk through the complete installation (and registration, which includes a free tier plan), you’ll be presented with more information than you probably need.

Netdata can be installed on Linux, macOS, Windows, or via Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, and on AWS, Azure, and GCP. Netdata can monitor things like databases, web servers, proxies, containers, VMs, operating systems, networking, cloud, and DevOps.

Yeah, it’s seriously cross-platform and flexible.

You can even create custom dashboards on this baby.

I installed Netdata on a Linux server (version 24.04), and I want to show you how that’s done.

Let’s get to work.

Installing Netdata

With your Linux server up and running, log in to it and issue the following command to install NetData:

 :wget -O /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh https://get.netdata.cloud/kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh

You’ll be prompted for your user password. Upon successful authentication, the installation will commence.

The installation of Netdata can take some time, and you’ll most likely be prompted to okay the installation of other packages. Allow all of the necessary dependencies to be installed. Once the installation is completed, you can access your instance.

Accessing Netdata

Open a web browser that’s connected to the same network as Netdata and point it to http://SERVER:19999 (where SERVER is the IP address of the hosting server. You’ll be greeted by a sign-in page (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Don’t fear the Netdata sign-in page.

Next, you’ll need to register an account. The account is free (unless/until you need to upgrade to an enterprise solution). I would recommend connecting via email address. Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive an email with a link to click. Click on that link and you’ll be registered.

Now the fun begins.

Adding a node

As you can see, the Dashboard gives you a ton of information for your server. One of the first things you’ll want to do is add a node. For that, you’ll need a second server.

To add a node, open the Nodes tab and then click “Add nodes” (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Adding a node is much easier than you might think.

On the Add node page, you’ll be presented with a command to run on the new machine. Run that command and answer all of the necessary questions.

You should then see your newly-added node listed.

You can then create Spaces if you need. Say, for instance, you want a specific space to monitor Docker containers. To do that, click the + button in the left sidebar. When prompted, give your new space a name, and you’ll be presented with your new space, where you can then add the necessary Docker integration (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Creating a Docker space where you can monitor containers.

To add Docker support, click the small Docker icon near the bottom right of the screen, and you’ll be presented with yet another command. This time, you’ll want to run the command on the machine you have Docker installed on and that is connected to the Netdata server.

You can either use the docker run command or create a Dockerfile and use docker-compose.

The Docker add-on will be a must for anyone who needs to be able to observe what’s going on with their containers. You’ll get quick access to information such as Docker container states, health status, total images, total image size, how many containers are running, and much more (Figure 4). 

Figure 4: Netdata with Docker integration is really impressive.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a dashboard that gives you this much information about your running containers.

You can add as many integrations as you need for your space, anything to make it deliver more and more valuable information.

Once you have everything up and running, your Netdata instance is ready for use.

You’ll find yourself poking around Netdata for a while, simply because there is so much to find. I spent plenty of time with it and knew that I was still only scratching the surface. If you’re like me, you want quick access to all of the information on your servers and services, and Netdata delivers like a champ.

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