Netdata

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[!WARNING] People get addicted to Netdata. Once you use it on your systems, there's no going back.

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WHO WE ARE

Netdata is an open-source, real-time infrastructure monitoring platform. Monitor, detect, and act across your entire infrastructure.

Core Advantages:

• Instant Insights – With Netdata you can access per-second metrics and visualizations.
• Zero Configuration – You can deploy immediately without complex setup.
• ML-Powered – You can detect anomalies, predict issues, and automate analysis.
• Efficient – You can monitor with minimal resource usage and maximum scalability.
• Secure & Distributed – You can keep your data local with no central collection needed.

With Netdata, you get real-time, per-second updates. Clear insights at a glance, no complexity.

In 2013, at the company where Costa Tsaousis was COO, a significant percentage of their cloud-based transactions failed silently, severely impacting business performance.

Costa and his team tried every troubleshooting tool available at the time. None could identify the root cause. As Costa later wrote:

“I couldn’t believe that monitoring systems provide so few metrics and with such low resolution, scale so badly, and cost so much to run.”

Frustrated, he decided to build his own monitoring tool, starting from scratch.

That decision led to countless late nights and weekends. It also sparked a fundamental shift in how infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting are approached, both in method and in cost.

Most Energy-Efficient Monitoring Tool

According to the University of Amsterdam study, Netdata is the most energy-efficient tool for monitoring Docker-based systems. The study also shows Netdata excels in CPU usage, RAM usage, and execution time compared to other monitoring solutions.

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Key Features

Feature	Description	What Makes It Unique
Real-Time	Per-second data collection and processing	Works in a beat – click and see results instantly
Zero-Configuration	Automatic detection and discovery	Auto-discovers everything on the nodes it runs
ML-Powered	Unsupervised anomaly detection	Trains multiple ML models per metric at the edge
Long-Term Retention	High-performance storage	~0.5 bytes per sample with tiered storage for archiving
Advanced Visualization	Rich, interactive dashboards	Slice and dice data without query language
Extreme Scalability	Native horizontal scaling	Parent-Child centralization with multi-million samples/s
Complete Visibility	From infrastructure to applications	Simplifies operations and eliminates silos
Edge-Based	Processing at your premises	Distributes code instead of centralizing data

[!NOTE]
Want to put Netdata to the test against Prometheus? Explore the full comparison.

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Netdata Ecosystem

This three-part architecture enables you to scale from single nodes to complex multi-cloud environments:

Component	Description	License
Netdata Agent	• Core monitoring engine• Handles collection, storage, ML, alerts, exports• Runs on servers, cloud, K8s, IoT• Zero production impact	GPL v3+
Netdata Cloud	• Enterprise features• User management, RBAC, horizontal scaling• Centralized alerts• Free community tier• No metric storage centralization
Netdata UI	• Dashboards and visualizations• Free to use• Included in standard packages• Latest version via CDN	NCUL1

What You Can Monitor

With Netdata you can monitor all these components across platforms:

Component	Linux	FreeBSD	macOS	Windows
System ResourcesCPU, Memory and system shared resources	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
StorageDisks, Mount points, Filesystems, RAID arrays	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
NetworkNetwork Interfaces, Protocols, Firewall, etc	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hardware & SensorsFans, Temperatures, Controllers, GPUs, etc	Full	Some	Some	Some
O/S ServicesResources, Performance and Status	Yessystemd	-	-	-
ProcessesResources, Performance, OOM, and more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
System and Application Logs	Yessystemd-journal	-	-	YesWindows Event Log, ETW
Network ConnectionsLive TCP and UDP sockets per PID	Yes	-	-	-
ContainersDocker/containerd, LXC/LXD, Kubernetes, etc	Yes	-	-	-
VMs (from the host)KVM, qemu, libvirt, Proxmox, etc	Yescgroups	-	-	YesHyper-V
Synthetic ChecksTest APIs, TCP ports, Ping, Certificates, etc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Packaged Applicationsnginx, apache, postgres, redis, mongodb,and hundreds more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cloud Provider InfrastructureAWS, GCP, Azure, and more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom ApplicationsOpenMetrics, StatsD and soon OpenTelemetry	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

On Linux, you can continuously monitor all kernel features and hardware sensors for errors, including Intel/AMD/Nvidia GPUs, PCI AER, RAM EDAC, IPMI, S.M.A.R.T, Intel RAPL, NVMe, fans, power supplies, and voltage readings.

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Getting Started

You can install Netdata on all major operating systems. To begin:

1. Install Netdata

Choose your platform and follow the installation guide:

• Linux Installation
• macOS
• FreeBSD
• Windows
• Docker Guide
• Kubernetes Setup

[!NOTE] You can access the Netdata UI at http://localhost:19999 (or http://NODE:19999 if remote).

2. Configure Collectors

Netdata auto-discovers most metrics, but you can manually configure some collectors:

• All collectors
• SNMP monitoring

3. Configure Alerts

You can use hundreds of built-in alerts and integrate with:

email, Slack, Telegram, PagerDuty, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and more.

[!NOTE]
Email alerts work by default if there's a configured MTA.

4. Configure Parents

You can centralize dashboards, alerts, and storage with Netdata Parents:

• Streaming Reference

[!NOTE]
You can use Netdata Parents for central dashboards, longer retention, and alert configuration.

5. Connect to Netdata Cloud

Sign in to Netdata Cloud and connect your nodes for:

• Access from anywhere
• Horizontal scalability and multi-node dashboards
• UI configuration for alerts and data collection
• Role-based access control
• Free tier available

[!NOTE]
Netdata Cloud is optional. Your data stays in your infrastructure.

Live Demo Sites

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How It Works

With Netdata you can run a modular pipeline for metrics collection, processing, and visualization.

flowchart TB
  A[Netdata Agent]:::mainNode
  A1(Collect):::green --> A
  A2(Store):::green --> A
  A3(Learn):::green --> A
  A4(Detect):::green --> A
  A5(Check):::green --> A
  A6(Stream):::green --> A
  A7(Archive):::green --> A
  A8(Query):::green --> A
  A9(Score):::green --> A

  classDef green fill:#bbf3bb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px,color:#000
  classDef mainNode fill:#f0f0f0,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px,color:#333

With each Agent you can:

1. Collect – Gather metrics from systems, containers, apps, logs, APIs, and synthetic checks.
2. Store – Save metrics to a high-efficiency, tiered time-series database.
3. Learn – Train ML models per metric using recent behavior.
4. Detect – Identify anomalies using trained ML models.
5. Check – Evaluate metrics against pre-set or custom alert rules.
6. Stream – Send metrics to Netdata Parents in real time.
7. Archive – Export metrics to Prometheus, InfluxDB, OpenTSDB, Graphite, and others.
8. Query – Access metrics via an API for dashboards or third-party tools.
9. Score – Use a scoring engine to find patterns and correlations across metrics.

[!NOTE]
Learn more: Netdata's architecture

Agent Capabilities

With the Netdata Agent, you can use these core capabilities out-of-the-box:

Capability	Description
Comprehensive Collection	• 800+ integrations• Systems, containers, VMs, hardware sensors• OpenMetrics, StatsD, and logs• OpenTelemetry support coming soon
Performance & Precision	• Per-second collection• Real-time visualization with 1-second latency• High-resolution metrics
Edge-Based ML	• ML models trained at the edge• Automatic anomaly detection per metric• Pattern recognition based on historical behavior
Advanced Log Management	• Direct systemd-journald and Windows Event Log integration• Process logs at the edge• Rich log visualization
Observability Pipeline	• Parent-Child relationships• Flexible centralization• Multi-level replication and retention
Automated Visualization	• NIDL data model• Auto-generated dashboards• No query language needed
Smart Alerting	• Pre-configured alerts• Multiple notification methods• Proactive detection
Low Maintenance	• Auto-detection• Zero-touch ML• Easy scalability• CI/CD friendly
Open & Extensible	• Modular architecture• Easy to customize• Integrates with existing tools

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CNCF Membership

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FAQ

Yes. Netdata follows OpenSSF best practices, has a security-first design, and is regularly audited by the community.

• Security design
• Security policies and advisories

No. Even with ML and per-second metrics, Netdata uses minimal resources.

• ~5% CPU and 150MiB RAM by default on production systems
• <1% CPU and ~100MiB RAM when ML and alerts are disabled and using ephemeral storage
• Parents scale to millions of metrics per second with appropriate hardware

You can use the Netdata Monitoring section in the dashboard to inspect its resource usage.

As much as your disk allows.

With Netdata you can use tiered retention:

• Tier 0: per-second resolution
• Tier 1: per-minute resolution
• Tier 2: per-hour resolution

These are queried automatically based on the zoom level.

Yes. With Netdata you can:

• Scale horizontally with many Agents
• Scale vertically with powerful Parents
• Scale infinitely via Netdata Cloud

You can use Netdata Cloud to merge many independent infrastructures into one logical view.

No. Netdata minimizes disk usage:

• Metrics are flushed to disk every 17 minutes, spread out evenly
• Uses direct I/O and compression (ZSTD)
• Can run entirely in RAM or stream to a Parent

You can use alloc or ram mode for no disk writes.

With Netdata you get a complete monitoring solution—not just tools.

• No manual setup or dashboards needed
• Built-in ML, alerts, dashboards, and correlations
• More efficient and easier to deploy

Performance comparison

With Netdata you can store all metrics on your infrastructure—no sampling, no aggregation, no loss.

• High-resolution metrics by default
• ML per metric, not shared models
• Unlimited scalability without skyrocketing cost

Yes. You can use Netdata together with traditional tools.

With Netdata you get:

• Real-time, high-resolution monitoring
• Zero configuration and auto-generated dashboards
• Anomaly detection and advanced visualization

You can start small:

• Use the dashboard's table of contents and search
• Explore anomaly scoring ("AR" toggle)
• Create custom dashboards in Netdata Cloud

Docs and guides

No. Netdata Cloud is optional.

Netdata works without it, but with Cloud you can:

• Access remotely with SSO
• Save dashboard customizations
• Configure alerts centrally
• Collaborate with role-based access

Anonymous telemetry helps improve the product. You can disable it:

• Add --disable-telemetry to the installer, or
• Create /etc/netdata/.opt-out-from-anonymous-statistics and restart Netdata

Telemetry helps us understand usage, not track users. No private data is collected.

You'll join users including:

• Major companies (Amazon, ABN AMRO Bank, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Netflix, Samsung)
• Universities (NYU, Columbia, Seoul National, UCL)
• Government organizations worldwide
• Infrastructure-intensive organizations
• Technology operators
• Startups and freelancers
• SysAdmins and DevOps professionals

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:book: Documentation

Visit Netdata Learn for full documentation and guides.