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NATS

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: nats

Overview

This collector monitors the activity and performance of NATS servers.

It sends HTTP requests to the NATS HTTP server's dedicated monitoring port.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

The collector can automatically detect NATS instances running on:

  • localhost that are listening on port 8222
  • within Docker containers

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per server

These metrics refer to NATS servers.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.server_trafficreceived, sentbytes/s
nats.server_messagesreceived, sentmessages/s
nats.server_connectionsactiveconnections
nats.server_connections_rateconnectionsconnections/s
nats.server_health_probe_statusok, errorstatus
nats.server_cpu_usageusedpercent
nats.server_mem_usageusedbytes
nats.server_uptimeuptimeseconds

Per http endpoint

These metrics refer to HTTP endpoints.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.
http_endpointHTTP endpoint path.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.http_endpoint_requestsrequestsrequests/s

Per account

These metrics refer to Accounts.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.
accountAccount name.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.account_trafficreceived, sentbytes/s
nats.account_messagesreceived, sentmessages/s
nats.account_connectionsactiveconnections
nats.account_connections_rateconnectionsconnections/s
nats.account_subscriptionsactivesubscriptions
nats.account_slow_consumersslowconsumers/s
nats.account_leaf_nodesleafnodeservers

Per route

These metrics refer to Routes.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.
route_idA unique identifier for a route within the NATS cluster.
remote_idhe unique identifier of the remote server connected via the route.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.route_trafficin, outbytes/s
nats.route_messagesin, outmessages/s
nats.route_subscriptionsactivesubscriptions

Per inbound gateway connection

These metrics refer to Inbound Gateway Connections.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.
gatewayThe name of the local gateway.
remote_gatewayThe name of the remote gateway.
cidA unique identifier for the connection.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.inbound_gateway_conn_trafficin, outbytes/s
nats.inbound_gateway_conn_messagesin, outmessages/s
nats.inbound_gateway_conn_subscriptionsactivesubscriptions
nats.inbound_gateway_conn_uptimeuptimeseconds

Per outbound gateway connection

These metrics refer to Outbound Gateway Connections.

Labels:

LabelDescription
server_idA unique identifier for a server within the NATS cluster.
gatewayThe name of the local gateway.
remote_gatewayThe name of the remote gateway.
cidA unique identifier for the connection.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.outbound_gateway_conn_trafficin, outbytes/s
nats.outbound_gateway_conn_messagesin, outmessages/s
nats.outbound_gateway_conn_subscriptionsactivesubscriptions
nats.outbound_gateway_conn_uptimeuptimeseconds

Per leaf node connection

These metrics refer to Leaf Node Connections.

Labels:

LabelDescription
remote_nameUnique identifier of the remote leaf node server, either its configured name or automatically assigned ID.
accountName of the associated account.
ipIP address of the remote server.
portPort used for the connection to the remote server.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nats.leaf_node_conn_trafficin, outbytes/s
nats.leaf_node_conn_messagesin, outmessages/s
nats.leaf_node_conn_subscriptionsactivesubscriptions
nats.leaf_node_conn_rttrttmicroseconds

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

Enable NATS monitoring

See Enable monitoring.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/nats.conf.

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/nats.conf

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.1no
autodetection_retryRecheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.0no
urlServer URL.http://127.0.0.1:8222yes
timeoutHTTP request timeout.1no
healthz_checkControls the behavior of the /healthz endpoint health check.defaultno
usernameUsername for basic HTTP authentication.no
passwordPassword for basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_urlProxy URL.no
proxy_usernameUsername for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
proxy_passwordPassword for proxy basic HTTP authentication.no
methodHTTP request method.GETno
bodyHTTP request body.no
headersHTTP request headers.no
not_follow_redirectsRedirect handling policy. Controls whether the client follows redirects.nono
tls_skip_verifyServer certificate chain and hostname validation policy. Controls whether the client performs this check.nono
tls_caCertification authority that the client uses when verifying the server's certificates.no
tls_certClient TLS certificate.no
tls_keyClient TLS key.no

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8222

HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8222
username: username
password: password

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

NATS with enabled HTTPS and self-signed certificate.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8222
tls_skip_verify: yes

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8222

- name: remote
url: http://192.0.2.1:8222

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the nats collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

  • Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

    cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
  • Switch to the netdata user.

    sudo -u netdata -s
  • Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m nats

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the nats collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

  • Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
  • Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep nats

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep nats /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep nats

Do you have any feedback for this page? If so, you can open a new issue on our netdata/learn repository.