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NGINX Unit

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: nginxunit

Overview

This collector monitors the activity and performance of NGINX Unit servers, and collects metrics such as the number of connections, their status, and client requests.

It sends HTTP requests to the NGINX Unit Status API.

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 NGINX Unit instances running on:

  • localhost that are listening on port 8000
  • 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 NGINX Unit instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nginxunit.requests_raterequestsrequests/s
nginxunit.connections_rateaccepted, closedconnections/s
nginxunit.connections_currentactive, idleconnections

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

Enable HTTP Control API

See Control API documentation.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/nginxunit.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/nginxunit.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
urlThe URL of the NGINX Unit HTTP Control API.http://127.0.0.1:8000yes
timeoutHTTP request timeout.1no
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://127.0.0.1:8000

HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1::8000
username: username
password: password

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

NGINX Unit with enabled HTTPS and self-signed certificate.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1:8000
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://127.0.0.1:8000

- name: remote
url: http://192.0.2.1:8000

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 nginxunit 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 nginxunit

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the nginxunit 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 nginxunit

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 nginxunit /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 nginxunit

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