Skip to main content

NGINX collector

Overview

NGINX is a web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache.

This collector monitors one or more NGINX servers, depending on your configuration.

Collected 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.

global

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
nginx.connectionsactiveconnections
nginx.connections_statusreading, writing, idleconnections
nginx.connections_accepted_handledaccepted, handledconnections/s
nginx.requestsrequestsrequests/s

Setup

Prerequisites

Enable status support

Configure ngx_http_stub_status_module.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name is go.d/nginx.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the format is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
- name: some_name1
- name: some_name1

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/nginx.conf

Options

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

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.1
autodetection_retryRe-check interval in seconds. Zero means not to schedule re-check.0
urlServer URL.http://127.0.0.1/stub_statusyes
timeoutHTTP request timeout.1
usernameUsername for basic HTTP authentication.
passwordPassword for basic HTTP authentication.
proxy_urlProxy URL.
proxy_usernameUsername for proxy basic HTTP authentication.
proxy_passwordPassword for proxy basic HTTP authentication.
methodHTTP request method.GET
bodyHTTP request body.
headersHTTP request headers.
not_follow_redirectsRedirect handling policy. Controls whether the client follows redirects.no
tls_skip_verifyServer certificate chain and hostname validation policy. Controls whether the client performs this check.no
tls_caCertification authority that the client uses when verifying the server's certificates.
tls_certClient TLS certificate.
tls_keyClient TLS key.

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1/stub_status
HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

Config
jobs:
- name: local
url: http://127.0.0.1/stub_status
username: username
password: password
HTTPS with self-signed certificate

NGINX with enabled HTTPS and self-signed certificate.

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

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

Troubleshooting

Debug mode

To troubleshoot issues with the nginx 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 nginx

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