Useful management and configuration actions

Below are some of the most common actions one can take while using Netdata. You can use this page as a quick reference for installing Netdata, connecting a node to the Cloud, properly editing the configuration, accessing Netdata's API, and more!

Install Netdata

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

# Or, if you have cURL but not wget (such as on macOS):
curl https://get.netdata.cloud/kickstart.sh > /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh

Connect a node to Netdata Cloud

To do so, sign in to Netdata Cloud, on your Space under the Nodes tab, click Add Nodes and paste the provided command into your node’s terminal and run it. You can also copy the Claim token and pass it to the installation script with --claim-token and re-run it.

Configuration

Netdata's config directory is /etc/netdata/ but in some operating systems it might be /opt/netdata/etc/netdata/.
Look for the # config directory = line over at http://NODE_IP:19999/netdata.conf to find your config directory.

From within that directory you can run sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf to edit Netdata's configuration.
You can edit other config files too, by specifying their filename after ./edit-config.
You are expected to use this method in all following configuration changes.

Enable/disable plugins (groups of collectors)

sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf

[plugins]
 go.d = yes # enabled
 node.d = no # disabled

Enable/disable specific collectors

sudo ./edit-config go.d.conf # edit a plugin's config

modules:
  activemq: no # disabled
  cockroachdb: yes # enabled

Edit a collector's config

sudo ./edit-config go.d/mysql.conf

Alerts & notifications

After any change, reload the Netdata health configuration:

netdatacli reload-health
#or if that command doesn't work on your installation, use:
killall -USR2 netdata

Configure a specific alert

sudo ./edit-config health.d/example-alert.conf

Silence a specific alert

sudo ./edit-config health.d/example-alert.conf

 to: silent

Manage the daemon

Intent	Action
Start Netdata	$ sudo service netdata start
Stop Netdata	$ sudo service netdata stop
Restart Netdata	$ sudo service netdata restart
Reload health configuration	$ sudo netdatacli reload-health $ killall -USR2 netdata
View error logs	less /var/log/netdata/error.log
View collectors logs	less /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Change the port Netdata listens to (example, set it to port 39999)

[web]
default port = 39999

See metrics and dashboards

Netdata Cloud: https://app.netdata.cloud

Local dashboard: https://NODE:19999

Replace NODE with the IP address or hostname of your node. Often localhost.

Access the Netdata API

You can access the API like this: http://NODE:19999/api/VERSION/REQUEST.
If you want to take a look at all the API requests, check our API page at https://learn.netdata.cloud/api