Install Netdata with Docker
Limitations running the Agent in Dockerβ
We do not officially support running our Docker images with the Docker CLI --user
option or the Docker Compose
user:
parameter. Such usage will usually still work, but some features will not be available when run this
way. Note that the agent will drop privileges appropriately inside the container during startup, meaning that even
when run without these options almost nothing in the container will actually run with an effective UID of 0.
Our POWER8+ Docker images do not support our FreeIPMI collector. This is a technical limitation in FreeIPMI itself, and unfortunately not something we can realistically work around.
Create a new Netdata Agent containerβ
You can create a new Agent container using either docker run
or docker-compose
. After using any method, you can
visit the Agent dashboard http://NODE:19999
.
The Netdata container requires different privileges and mounts to provide functionality similar to that provided by Netdata installed on the host. Below you can find a list of Netdata components that need these privileges and mounts, along with their descriptions.
Privileges
Component | Privileges | Description |
---|---|---|
cgroups.plugin | host PID mode, SYS_ADMIN | Container network interfaces monitoring. Map virtual interfaces in the system namespace to interfaces inside containers. |
proc.plugin | host network mode | Host system networking stack monitoring. |
go.d.plugin | host network mode | Monitoring applications running on the host and inside containers. |
local-listeners | host network mode, SYS_PTRACE | Discovering local services/applications. Map open (listening) ports to running services/applications. |
network-viewer.plugin | host network mode, SYS_ADMIN | Discovering all current network sockets and building a network-map. |
Mounts
Component | Mounts | Description |
---|---|---|
netdata | /etc/os-release | Host info detection. |
diskspace.plugin | / | Host mount points monitoring. |
cgroups.plugin | /sys, /var/run/docker.sock | Docker containers monitoring and name resolution. |
go.d.plugin | /var/run/docker.sock | Docker Engine and containers monitoring. See docker collector. |
go.d.plugin | /var/log | Web servers logs tailing. See weblog collector. |
apps.plugin | /etc/passwd, /etc/group | Monitoring of host system resource usage by each user and user group. |
proc.plugin | /proc | Host system monitoring (CPU, memory, network interfaces, disks, etc.). |
systemd-journal.plugin | /var/log | Viewing, exploring and analyzing systemd journal logs. |
Recommended wayβ
Both methods create a volume for Netdata's configuration files
within the container at /etc/netdata
.
See the configure section for details. If you want to access the configuration files from
your host machine, see host-editable configuration.
- docker run
- docker-compose
Using the docker run
command
Run the following command in your terminal to start a new container.
docker run -d --name=netdata \
--pid=host \
--network=host \
-v netdataconfig:/etc/netdata \
-v netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata \
-v netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata \
-v /:/host/root:ro,rslave \
-v /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro \
-v /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
-v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
-v /sys:/host/sys:ro \
-v /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro \
-v /var/log:/host/var/log:ro \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
--restart unless-stopped \
--cap-add SYS_PTRACE \
--cap-add SYS_ADMIN \
--security-opt apparmor=unconfined \
netdata/netdata
Using the docker-compose
command
Create a file named docker-compose.yml
in your project directory and paste the code below. From your project
directory, start Netdata by running docker-compose up -d
.
version: '3'
services:
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
pid: host
network_mode: host
restart: unless-stopped
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
- SYS_ADMIN
security_opt:
- apparmor:unconfined
volumes:
- netdataconfig:/etc/netdata
- netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
- netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
- /:/host/root:ro,rslave
- /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
- /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /proc:/host/proc:ro
- /sys:/host/sys:ro
- /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
- /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
volumes:
netdataconfig:
netdatalib:
netdatacache:
π Note
If you plan to Claim the node to Netdata Cloud, you can find the command with the right parameters by clicking the " Add Nodes" button in your Space's "Nodes" view.
With systemd units monitoringβ
Monitoring systemd units requires mounting /run/dbus
. This mount is not available on non-systemd systems, so we cannot
use it in the Recommended Way.
Mounting /run/dbus
provides:
- go.d/systemdunits.
- Systemd-list-units function: information about all systemd units, including their active state, description, whether they are enabled, and more.
- docker run
- docker-compose
Using the docker run
command
Add -v /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
to your docker run
.
Using the docker-compose
command
Add - /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
to the netdata service volumes
.
With NVIDIA GPUs monitoringβ
Monitoring NVIDIA GPUs requires:
- Using official NVIDIA driver.
- Installing NVIDIA Container Toolkit.
- Allowing the Netdata container to access GPU resources.
- docker run
- docker-compose
Using the docker run
command
Add --gpus 'all,capabilities=utility'
to your docker run
.
Using the docker-compose
command
Add the following to the netdata service.
deploy:
resources:
reservations:
devices:
- driver: nvidia
count: all
capabilities: [gpu]
With host-editable configurationβ
Use a bind mount for /etc/netdata
rather than a volume.
This example assumes that you have created netdataconfig/
in your home directory.
mkdir netdataconfig
- docker run
- docker-compose
Using the docker run
command
Run the following command in your terminal to start a new container.
docker run -d --name=netdata \
--pid=host \
--network=host \
-v $(pwd)/netdataconfig/netdata:/etc/netdata \
-v netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata \
-v netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata \
-v /:/host/root:ro,rslave \
-v /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro \
-v /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
-v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
-v /sys:/host/sys:ro \
-v /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro \
-v /var/log:/host/var/log:ro \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
--restart unless-stopped \
--cap-add SYS_PTRACE \
--cap-add SYS_ADMIN \
--security-opt apparmor=unconfined \
netdata/netdata
Using the docker-compose
command
Create a file named docker-compose.yml
in your project directory and paste the code below. From your project
directory, start Netdata by running docker-compose up -d
.
version: '3'
services:
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
pid: host
network_mode: host
restart: unless-stopped
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
- SYS_ADMIN
security_opt:
- apparmor:unconfined
volumes:
- ./netdataconfig/netdata:/etc/netdata
- netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
- netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
- /:/host/root:ro,rslave
- /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
- /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /proc:/host/proc:ro
- /sys:/host/sys:ro
- /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
- /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
volumes:
netdatalib:
netdatacache:
With SSL/TLS enabled HTTP Proxyβ
For a permanent installation on a public server, you should secure the Netdata instance. This section contains an example of how to install Netdata with an SSL reverse proxy and basic authentication.
You can use the following docker-compose.yml
and Caddyfile files to run Netdata with Docker. Replace the domains and
email address for Let's Encrypt before starting.
Caddyfileβ
This file needs to be placed in /opt
with name Caddyfile
. Here you customize your domain, and you need to provide
your email address to obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate. Certificate renewal will happen automatically and will be
executed internally by the caddy server.
netdata.example.org {
reverse_proxy host.docker.internal:19999
tls [email protected]
}
docker-compose.ymlβ
After setting Caddyfile run this with docker-compose up -d
to have a fully functioning Netdata setup behind an HTTP reverse
proxy.
Make sure Netdata bind to docker0 interface if you've custom web.bind to
setting in netdata.conf
.
version: '3'
services:
caddy:
image: caddy:2
extra_hosts:
- "host.docker.internal:host-gateway" # To access netdata running with "network_mode: host".
ports:
- "80:80"
- "443:443"
volumes:
- /opt/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
- caddy_data:/data
- caddy_config:/config
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
pid: host
network_mode: host
restart: unless-stopped
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
- SYS_ADMIN
security_opt:
- apparmor:unconfined
volumes:
- netdataconfig:/etc/netdata
- netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
- netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
- /:/host/root:ro,rslave
- /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
- /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /proc:/host/proc:ro
- /sys:/host/sys:ro
- /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
- /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
volumes:
caddy_data:
caddy_config:
netdataconfig:
netdatalib:
netdatacache:
Restrict access with basic authβ
You can restrict access by following the official caddy guide and adding lines to Caddyfile.
With Docker socket proxyβ
Note: Using Netdata with a Docker socket proxy might have some features not working as expected. It hasn't been fully tested by the Netdata team.
Deploy a Docker socket proxy that accepts and filters out requests using something like
HAProxy or
CetusGuard so that it restricts connections to read-only access to
the /containers
endpoint.
The reason it's safer to expose the socket to the proxy is because Netdata has a TCP port exposed outside the Docker network. Access to the proxy container is limited to only within the network.
HAProxyβ
version: '3'
services:
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
pid: host
network_mode: host
restart: unless-stopped
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
- SYS_ADMIN
security_opt:
- apparmor:unconfined
volumes:
- netdataconfig:/etc/netdata
- netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
- netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
- /:/host/root:ro,rslave
- /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
- /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /proc:/host/proc:ro
- /sys:/host/sys:ro
- /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
- /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
environment:
- DOCKER_HOST=localhost:2375
proxy:
network_mode: host
image: tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy
volumes:
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
environment:
- CONTAINERS=1
volumes:
netdataconfig:
netdatalib:
netdatacache:
Note: Replace 2375
with the port of your proxy.
CetusGuardβ
Note: This deployment method is supported by the community
version: '3'
services:
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
pid: host
network_mode: host
restart: unless-stopped
cap_add:
- SYS_PTRACE
- SYS_ADMIN
security_opt:
- apparmor:unconfined
volumes:
- netdataconfig:/etc/netdata
- netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
- netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
- /:/host/root:ro,rslave
- /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
- /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /proc:/host/proc:ro
- /sys:/host/sys:ro
- /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
- /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
environment:
- DOCKER_HOST=localhost:2375
cetusguard:
image: hectorm/cetusguard:v1
network_mode: host
read_only: true
volumes:
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
environment:
CETUSGUARD_BACKEND_ADDR: unix:///var/run/docker.sock
CETUSGUARD_FRONTEND_ADDR: tcp://:2375
CETUSGUARD_RULES: |
! Inspect a container
GET %API_PREFIX_CONTAINERS%/%CONTAINER_ID_OR_NAME%/json
volumes:
netdataconfig:
netdatalib:
netdatacache:
You can run the socket proxy in its own Docker Compose file and leave it on a private network that you can add to other services that require access.
Rootless modeβ
Netdata can be run successfully in a non-root environment, such as rootless Docker.
However, it should be noted that Netdata's data collection capabilities are considerably restricted in rootless Docker due to its inherent limitations. While Netdata can function in a rootless environment, it cannot access certain resources that require elevated privileges. The following components do not work:
- container network interfaces monitoring (cgroup-network helper)
- disk I/O and file descriptors of applications and processes (apps.plugin)
- debugfs.plugin
- freeipmi.plugin
- perf.plugin
- slabinfo.plugin
- systemd-journal.plugin
This method creates a volume for Netdata's configuration files
within the container at /etc/netdata
.
See the configure section for details. If you want to access the configuration files from
your host machine, see host-editable configuration.
- docker run
Using the docker run
command
Run the following command in your terminal to start a new container.
docker run -d --name=netdata \
--hostname=$(hostname) \
-p 19999:19999 \
-v netdataconfig:/etc/netdata \
-v netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata \
-v netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata \
-v /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro \
-v /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
-v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
-v /sys:/host/sys:ro \
-v /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro \
-v /run/user/$UID/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
--restart unless-stopped \
--security-opt apparmor=unconfined \
netdata/netdata
π Note
If you plan to Claim the node to Netdata Cloud, you can find the command with the right parameters by clicking the " Add Nodes" button in your Space's "Nodes" view.
Docker tagsβ
See our full list of Docker images at Docker Hub.
The official netdata/netdata
Docker image provides the following named tags:
Tag | Description |
---|---|
stable | the most recently published stable build. |
edge | the most recently published nightly build. In most cases, this is updated daily at around 01:00 UTC. |
latest | the most recently published build, whether itβs a stable build or a nightly build. This is what Docker will use by default if you do not specify a tag. |
vX.Y.Z | the full version of the release (for example, v1.40.0 ). |
vX.Y | the major and minor version (for example, v1.40 ). |
vX | just the major version (for example, v1 ). |
The tags for minor and major versions are updated whenever a release that matches this tag is published (for example,
if v1.40.1
were to be published, the v1.40
tag would be updated to it instead of pointing to v1.40.0
).
Configure Agent containersβ
If you started an Agent container using one of the recommended methods, and you
want to edit Netdata's configuration, you must first use docker exec
to attach to the container. Replace netdata
with the name of your container.
docker exec -it netdata bash
cd /etc/netdata
./edit-config netdata.conf
You need to restart the Agent to apply changes. Exit the container if you haven't already, then use the docker
command
to restart the container: docker restart netdata
.
Change the default hostnameβ
You can change the hostname of a Docker container, and thus the name that appears in the local dashboard and in Netdata Cloud, when creating a new container. If you want to change the hostname of a Netdata container after you started it, you can safely stop and remove it. Your configuration and metrics data reside in persistent volumes and are reattached to the recreated container.
If you use docker-run
, use the --hostname
option with docker run
.
docker run -d --name=netdata \
--hostname=my_docker_netdata
If you use docker-compose
, add a hostname:
key/value pair into your docker-compose.yml
file, then create the
container again using docker-compose up -d
.
version: '3'
services:
netdata:
image: netdata/netdata
container_name: netdata
hostname: my_docker_compose_netdata
If you don't want to destroy and recreate your container, you can edit the Agent's netdata.conf
file directly. See the
above section on configuring Agent containers to find the appropriate method based on
how you created the container.
Alternatively, you can directly use the hostname from the node running the container by mounting /etc/hostname
from
the host in the container. With docker run
, this can be done by adding --volume /etc/hostname:/host/etc/hostname:ro
to
the options. If you are using Docker Compose, you can add an entry to the container's volumes
section
reading - /etc/hostname:/host/etc/hostname:ro
.
Adding extra packages at runtimeβ
By default, the official Netdata container images do not include a number of optional runtime dependencies. You
can add these dependencies, or any other APT packages, at runtime by listing them in the environment variable
NETDATA_EXTRA_DEB_PACKAGES
.
Commonly useful packages include:
apcupsd
: For monitoring APC UPS devices.lm-sensors
: For monitoring hardware sensors.netcat-openbsd
: For IRC alert support.
Health Checksβ
Our Docker image provides integrated support for health checks through the standard Docker interfaces.
You can control how the health checks run by using the environment variable NETDATA_HEALTHCHECK_TARGET
as follows:
- If left unset, the health check will attempt to access the
/api/v1/info
endpoint of the agent. - If set to the exact value 'cli', the health check script will use
netdatacli ping
to determine if the agent is running correctly or not. This is sufficient to ensure that Netdata did not hang during startup, but does not provide a rigorous verification that the daemon is collecting data or is otherwise usable. - If set to anything else, the health check will treat the value as a URL to check for a 200 status code on. In most
cases, this should start with
http://localhost:19999/
to check the agent running in the container.
In most cases, the default behavior of checking the /api/v1/info
endpoint will be sufficient. If you are using a
configuration which disables the web server or restricts access to certain APIs, you will need to use a non-default
configuration for health checks to work.
Publish a test image to your own repositoryβ
At Netdata, we provide multiple ways of testing your Docker images using your own repositories. You may either use the command line tools available or take advantage of our GitHub Actions infrastructure.
Do you have any feedback for this page? If so, you can open a new issue on our netdata/learn repository.