Netdata

Netdata is an open-source real-time infrastructure monitoring platform that provides second-level metric collection, visualization, machine learning-driven anomaly detection, and automated alerts. It can achieve full-stack monitoring without complex configuration.

Monitoring Developer tools #Infrastructure monitoring #Real-time visualization #Anomaly detection #Open-source tool .Go

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update time : 2025-12-29

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What is Netdata?

Netdata is a modern infrastructure monitoring solution designed to provide real-time, high-resolution system performance insights for operations personnel, developers, and system administrators. It helps users quickly identify and resolve performance issues by automatically discovering and collecting thousands of metrics. The core design concept of Netdata is "zero configuration" - it can be used immediately after installation without a complex setup process. It adopts a distributed architecture, and data is retained in the local infrastructure to ensure security and privacy.

How to use Netdata?

Using Netdata is very simple: 1. Install the Netdata Agent on the target system. 2. Access the local port 19999 through a browser to view the real-time dashboard. 3. Netdata will automatically discover and monitor system resources, applications, and services. 4. Optional: Connect to Netdata Cloud to obtain multi-node views and collaboration features. The entire process does not require manual configuration of metric collection or creation of dashboards, and all content is automatically generated.

Use cases

Netdata is suitable for various monitoring scenarios: • Server performance monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, network) • Container and Kubernetes cluster monitoring • Application performance monitoring (Web servers, databases, caches, etc.) • Cloud infrastructure monitoring (AWS, GCP, Azure) • Internet of Things (IoT) device monitoring • Development environment debugging and performance analysis • Production environment troubleshooting and capacity planning

Main Features

Real-time monitoring

Collect and display metric data every second, providing near-real-time performance insights with a latency of less than 1 second

Zero-configuration deployment

Works immediately after installation, automatically discovers system resources, containers, applications, and services without manual configuration

Machine learning anomaly detection

Trains independent machine learning models for each metric to automatically detect abnormal behavior patterns

Comprehensive coverage

Supports over 800 integrations, including system resources, containers, virtual machines, hardware sensors, applications, and cloud services

Efficient resource utilization

Designed to be lightweight, using only about 5% CPU and 150MB of memory under default configuration, with minimal impact on production systems

Distributed architecture

Data is retained locally, supporting parent-child node streaming without the need for centralized data collection

Long-term data retention

Hierarchical storage architecture, supporting different time granularities from seconds to hours to optimize storage efficiency

Rich visualization

Automatically generates interactive dashboards, supporting flexible data exploration without query languages

Advantages

Out-of-the-box: Provides complete monitoring functionality immediately after installation without complex configuration

High resolution: Collects metrics every second, providing detailed performance insights

Resource-efficient: Significantly lower CPU and memory usage compared to traditional monitoring tools

Comprehensive coverage: Monitors the entire technology stack, from infrastructure to applications, with a single tool

Intelligent alerts: Built-in hundreds of pre-configured alert rules and machine learning anomaly detection

Data localization: All data is retained in the user's infrastructure, ensuring security and privacy

Scalability: Supports seamless scaling from single-node to large-scale distributed deployments

Limitations

Learning curve: The rich features may require new users to spend time exploring all functions

Storage requirements: Long-term retention of high-resolution data requires corresponding disk space

Enterprise features: Some advanced features (such as RBAC, SSO) require the Netdata Cloud enterprise edition

Windows support: Fewer features and integrations on the Windows platform compared to Linux

Custom integrations: Although many integrations are supported, some specific applications may require custom development

How to Use

Install the Netdata Agent

Choose the appropriate installation method according to the operating system. For Linux systems, it is recommended to use the one-click installation script.

Access the local dashboard

After installation, access http://localhost:19999 in a browser to view real-time monitoring data.

Configure alert notifications (optional)

Configure notification channels such as email, Slack, and Telegram to receive alerts as needed.

Set up a parent node (optional)

Configure a parent node for centralized monitoring and stream data from multiple child nodes to the central node.

Connect to Netdata Cloud (optional)

Usage Examples

Server performance troubleshooting

When the server response slows down, use Netdata to quickly identify performance bottlenecks. View CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network usage through the real-time dashboard to locate the root cause of the problem.

Docker container monitoring

Monitor the performance of applications running in Docker. Netdata automatically discovers all containers and provides detailed resource usage information for each container, including CPU, memory, network, and process information.

Website performance monitoring

Monitor the performance metrics of Web servers (such as Nginx, Apache), including request rate, response time, error rate, etc. Analyze website performance issues in combination with system metrics.

Database performance analysis

Monitor the performance metrics of databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis, including query performance, connection count, cache hit rate, etc., and optimize database configuration.

Cloud cost optimization

Monitor the resource utilization of cloud instances, identify underutilized resources, and provide data support for rightsizing and cost optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Netdata free?

Will Netdata affect system performance?

Do I need to be connected to the Internet all the time?

Which operating systems are supported?

How long is the data retained?

How to set up alerts?

Can it monitor Kubernetes?

How to back up and migrate configurations?

Related Resources

Official Documentation

Complete installation, configuration, usage guides, and API documentation

GitHub Repository

Source code, issue tracking, and contribution guidelines

Live Demo

Experience Netdata's real-time monitoring functionality

Community Forum

Communicate with other users, ask questions, and share experiences

Discord Channel

Real-time chat and community support

Docker Hub

Official Docker image

YouTube Channel

Tutorial videos, feature demonstrations, and webinars

Performance Comparison Study

A study by the University of Amsterdam on the energy efficiency of monitoring tools

🚀 X-Ray Vision for your infrastructure!

Every Metric, Every Second. No BS. Netdata offers real - time monitoring of infrastructure, providing instant insights into every metric without any unnecessary complexity.

🚀 Quick Start

You can install Netdata on all major operating systems. To begin:

1. Install Netdata

Choose your platform and follow the installation guide:

⚠️ Important Note

You can access the Netdata UI at http://localhost:19999 (or http://NODE:19999 if remote).

2. Configure Collectors

Netdata auto - discovers most metrics, but you can manually configure some collectors:

3. Configure Alerts

You can use hundreds of built - in alerts and integrate with:

email, Slack, Telegram, PagerDuty, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and more.

⚠️ Important Note
Email alerts work by default if there's a configured MTA.

4. Configure Parents

You can centralize dashboards, alerts, and storage with Netdata Parents:

Streaming Reference

⚠️ Important Note
You can use Netdata Parents for central dashboards, longer retention, and alert configuration.

5. Connect to Netdata Cloud

Access from anywhere
Horizontal scalability and multi - node dashboards
UI configuration for alerts and data collection
Role - based access control
Free tier available

⚠️ Important Note
Netdata Cloud is optional. Your data stays in your infrastructure.

✨ Features

Key Features

Feature	Description	What Makes It Unique
Real - Time	Per - second data collection and processing	Works in a beat – click and see results instantly
Zero - Configuration	Automatic detection and discovery	Auto - discovers everything on the nodes it runs
ML - Powered	Unsupervised anomaly detection	Trains multiple ML models per metric at the edge
Long - Term Retention	High - performance storage	~0.5 bytes per sample with tiered storage for archiving
Advanced Visualization	Rich, interactive dashboards	Slice and dice data without query language
Extreme Scalability	Native horizontal scaling	Parent - Child centralization with multi - million samples/s
Complete Visibility	From infrastructure to applications	Simplifies operations and eliminates silos
Edge - Based	Processing at your premises	Distributes code instead of centralizing data

💡 Usage Tip
Want to put Netdata to the test against Prometheus? Explore the full comparison.

Agent Capabilities

With the Netdata Agent, you can use these core capabilities out - of - the - box:

Capability	Description
Comprehensive Collection	• 800+ integrations • Systems, containers, VMs, hardware sensors • OpenMetrics, StatsD, and logs • OpenTelemetry support coming soon
Performance & Precision	• Per - second collection • Real - time visualization with 1 - second latency • High - resolution metrics
Edge - Based ML	• ML models trained at the edge • Automatic anomaly detection per metric • Pattern recognition based on historical behavior
Advanced Log Management	• Direct systemd - journald and Windows Event Log integration • Process logs at the edge • Rich log visualization
Observability Pipeline	• Parent - Child relationships • Flexible centralization • Multi - level replication and retention
Automated Visualization	• NIDL data model • Auto - generated dashboards • No query language needed
Smart Alerting	• Pre - configured alerts • Multiple notification methods • Proactive detection
Low Maintenance	• Auto - detection • Zero - touch ML • Easy scalability • CI/CD friendly
Open & Extensible	• Modular architecture • Easy to customize • Integrates with existing tools

📦 Installation

The installation process is described in the "Quick Start" section. You can choose the appropriate installation method according to your platform:

💻 Usage Examples

Live Demo Sites

📚 Documentation

Visit Netdata Learn for full documentation and guides.

⚠️ Important Note
Includes deployment, configuration, alerting, exporting, troubleshooting, and more.

🔧 Technical Details

How It Works

With Netdata you can run a modular pipeline for metrics collection, processing, and visualization.

flowchart TB
  A[Netdata Agent]:::mainNode
  A1(Collect):::green --> A
  A2(Store):::green --> A
  A3(Learn):::green --> A
  A4(Detect):::green --> A
  A5(Check):::green --> A
  A6(Stream):::green --> A
  A7(Archive):::green --> A
  A8(Query):::green --> A
  A9(Score):::green --> A

  classDef green fill:#bbf3bb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px,color:#000
  classDef mainNode fill:#f0f0f0,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px,color:#333

With each Agent you can:

Collect – Gather metrics from systems, containers, apps, logs, APIs, and synthetic checks.
Store – Save metrics to a high - efficiency, tiered time - series database.
Learn – Train ML models per metric using recent behavior.
Detect – Identify anomalies using trained ML models.
Check – Evaluate metrics against pre - set or custom alert rules.
Stream – Send metrics to Netdata Parents in real time.
Archive – Export metrics to Prometheus, InfluxDB, OpenTSDB, Graphite, and others.
Query – Access metrics via an API for dashboards or third - party tools.
Score – Use a scoring engine to find patterns and correlations across metrics.

⚠️ Important Note
Learn more: Netdata's architecture

Netdata Ecosystem

This three - part architecture enables you to scale from single nodes to complex multi - cloud environments:

Component	Description	License
Netdata Agent	• Core monitoring engine • Handles collection, storage, ML, alerts, exports • Runs on servers, cloud, K8s, IoT • Zero production impact	GPL v3+
Netdata Cloud	• Enterprise features • User management, RBAC, horizontal scaling • Centralized alerts • Free community tier • No metric storage centralization
Netdata UI	• Dashboards and visualizations • Free to use • Included in standard packages • Latest version via CDN	NCUL1

What You Can Monitor

With Netdata you can monitor all these components across platforms:

Component	Linux	FreeBSD	macOS	Windows
System Resources CPU, Memory and system shared resources	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage Disks, Mount points, Filesystems, RAID arrays	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network Network Interfaces, Protocols, Firewall, etc	Full	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hardware & Sensors Fans, Temperatures, Controllers, GPUs, etc	Full	Some	Some	Some
O/S Services Resources, Performance and Status	Yes `systemd`	-	-	-
Processes Resources, Performance, OOM, and more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
System and Application Logs	Yes `systemd`-journal	-	-	Yes `Windows Event Log`, `ETW`
Network Connections Live TCP and UDP sockets per PID	Yes	-	-	-
Containers Docker/containerd, LXC/LXD, Kubernetes, etc	Yes	-	-	-
VMs (from the host) KVM, qemu, libvirt, Proxmox, etc	Yes `cgroups`	-	-	Yes `Hyper-V`
Synthetic Checks Test APIs, TCP ports, Ping, Certificates, etc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Packaged Applications nginx, apache, postgres, redis, mongodb, and hundreds more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cloud Provider Infrastructure AWS, GCP, Azure, and more	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Applications OpenMetrics, StatsD and soon OpenTelemetry	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

On Linux, you can continuously monitor all kernel features and hardware sensors for errors, including Intel/AMD/Nvidia GPUs, PCI AER, RAM EDAC, IPMI, S.M.A.R.T, Intel RAPL, NVMe, fans, power supplies, and voltage readings.

📄 License

The Netdata ecosystem includes:

Netdata Agent – Open - source core (GPLv3+). Includes data collection, storage, ML, alerting, APIs and redistributes several other open - source tools and libraries.
- Netdata Agent License
- Netdata Agent Redistributed
Netdata UI – Closed - source but free to use with Netdata Agent and Cloud. Delivered via CDN. It integrates third - party open - source components.
- Netdata Cloud UI License
- Netdata UI third - party licenses
Netdata Cloud – Closed - source, with free and paid tiers. Adds remote access, SSO, scalability.