Netdata

What is Netdata about?

Netdata delivers full‑stack observability by collecting millions of metrics per second from servers, containers, cloud services, and applications. It stores data locally with tiered retention, applies edge‑based ML for anomaly detection, and visualizes everything through an interactive UI.

How to use Netdata?

1. Install the agent – Choose the appropriate installer for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows, Docker, or Kubernetes and run the one‑line script provided in the documentation.
2. Access the dashboard – Open http://<node>:19999 (or connect the node to Netdata Cloud) to explore auto‑generated charts.
3. Configure collectors – Most metrics are auto‑discovered; additional collectors can be enabled via the netdata.conf files or the web UI.
4. Set up alerts – Use built‑in alert templates and route notifications to email, Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, etc.
5. Optional: Stream to parents or Netdata Cloud – Centralize dashboards, long‑term storage, and alert management across many agents.

Key Features of Netdata

• Per‑second data collection with ~0.5 bytes per sample storage.
• Zero‑configuration auto‑discovery of services, containers, hardware sensors, and cloud resources.
• Edge‑based unsupervised ML for per‑metric anomaly detection.
• Rich, interactive visualizations generated automatically; no query language needed.
• Scalable architecture – parent‑child streaming, horizontal scaling, and optional Netdata Cloud integration.
• Low resource footprint – typically ~5 % CPU and 150 MiB RAM per node.
• Extensive integrations – 800+ collectors, support for Prometheus, InfluxDB, OpenMetrics, StatsD, and upcoming OpenTelemetry.
• Secure & distributed – data stays on‑premises unless streamed to a parent or Cloud; follows OpenSSF best practices.

Use Cases of Netdata

• Infrastructure health dashboards for DevOps teams needing instant visibility into servers, VMs, and containers.
• Anomaly detection in high‑frequency environments (e.g., microservices, IoT) where traditional sampling misses spikes.
• Performance troubleshooting by drilling into per‑second metrics of CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, and application layers.
• Capacity planning with tiered retention that preserves high‑resolution data for recent periods and coarser data for long‑term trends.
• Hybrid/cloud monitoring across on‑prem, public cloud, and edge devices using a single agent.
• Compliance and auditing by retaining detailed logs and metrics locally without sending raw data to SaaS.

FAQ

Is Netdata secure? Yes – it follows OpenSSF best practices, undergoes regular community audits, and keeps data local unless explicitly streamed.

Does it consume a lot of resources? Typical footprint is ~5 % CPU and 150 MiB RAM; it can run in RAM‑only mode or with ML disabled for even lower usage.

How much data can be retained? Retention is limited only by available storage; tiered retention provides per‑second, per‑minute, and per‑hour resolutions automatically.

Can Netdata scale to thousands of servers? Yes – agents can be grouped under parent nodes or Netdata Cloud for horizontal scaling and unified dashboards.

Do I need Netdata Cloud? No – Cloud is optional for remote access and collaborative features; the core agent works fully standalone.

How does Netdata differ from Prometheus + Grafana? Netdata bundles collection, storage, ML, alerts, and UI in one package, offers per‑second resolution by default, and requires no manual dashboard creation.

Can I integrate Netdata with existing tools? Metrics can be exported to Prometheus, InfluxDB, OpenTSDB, Graphite, and many others via the built‑in export mechanisms.

Is there support for Windows and macOS? Yes – Netdata provides agents for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows, each with comparable feature sets.

MENU: WHO WE ARE | KEY FEATURES | GETTING STARTED | HOW IT WORKS | FAQ | DOCS | COMMUNITY | CONTRIBUTE | LICENSE

[!WARNING] People get addicted to Netdata. Once you use it on your systems, there's no going back.

WHO WE ARE

Netdata is an open-source, real-time infrastructure monitoring platform. Monitor, detect, and act across your entire infrastructure.

Core Advantages:

• Instant Insights – With Netdata you can access per-second metrics and visualizations.
• Zero Configuration – You can deploy immediately without complex setup.
• ML-Powered – You can detect anomalies, predict issues, and automate analysis.
• Efficient – You can monitor with minimal resource usage and maximum scalability.
• Secure & Distributed – You can keep your data local with no central collection needed.

With Netdata, you get real-time, per-second updates. Clear insights at a glance, no complexity.

In 2013, at the company where Costa Tsaousis was COO, a significant percentage of their cloud-based transactions failed silently, severely impacting business performance.

Costa and his team tried every troubleshooting tool available at the time. None could identify the root cause. As Costa later wrote:

“I couldn’t believe that monitoring systems provide so few metrics and with such low resolution, scale so badly, and cost so much to run.”

Frustrated, he decided to build his own monitoring tool, starting from scratch.

That decision led to countless late nights and weekends. It also sparked a fundamental shift in how infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting are approached, both in method and in cost.

Most Energy-Efficient Monitoring Tool

According to the University of Amsterdam study, Netdata is the most energy-efficient tool for monitoring Docker-based systems. The study also shows Netdata excels in CPU usage, RAM usage, and execution time compared to other monitoring solutions.

Key Features

[!NOTE]
Want to put Netdata to the test against Prometheus? Explore the full comparison.

Netdata Ecosystem

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

What You Can Monitor

With Netdata you can monitor all these components across platforms:

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.

Getting Started

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

1. Install Netdata

Choose your platform and follow the installation guide:

• Linux Installation
• macOS
• FreeBSD
• Windows
• Docker Guide
• Kubernetes Setup

[!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:

• All collectors
• SNMP monitoring

3. Configure Alerts

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

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

[!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

[!NOTE]
You can use Netdata Parents for central dashboards, longer retention, and alert configuration.

5. Connect to Netdata Cloud

Sign in to Netdata Cloud and connect your nodes for:

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

[!NOTE]
Netdata Cloud is optional. Your data stays in your infrastructure.

Live Demo Sites

How It Works

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

With each Agent you can:

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

[!NOTE]
Learn more: Netdata's architecture

Agent Capabilities

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

CNCF Membership

FAQ

Yes. Netdata follows OpenSSF best practices, has a security-first design, and is regularly audited by the community.

• Security design
• Security policies and advisories

No. Even with ML and per-second metrics, Netdata uses minimal resources.

• ~5% CPU and 150MiB RAM by default on production systems
• <1% CPU and ~100MiB RAM when ML and alerts are disabled and using ephemeral storage
• Parents scale to millions of metrics per second with appropriate hardware

You can use the Netdata Monitoring section in the dashboard to inspect its resource usage.

As much as your disk allows.

With Netdata you can use tiered retention:

• Tier 0: per-second resolution
• Tier 1: per-minute resolution
• Tier 2: per-hour resolution

These are queried automatically based on the zoom level.

Yes. With Netdata you can:

• Scale horizontally with many Agents
• Scale vertically with powerful Parents
• Scale infinitely via Netdata Cloud

You can use Netdata Cloud to merge many independent infrastructures into one logical view.

No. Netdata minimizes disk usage:

• Metrics are flushed to disk every 17 minutes, spread out evenly
• Uses direct I/O and compression (ZSTD)
• Can run entirely in RAM or stream to a Parent

You can use alloc or ram mode for no disk writes.

With Netdata you get a complete monitoring solution—not just tools.

• No manual setup or dashboards needed
• Built-in ML, alerts, dashboards, and correlations
• More efficient and easier to deploy

Performance comparison

With Netdata you can store all metrics on your infrastructure—no sampling, no aggregation, no loss.

• High-resolution metrics by default
• ML per metric, not shared models
• Unlimited scalability without skyrocketing cost

Yes. You can use Netdata together with traditional tools.

With Netdata you get:

• Real-time, high-resolution monitoring
• Zero configuration and auto-generated dashboards
• Anomaly detection and advanced visualization

You can start small:

• Use the dashboard's table of contents and search
• Explore anomaly scoring ("AR" toggle)
• Create custom dashboards in Netdata Cloud

Docs and guides

No. Netdata Cloud is optional.

Netdata works without it, but with Cloud you can:

• Access remotely with SSO
• Save dashboard customizations
• Configure alerts centrally
• Collaborate with role-based access

Anonymous telemetry helps improve the product. You can disable it:

• Add --disable-telemetry to the installer, or
• Create /etc/netdata/.opt-out-from-anonymous-statistics and restart Netdata

Telemetry helps us understand usage, not track users. No private data is collected.

You'll join users including:

• Major companies (Amazon, ABN AMRO Bank, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Netflix, Samsung)
• Universities (NYU, Columbia, Seoul National, UCL)
• Government organizations worldwide
• Infrastructure-intensive organizations
• Technology operators
• Startups and freelancers
• SysAdmins and DevOps professionals

:book: Documentation

Visit Netdata Learn for full documentation and guides.

[!NOTE]
Includes deployment, configuration, alerting, exporting, troubleshooting, and more.

:tada: Community

Join the Netdata community:

• Discord
• Forum
• GitHub Discussions

[!NOTE]
Code of Conduct

Follow us on: Twitter | Reddit | YouTube | LinkedIn

:pray: Contribute

We welcome your contributions.

Ways you help us stay sharp:

• Share best practices and monitoring insights
• Report issues or missing features
• Improve documentation
• Develop new integrations or collectors
• Help users in forums and chats

[!NOTE]
Contribution guide

:scroll: 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.