CouchDB icon

CouchDB

CouchDB

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: couchdb

Overview

This collector monitors CouchDB servers.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn’t support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Setup

You can configure the couchdb collector in two ways:

Method Best for How to
UI Fast setup without editing files Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for couchdb, then click + to add a job.
File If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible) Edit go.d/couchdb.conf and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

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

Group Option Description Default Required
Collection update_every Data collection interval (seconds). 10 no
autodetection_retry Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable. 0 no
Target url Target endpoint URL. http://127.0.0.1:5984 yes
node CouchDB node name (same as the -name argument in vm.args). _local yes
timeout HTTP request timeout (seconds). 2 no
Filters databases Space-separated list of databases to collect stats for. no
HTTP Auth username Username for Basic HTTP authentication. no
password Password for Basic HTTP authentication. no
bearer_token_file Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for Authorization: Bearer). no
TLS tls_skip_verify Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure). no no
tls_ca Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate. no
tls_cert Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS). no
tls_key Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS). no
Proxy proxy_url HTTP proxy URL. no
proxy_username Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. no
proxy_password Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication. no
Request method HTTP method to use. GET no
body Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT). no
headers Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value). no
not_follow_redirects Do not follow HTTP redirects. no no
force_http2 Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP). no no
Virtual Node vnode Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node. no

via UI

Configure the couchdb collector from the Netdata web interface:

  1. Go to Nodes.
  2. Select the node where you want the couchdb data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
  3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
  4. In the Search box, type couchdb (or scroll the list) to locate the couchdb collector.
  5. Click the + next to the couchdb collector to add a new job.
  6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
    • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
    • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/couchdb.conf.

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

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

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/couchdb.conf
Examples
Basic

An example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:5984
Basic HTTP auth

Local server with basic HTTP authentication, node name and multiple databases defined. Make sure to match the node name with the NODENAME value in your CouchDB’s etc/vm.args file. Typically, this is of the form [email protected] in a cluster, or [email protected] for a single-node server.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:5984
    node: [email protected]
    databases: my-db other-db
    username: foo
    password: bar
Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:5984

  - name: remote
    url: http://203.0.113.0:5984

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.

Per CouchDB instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
couchdb.activity db_reads, db_writes, view_reads requests/s
couchdb.request_methods copy, delete, get, head, options, post, put requests/s
couchdb.response_codes 200, 201, 202, 204, 206, 301, 302, 304, 400, 401, 403, 404, 406, 409, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 500, 501, 503 responses/s
couchdb.response_code_classes 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx responses/s
couchdb.active_tasks indexer, db_compaction, replication, view_compaction tasks
couchdb.replicator_jobs running, pending, crashed, internal_replication_jobs jobs
couchdb.open_files files files
couchdb.erlang_vm_memory atom, binaries, code, ets, procs, other B
couchdb.proccounts os_procs, erl_procs processes
couchdb.peakmsgqueue peak_size messages
couchdb.reductions reductions reductions
couchdb.db_sizes_file a dimension per database KiB
couchdb.db_sizes_external a dimension per database KiB
couchdb.db_sizes_active a dimension per database KiB
couchdb.db_doc_count a dimension per database docs
couchdb.db_doc_del_count a dimension per database docs

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the couchdb 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 couchdb

    To debug a specific job:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m couchdb -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the couchdb collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

  • Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
  • Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep couchdb

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector’s name:

grep couchdb /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named “netdata” (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep couchdb

The observability platform companies need to succeed

Sign up for free

Want a personalised demo of Netdata for your use case?

Book a Demo