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nftables

nftables

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: prometheus

Overview

Monitor nftables firewall metrics for efficient network security and management.

Metrics are gathered by periodically sending HTTP requests to nftables_exporter.

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

By default, it detects instances running on the local host by trying to connect to known ports that are allocated to exporters.

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 prometheus 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 prometheus, 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/prometheus.conf and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

Install Exporter

Install nftables_exporter by following the instructions mentioned in the exporter README.

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. yes
timeout HTTP request timeout (seconds). 10 no
Filters selector Time series selector (filter). no
Limits max_time_series Global time series limit. If an endpoint returns more time series than this, the data is not processed. 2000 no
max_time_series_per_metric Per-metric time series limit. Metrics with more time series than this are skipped. 200 no
Customization fallback_type Fallback type rules for untyped metrics. no
label_prefix Optional prefix added to all labels of all charts. Labels will be formatted as prefix_name. 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
selector

This option allows you to filter out unwanted time series. Only metrics matching the selector will be collected.

  • Logic: (pattern1 OR pattern2) AND !(pattern3 or pattern4)
  • Pattern syntax: selector.
  • Option syntax:
selector:
  allow:
    - pattern1
    - pattern2
  deny:
    - pattern3
    - pattern4
fallback_type

This option allows you to process Untyped metrics as Counter or Gauge instead of ignoring them.

fallback_type:
  counter:
    - metric_name_pattern1
    - metric_name_pattern2
  gauge:
    - metric_name_pattern3
    - metric_name_pattern4

via UI

Configure the prometheus collector from the Netdata web interface:

  1. Go to Nodes.
  2. Select the node where you want the prometheus 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 prometheus (or scroll the list) to locate the prometheus collector.
  5. Click the + next to the prometheus 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/prometheus.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/prometheus.conf
Examples
Basic

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
Read metrics from a file

An example configuration to read metrics from a file.

# use "file://" scheme
jobs:
  - name: myapp
    url: file:///opt/metrics/myapp/metrics.txt
HTTP authentication

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Basic HTTP authentication.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
    username: username
    password: password
HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: https://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
    tls_skip_verify: yes
Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique. Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

  - name: remote
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9090/metrics

Metrics

This collector has built-in grouping logic based on the type of metrics.

Metric Chart Dimension(s) Algorithm
Gauge for each label set one, the metric name absolute
Counter for each label set one, the metric name incremental
Summary (quantiles) for each label set (excluding ‘quantile’) for each quantile absolute
Summary (sum and count) for each label set the metric name incremental
Histogram (buckets) for each label set (excluding ‘le’) for each bucket incremental
Histogram (sum and count) for each label set the metric name incremental

Untyped metrics (have no ‘# TYPE’) processing:

  • As Counter or Gauge depending on pattern match when ‘fallback_type’ is used.
  • As Counter if it has suffix ‘_total’.
  • As Summary if it has ‘quantile’ label.
  • As Histogram if it has ‘le’ label.

The rest are ignored.

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 prometheus 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 prometheus

    To debug a specific job:

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

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the prometheus 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 prometheus

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 prometheus /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 prometheus

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