Monitor Ceph through its official Prometheus surfaces without narrowing the exporter to the native Ceph collector’s
different Dashboard REST API.
The built-in profile separates cluster-wide MGR health, quorum, capacity, placement groups, pools, and OSD metadata
from host-local ceph-exporter daemon availability and MON, MGR, OSD, and RGW performance. Optional branches cover
CephFS/MDS and CephFS Mirror, RBD images, RBD Mirror, SMB, NVMe-oF, RGW user/bucket/topic/cache/multisite and dmClock
scheduling, RocksDB binned caches, external block devices, and Ceph client I/O across Reef 18.2.8, Squid 19.2.5,
and Tentacle 20.2.2. PG state flags and RGW global/user/bucket views are overlapping diagnostic populations and are
not additive totals. Profile relabeling turns dynamic MDS-client, librbd ImageCtx/PWL, ObjectCacher, objecter, RocksDB
cache, Finisher, Throttle, KernelDevice, mClock, messenger, RDMA, DPDK, and service-identity family names into stable
profile inputs while preserving their source keys as identity labels. The source-complete profile materializes the
entire declared release/producer union with zero generic fallback. Unknown future Ceph families remain visible
through generic fallback until their source semantics can be curated; generic visibility is a forward-compatibility
guard, not evidence that a known source family was fully modeled. The profile drops only the source-proven
raw MGR RGW source-zone aliases because the stable normalized family is already charted.
The chart model follows the producer’s source lifecycle rather than relying on Prometheus wire type alone. Current
populations that Ceph increments and decrements remain absolute, while cumulative work published through gauges is
rendered incrementally so Netdata performs rate calculation and reset detection. Shared charts compare only the same
counted or measured population: requests, objects, bytes, reservations, state transitions, and other unlike units
remain separate even when their wire type or numeric scale is similar.
The profile also covers priority-0 daemon counters exposed when ceph-exporter is configured with
exporter_prio_limit=0, conditional exporter process CPU, memory, thread, and page-fault metrics, and the official
NVMe-oF gateway’s Python process runtime surface.
Netdata periodically scrapes the Ceph MGR Prometheus module or official ceph-exporter endpoint and applies the
built-in ceph profile.
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:
Enable the Ceph MGR Prometheus module for cluster metrics or
deploy the official ceph-exporter for host-local daemon performance metrics. The stock profile supports the
default priority threshold and the complete priority-0 surface; use exporter_prio_limit=0 when those diagnostic
counters are required and size the job limits for the resulting series count.
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
expected_prefix
If set, the job’s check passes only when at least one post-job, pre-profile metric name starts with this prefix. Guards against scraping an unexpected endpoint; profile-owned relabeling cannot satisfy it.
no
Customization
app
Application name used as the app segment of chart contexts (prometheus.<app>.<metric>). When unset, it is taken from a matched profile, otherwise it falls back to the job name.
This job option allows you to process untyped metrics as Counter or Gauge instead of ignoring them.
Classification uses the post-job, pre-profile metric name. Profile relabeling preserves the selected
type but cannot create or change it by renaming the final metric.
Selected profiles may provide exporter-owned fallback_type defaults inside their own match scope.
Job gauge rules take precedence over job counter rules, and both job rule sets take precedence over
every profile rule. Use them for deployment-specific overrides rather than exporter behavior that
belongs in a profile. Keep patterns narrow: a broad job rule such as gauge: ['*'] overrides profile
counter classifications. Blank patterns and patterns with leading or trailing whitespace are rejected.
A list of job-owned relabeling blocks, applied after selector and before profile selection. Each block
applies a list of Prometheus metric_relabel_configs rules to the metrics whose name matches match.
Profiles may own the same block format for exporter normalization after selection. See the
relabeling reference for
the full action set and more examples.
match: Netdata simple patterns matched against the full metric name — including any
_bucket/_sum/_count suffix, so prefer globs like app_lat* over an exact app_lat
(space-separated; * matches any sequence, ? any character, a leading ! negates). Use * to
target every metric. Required.
metric_relabel_configs: Prometheus relabel rules (source_labels, separator, regex, modulus,
target_label, replacement, action), applied in order to the scraped samples before charts are
built.
Relabeling that would corrupt a histogram or summary — splitting it, dropping a component, mutating the
le/quantile label, or merging two families — is rejected.
Profiles ship curated charts for recognized exporters – see the
profile format for the file format and how
to author your own. profiles.mode selects them:
auto (default): every profile whose match hits at least one scraped metric.
exact: only the profiles named in mode_exact.entries (each must match, or the job fails its
check).
combined: auto plus the profiles named in mode_combined.entries.
none: no profiles — generic autogen charts only (the pre-profile behavior).
Selection uses post-job, pre-profile family names. A selected profile may carry fallback_type rules
that classify untyped scalar families inside its match scope and relabeling blocks that normalize
matching source families automatically before chart routing. Job fallback policy takes precedence;
conflicting profile rules use the same ordering as normalization. Each original family is
processed only by the first applicable profile normalizer: profile-name order in auto, configured
entry order in exact, and configured entries followed by remaining auto profiles in name order in
combined. Later profile pipelines do not see the family. All selected templates consume the same
final names and labels; the collector does not create a private metric stream per profile.
Only the block matching the selected mode (mode_exact or mode_combined) is read; entries under the
other block are ignored. Metrics not covered by an authored profile chart keep their generic autogen
charts unless an applicable profile autogen.selector rejects them. Every selector is limited to its
profile’s match scope; when scopes overlap, every applicable selector must accept the series. This
changes fallback charts only; use selector or a relabeling drop rule to discard samples.
Stock profiles leave unknown future families eligible for generic fallback; closed fallback selectors are a
user-owned deployment policy, not a stock-profile authoring pattern.
Configure the prometheus collector from the Netdata web interface:
Go to Nodes.
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.
The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
In the Search box, type prometheus (or scroll the list) to locate the prometheus collector.
Click the + next to the prometheus collector to add a new job.
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:
cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/prometheus.conf
Examples
Ceph MGR and ceph-exporter
Collect the cluster-wide MGR endpoint and a local official ceph-exporter endpoint with the automatically
matched Ceph and process-runtime profiles. Repeat the exporter job for every exporter endpoint. The Ceph
profile preserves source labels that collide with Netdata’s Prometheus re-export labels under a ceph_
prefix, retains opaque dynamic group keys, and normalizes only source families whose suffix grammar is
unambiguous.
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
Disappearing or sparse metrics not clearing alerts
When a metric disappears from the Prometheus endpoint response (for example, a gauge that is only exposed when its value is greater than 0), Netdata does not require any special value to stop tracking it. The Prometheus collector automatically detects metrics that are no longer present in the scrape response. After 10 consecutive collection cycles where the metric is absent, the associated chart is automatically removed and any alerts on that chart will clear. You do not need to send a special value (such as 0, NaN, or StaleNaN) — simply omitting the metric from the response is sufficient. Note that during the 10-cycle grace period, the last known value remains and alerts may not clear immediately.
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