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NGINX

NGINX

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: nginx

Overview

This collector monitors the activity and performance of NGINX servers, and collects metrics such as the number of connections, their status, and client requests.

It sends HTTP requests to the NGINX location stub-status, which is a built-in location that provides metrics about the NGINX server.

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 NGINX instances running on localhost that are listening on port 80. On startup, it tries to collect metrics from:

  • http://127.0.0.1/basic_status
  • http://localhost/stub_status
  • http://127.0.0.1/stub_status
  • http://127.0.0.1/nginx_status
  • http://127.0.0.1/status

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

Prerequisites

Enable status support

Configure ngx_http_stub_status_module.

Configuration

File

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

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/nginx.conf

Options

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

Name Description Default Required
update_every Data collection frequency. 1 no
autodetection_retry Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled. 0 no
url Server URL. http://127.0.0.1/stub_status yes
timeout HTTP request timeout. 1 no
username Username for basic HTTP authentication. no
password Password for basic HTTP authentication. no
proxy_url Proxy URL. no
proxy_username Username for proxy basic HTTP authentication. no
proxy_password Password for proxy basic HTTP authentication. no
method HTTP request method. GET no
body HTTP request body. no
headers HTTP request headers. no
not_follow_redirects Redirect handling policy. Controls whether the client follows redirects. no no
tls_skip_verify Server certificate chain and hostname validation policy. Controls whether the client performs this check. no no
tls_ca Certification authority that the client uses when verifying the server’s certificates. no
tls_cert Client TLS certificate. no
tls_key Client TLS key. no

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1/stub_status
HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

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

NGINX with enabled HTTPS and self-signed certificate.

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1/stub_status
    tls_skip_verify: yes
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/stub_status

  - name: remote
    url: http://192.0.2.1/stub_status

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 NGINX instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric Dimensions Unit
nginx.connections active connections
nginx.connections_status reading, writing, idle connections
nginx.connections_accepted_handled accepted, handled connections/s
nginx.requests requests requests/s

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

To troubleshoot issues with the nginx 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 nginx

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the nginx 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 nginx

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 nginx /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 nginx

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