summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md')
-rw-r--r--packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md92
1 files changed, 92 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md b/packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af2314f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+<!--
+title: "Uninstall Netdata"
+description: "If you are no longer interested in using the Netdata Agent, use the self-contained uninstaller to remove all traces of binaries and configuration files."
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/packaging/installer/UNINSTALL.md
+-->
+
+# Uninstall Netdata
+
+> ⚠️ If you're having trouble updating Netdata, moving from one installation method to another, or generally having
+> issues with your Netdata Agent installation, consider our [**reinstall Netdata**
+> doc](/packaging/installer/REINSTALL.md) instead of removing the Netdata Agent entirely.
+
+The recommended method to uninstall Netdata on a system is to use our kickstart installer script with the `--uninstall` option like so:
+
+```sh
+wget -O /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh --uninstall
+```
+
+Or (if you have curl but not wget):
+
+```sh
+curl https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh > /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh --uninstall
+```
+
+This will work in most cases without you needing to do anything more other than accepting removal of configuration
+and data files. You can confirm whether this approach will work for you by adding `--dry-run` to the list of
+options. If that produces a line with a message like `Would attempt to uninstall existing install`, then this
+method will work on your system.
+
+If you used a non-standard installation prefix, you may need to specify that prefix using the `--old-install-prefix`
+option when uninstalling this way.
+
+## Unofficial installs
+
+If you used a third-party package to install Netdata, then the above method will usually not work, and you will
+need to use whatever mechanism you used to originally install Netdata to uninstall it.
+
+## Uninstalling manually
+
+Most official installs of Netdata include an uninstaller script that can be manually invoked instead of using the
+kickstart script (internally, the kickstart script also uses this uninstaller script, it just handles the process
+outlined below for you).
+
+This uninstaller script is self-contained other than requiring a `.environment` file that was generated during
+installation. In most cases, this will be found in `/etc/netdata/.environment`, though if you used a non-standard
+installation prefix it will usually be located in a similar place under that prefix.
+
+A workflow for uninstallation looks like this:
+
+1. Find your `.environment` file, which is usually `/etc/netdata/.environment` in a default installation.
+2. If you cannot find that file and would like to uninstall Netdata, then create a new file with the following content:
+
+```sh
+NETDATA_PREFIX="<installation prefix>" # put what you used as a parameter to shell installed `--install` flag. Otherwise it should be empty
+NETDATA_ADDED_TO_GROUPS="<additional groups>" # Additional groups for a user running the Netdata process
+```
+
+3. Run `netdata-uninstaller.sh` as follows
+
+ 3.1 **Interactive mode (Default)**
+
+ The default mode in the uninstaller script is **interactive**. This means that the script provides you
+ the option to reply with "yes" (`y`/`Y`) or "no" (`n`/`N`) to control the removal of each Netdata asset in
+ the filesystem.
+
+ ```sh
+ ${NETDATA_PREFIX}/usr/libexec/netdata/netdata-uninstaller.sh --yes --env <environment_file>
+ ```
+
+ 3.2 **Non-interactive mode**
+
+ If you are sure and you know what you are doing, you can speed up the removal of the Netdata assets from the
+ filesystem without any questions by using the force option (`-f`/`--force`). This option will remove all the
+ Netdata assets in a **non-interactive** mode.
+
+ ```sh
+ ${NETDATA_PREFIX}/usr/libexec/netdata/netdata-uninstaller.sh --yes --force --env <environment_file>
+ ```
+
+Note: Existing installations may still need to download the file if it's not present. To execute uninstall in that case,
+run the following commands:
+
+```sh
+wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/netdata/netdata/master/packaging/installer/netdata-uninstaller.sh
+chmod +x ./netdata-uninstaller.sh
+./netdata-uninstaller.sh --yes --env <environment_file>
+```
+
+The default `environment_file` is `/etc/netdata/.environment`.
+
+> Note: This uninstallation method assumes previous installation with `netdata-installer.sh` or the kickstart script.
+> Using it when Netdata was installed in some other way will usually not work correctly, and may make it harder to uninstall Netdata.