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+<!--
+title: "Infrastructure monitoring with Netdata"
+sidebar_label: "Infrastructure monitoring"
+description: "Build a robust, infinitely scalable infrastructure monitoring solution with Netdata. Any number of nodes and every available metric."
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/quickstart/infrastructure.md
+-->
+
+# Infrastructure monitoring with Netdata
+
+[Netdata Cloud](https://app.netdata.cloud) provides scalable infrastructure monitoring for any number of distributed
+nodes running the Netdata Agent. A node is any system in your infrastructure that you want to monitor, whether it's a
+physical or virtual machine (VM), container, cloud deployment, or edge/IoT device.
+
+The Netdata Agent uses zero-configuration collectors to gather metrics from every application and container instantly,
+and uses Netdata's [distributed data architecture](/docs/store/distributed-data-architecture.md) to store metrics
+locally. Without a slow and troublesome centralized data lake for your infrastructure's metrics, you reduce the
+resources you need to invest in, and the complexity of, monitoring your infrastructure.
+
+Netdata Cloud unifies infrastructure monitoring by _centralizing the interface_ you use to query and visualize your
+nodes' metrics, not the data. By streaming metrics values to your browser, with Netdata Cloud acting as the secure proxy
+between them, you can monitor your infrastructure using customizable, interactive, and real-time visualizations from any
+numbe of distributed nodes.
+
+In this quickstart guide, you'll learn the basics of using Netdata Cloud to monitor an infrastructure with dashboards,
+composite charts, and alarm viewing. You'll then learn about the most critical ways to configure the Agent on each of
+your nodes to maximize the value you get from Netdata.
+
+This quickstart assumes you've installed the Netdata Agent on more than one node in your infrastructure, and claimed
+those nodes to your Space in Netdata Cloud. If you haven't yet, see the [_Get Netdata_ doc](/docs/get/README.md) for
+details on signing up for Netdata Cloud, installation, and claiming.
+
+> If you want to monitor a Kubernetes cluster with Netdata, see our [k8s installation
+> doc](/packaging/installer/methods/kubernetes.md) for setup details, and then read our guide, [_Monitor a Kubernetes
+> cluster with Netdata_](/docs/guides/monitor/kubernetes-k8s-netdata.md).
+
+## Set up your Netdata Cloud experience
+
+Start your infrastructure monitoring experience by setting up your Netdata Cloud account.
+
+### Organize Spaces and War Rooms
+
+Spaces are high-level containers to help you organize your team members and the nodes they can view in each War Room.
+You already have at least one Space in your Netdata Cloud account.
+
+A single Space puts all your metrics in one easily-accessible place, while multiple Spaces creates logical division
+between different users and different pieces of a large infrastructure. For example, a large organization might have one
+SRE team for the user-facing SaaS application, and a second IT team for managing employees' hardware. Since these teams
+don't monitor the same nodes, they can work in separate Spaces and then further organize their nodes into War Rooms.
+
+Next, set up War Rooms. Netdata Cloud creates dashboards and visualizations based on the nodes added to a given War
+Room. You can [organize War Rooms](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/war-rooms#war-room-organization) in any way
+you want, such as by the application type, for end-to-end application monitoring, or as an incident response tool.
+
+Learn more about [Spaces](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/spaces) and [War
+Rooms](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/war-rooms), including how to manage each, in their respective reference
+documentation.
+
+### Invite your team
+
+Netdata Cloud makes an infrastructure's real-time metrics available and actionable to all organization members. By
+inviting others, you can better synchronize with your team or colleagues to understand your infrastructure's heartbeat.
+When something goes wrong, you'll be ready to collaboratively troubleshoot complex performance problems from a single
+pane of glass.
+
+To invite new users, click on **Invite Users** in the left-hand navigation panel beneath your Space's name. Choose which
+War Rooms to add this user to, then click **Send**.
+
+If your team members have trouble signing in, direct them to the [Netdata Cloud sign
+in](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/manage/sign-in) doc.
+
+### See an overview of your infrastructure
+
+The default way to visualize the health and performance of an infrastructure with Netdata Cloud is the
+[**Overview**](/docs/visualize/overview-infrastructure.md), which is the default interface of every War Room. The
+Overview features composite charts, which display aggregated metrics from every node in a given War Room. These metrics
+are streamed on-demand from individual nodes and composited onto a single, familiar dashboard.
+
+![The War Room
+Overview](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/102651377-b1f4b100-4129-11eb-8e60-d2995d258c16.png)
+
+Read more about the Overview in the [infrastructure overview](/docs/visualize/overview-infrastructure.md) doc.
+
+Netdata Cloud also features the [**Nodes view**](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/nodes), which you can
+use to configure and see a few key metrics from every node in the War Room, view health status, and more.
+
+### Drill down to specific nodes
+
+Both the Overview and Nodes view offer easy access to **single-node dashboards** for targeted analysis. You can use
+single-node dashboards in Netdata Cloud to drill down on specific issues, scrub backward in time to investigate
+historical data, and see like metrics presented meaningfully to help you troubleshoot performance problems.
+
+Read about the process in the [infrastructure
+overview](/docs/visualize/overview-infrastructure.md#single-node-dashboards) doc, then learn about [interacting with
+dashboards and charts](/docs/visualize/interact-dashboards-charts.md) to get the most from all of Netdata's real-time
+metrics.
+
+### Create new dashboards
+
+You can use Netdata Cloud to create new dashboards that match your infrastructure's topology or help you diagnose
+complex issues by aggregating correlated charts from any number of nodes. For example, you could monitor the system CPU
+from every node in your infrastructure on a single dashboard.
+
+![An example system CPU
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/95915568-2db63400-0d5c-11eb-92cc-3c61cb6519dd.png)
+
+Read more about [creating new dashboards](/docs/visualize/create-dashboards.md) for more details about the process and
+additional tips on best leveraging the feature to help you troubleshoot complex performance problems.
+
+## Set up your nodes
+
+You get the most value out of Netdata Cloud's infrastructure monitoring capabilities if each node collects every
+possible metric. For example, if a node in your infrastructure is responsible for serving a MySQL database, you should
+ensure that the Netdata Agent on that node is properly collecting and streaming all MySQL-related metrics.
+
+In most cases, collectors autodetect their data source and require no configuration, but you may need to configure
+certain behaviors based on your infrastructure. Or, you may want to enable/configure advanced functionality, such as
+longer metrics retention or streaming.
+
+### Configure the Netdata Agent on your nodes
+
+You can configure any node in your infrastructure if you need to, although most users will find the default settings
+work extremely well for monitoring their infrastructures.
+
+Each node has a configuration file called `netdata.conf`, which is typically at `/etc/netdata/netdata.conf`. The best
+way to edit this file is using the `edit-config` script, which ensures updates to the Netdata Agent do not overwrite
+your changes. For example:
+
+```bash
+cd /etc/netdata
+sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf
+```
+
+Our [configuration basics doc](/docs/configure/nodes.md) contains more information about `netdata.conf`, `edit-config`,
+along with simple examples to get you familiar with editing your node's configuration.
+
+After you've learned the basics, you should [secure your infrastructure's nodes](/docs/configure/secure-nodes.md) using
+one of our recommended methods. These security best practices ensure no untrusted parties gain access to the metrics
+collected on any of your nodes.
+
+### Collect metrics from systems and applications
+
+Netdata has [300+ pre-installed collectors](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md) that gather thousands of metrics with zero
+configuration. Collectors search each of your nodes in default locations and ports to find running applications and
+gather as many metrics as they can without you having to configure them individually.
+
+Most collectors work without configuration, but you should read up on [how collectors
+work](/docs/collect/how-collectors-work.md) and [how to enable/configure](/docs/collect/enable-configure.md) them so
+that you can see metrics from those applications in Netdata Cloud.
+
+In addition, find detailed information about which [system](/docs/collect/system-metrics.md),
+[container](/docs/collect/container-metrics.md), and [application](/docs/collect/application-metrics.md) metrics you can
+collect from across your infrastructure with Netdata.
+
+## What's next?
+
+Netdata has many features that help you monitor the health of your nodes and troubleshoot complex performance problems.
+Once you have a handle on configuration and are collecting all the right metrics, try out some of Netdata's other
+infrastructure-focused features:
+
+- [See an overview of your infrastructure](/docs/visualize/overview-infrastructure.md) using Netdata Cloud's composite
+ charts and real-time visualizations.
+- [Create new dashboards](/docs/visualize/create-dashboards.md) from any number of nodes and metrics in Netdata Cloud.
+
+To change how the Netdata Agent runs on each node, dig in to configuration files:
+
+- [Change how long nodes in your infrastructure retain metrics](/docs/store/change-metrics-storage.md) based on how
+ many metrics each node collects, your preferred retention period, and the resources you want to dedicate toward
+ long-term metrics retention.
+- [Create new alarms](/docs/monitor/configure-alarms.md), or tweak some of the pre-configured alarms, to stay on top
+ of anomalies.
+- [Enable notifications](/docs/monitor/enable-notifications.md) to Slack, PagerDuty, email, and 30+ other services.
+- [Export metrics](/docs/export/external-databases.md) to an external time-series database to use Netdata alongside
+ other monitoring and troubleshooting tools.
+
+### Related reference documentation
+
+- [Netdata Cloud · Spaces](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/spaces)
+- [Netdata Cloud · War Rooms](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/war-rooms)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Invite your team](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/manage/invite-your-team)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Sign in or sign up with email, Google, or
+ GitHub](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/manage/sign-in)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Nodes view](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/nodes)
+
+[![analytics](https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&aip=1&t=pageview&_s=1&ds=github&dr=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnetdata%2Fnetdata&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fmy-netdata.io%2Fgithub%2Fdocs%2Fquickstart%2Finfrastructure&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)