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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2021-02-07 11:45:55 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2021-02-07 11:45:55 +0000
commita8220ab2d293bb7f4b014b79d16b2fb05090fa93 (patch)
tree77f0a30f016c0925cf7ee9292e644bba183c2774 /collectors/README.md
parentAdding upstream version 1.19.0. (diff)
downloadnetdata-a8220ab2d293bb7f4b014b79d16b2fb05090fa93.tar.xz
netdata-a8220ab2d293bb7f4b014b79d16b2fb05090fa93.zip
Adding upstream version 1.29.0.upstream/1.29.0
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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-# Data collection plugins
-
-Netdata supports **internal** and **external** data collection plugins:
-
-- **internal** plugins are written in `C` and run as threads inside the `netdata` daemon.
-
-- **external** plugins may be written in any computer language and are spawn as independent long-running processes by the `netdata` daemon.
- They communicate with the `netdata` daemon via `pipes` (`stdout` communication).
-
-To minimize the number of processes spawn for data collection, Netdata also supports **plugin orchestrators**.
-
-- **plugin orchestrators** are external plugins that do not collect any data by themeselves.
- Instead they support data collection **modules** written in the language of the orchestrator.
- Usually the orchestrator provides a higher level abstraction, making it ideal for writing new
- data collection modules with the minimum of code.
-
- Currently Netdata provides plugin orchestrators
- BASH v4+ [charts.d.plugin](charts.d.plugin/),
- node.js [node.d.plugin](node.d.plugin/) and
- python v2+ (including v3) [python.d.plugin](python.d.plugin/).
-
-## Netdata Plugins
-
-|plugin|lang|O/S|runs as|modular|description|
-|:----:|:--:|:-:|:-----:|:-----:|:----------|
-|[apps.plugin](apps.plugin/)|`C`|linux, freebsd|external|-|monitors the whole process tree on Linux and FreeBSD and breaks down system resource usage by **process**, **user** and **user group**.|
-|[cgroups.plugin](cgroups.plugin/)|`C`|linux|internal|-|collects resource usage of **Containers**, libvirt **VMs** and **systemd services**, on Linux systems|
-|[charts.d.plugin](charts.d.plugin/)|`BASH` v4+|any|external|yes|a **plugin orchestrator** for data collection modules written in `BASH` v4+.|
-|[checks.plugin](checks.plugin/)|`C`|any|internal|-|a debugging plugin (by default it is disabled)|
-|[cups.plugin](cups.plugin/)|`C`|any|external|-|monitors **CUPS**|
-|[diskspace.plugin](diskspace.plugin/)|`C`|linux|internal|-|collects disk space usage metrics on Linux mount points|
-|[fping.plugin](fping.plugin/)|`C`|any|external|-|measures network latency, jitter and packet loss between the monitored node and any number of remote network end points.|
-|[ioping.plugin](ioping.plugin/)|`C`|any|external|-|measures disk read/write latency.|
-|[freebsd.plugin](freebsd.plugin/)|`C`|freebsd|internal|yes|collects resource usage and performance data on FreeBSD systems|
-|[freeipmi.plugin](freeipmi.plugin/)|`C`|linux, freebsd|external|-|collects metrics from enterprise hardware sensors, on Linux and FreeBSD servers.|
-|[idlejitter.plugin](idlejitter.plugin/)|`C`|any|internal|-|measures CPU latency and jitter on all operating systems|
-|[macos.plugin](macos.plugin/)|`C`|macos|internal|yes|collects resource usage and performance data on MacOS systems|
-|[nfacct.plugin](nfacct.plugin/)|`C`|linux|external|-|collects netfilter firewall, connection tracker and accounting metrics using `libmnl` and `libnetfilter_acct`|
-|[xenstat.plugin](xenstat.plugin/)|`C`|linux|external|-|collects XenServer and XCP-ng metrics using `libxenstat`|
-|[perf.plugin](perf.plugin/)|`C`|linux|external|-|collects CPU performance metrics using performance monitoring units (PMU).|
-|[node.d.plugin](node.d.plugin/)|`node.js`|any|external|yes|a **plugin orchestrator** for data collection modules written in `node.js`.|
-|[plugins.d](plugins.d/)|`C`|any|internal|-|implements the **external plugins** API and serves external plugins|
-|[proc.plugin](proc.plugin/)|`C`|linux|internal|yes|collects resource usage and performance data on Linux systems|
-|[python.d.plugin](python.d.plugin/)|`python` v2+|any|external|yes|a **plugin orchestrator** for data collection modules written in `python` v2 or v3 (both are supported).|
-|[slabinfo.plugin](slabinfo.plugin/)|`C`|linux|external|-|collects kernel SLAB details on Linux systems|
-|[statsd.plugin](statsd.plugin/)|`C`|any|internal|-|implements a high performance **statsd** server for Netdata|
-|[tc.plugin](tc.plugin/)|`C`|linux|internal|-|collects traffic QoS metrics (`tc`) of Linux network interfaces|
-
-## Enabling and Disabling plugins
-
-Each plugin can be enabled or disabled via `netdata.conf`, section `[plugins]`.
-
-At this section there a list of all the plugins with a boolean setting to enable them or disable them.
-
-The exception is `statsd.plugin` that has its own `[statsd]` section.
-
-Once a plugin is enabled, consult the page of each plugin for additional configuration options.
-
-All **external plugins** are managed by [plugins.d](plugins.d/), which provides additional management options.
-
-### Internal Plugins
-
-Each of the internal plugins runs as a thread inside the `netdata` daemon.
-Once this thread has started, the plugin may spawn additional threads according to its design.
-
-#### Internal Plugins API
-
-The internal data collection API consists of the following calls:
-
-```c
-collect_data() {
- // collect data here (one iteration)
-
- collected_number collected_value = collect_a_value();
-
- // give the metrics to Netdata
-
- static RRDSET *st = NULL; // the chart
- static RRDDIM *rd = NULL; // a dimension attached to this chart
-
- if(unlikely(!st)) {
- // we haven't created this chart before
- // create it now
- st = rrdset_create_localhost(
- "type"
- , "id"
- , "name"
- , "family"
- , "context"
- , "Chart Title"
- , "units"
- , "plugin-name"
- , "module-name"
- , priority
- , update_every
- , chart_type
- );
-
- // attach a metric to it
- rd = rrddim_add(st, "id", "name", multiplier, divider, algorithm);
- }
- else {
- // this chart is already created
- // let Netdata know we start a new iteration on it
- rrdset_next(st);
- }
-
- // give the collected value(s) to the chart
- rrddim_set_by_pointer(st, rd, collected_value);
-
- // signal Netdata we are done with this iteration
- rrdset_done(st);
-}
-```
-
-Of course, Netdata has a lot of libraries to help you also in collecting the metrics. The best way to find your way through this, is to examine what other similar plugins do.
-
-### External Plugins
-
-**External plugins** use the API and are managed by [plugins.d](plugins.d/).
+<!--
+title: "Collecting metrics"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/collectors/README.md
+-->
+
+# Collecting metrics
+
+Netdata can collect metrics from hundreds of different sources, be they internal data created by the system itself, or
+external data created by services or applications. To see _all_ of the sources Netdata collects from, view our [list of
+supported collectors](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md), and then view our [quickstart guide](/collectors/QUICKSTART.md) to get
+up-and-running.
+
+There are two essential points to understand about how collecting metrics works in Netdata:
+
+- All collectors are **installed by default** with every installation of Netdata. You do not need to install
+ collectors manually to collect metrics from new sources.
+- Upon startup, Netdata will **auto-detect** any application or service that has a
+ [collector](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md), as long as both the collector and the app/service are configured correctly.
+
+Most users will want to enable a new Netdata collector for their app/service. For those details, see our [quickstart
+guide](/collectors/QUICKSTART.md).
+
+## Take your next steps with collectors
+
+[Collectors quickstart](/collectors/QUICKSTART.md)
+
+[Supported collectors list](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md)
+
+[Collectors configuration reference](/collectors/REFERENCE.md)
+
+## Guides
+
+[Monitor Nginx or Apache web server log files with Netdata](/docs/guides/collect-apache-nginx-web-logs.md)
+
+[Monitor CockroachDB metrics with Netdata](/docs/guides/monitor-cockroachdb.md)
+
+[Monitor Unbound DNS servers with Netdata](/docs/guides/collect-unbound-metrics.md)
+
+[Monitor a Hadoop cluster with Netdata](/docs/guides/monitor-hadoop-cluster.md)
+
+## Related features
+
+**[Dashboards](/web/README.md)**: Visualize your newly-collect metrics in real-time using Netdata's [built-in
+dashboard](/web/gui/README.md).
+
+**[Backends](/backends/README.md)**: Extend our built-in [database engine](/database/engine/README.md), which supports
+long-term metrics storage, by archiving metrics to like Graphite, Prometheus, MongoDB, TimescaleDB, and more.
+
+**[Exporting](/exporting/README.md)**: An experimental refactoring of our backends system with a modular system and
+support for exporting metrics to multiple systems simultaneously.
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