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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
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tree77f0a30f016c0925cf7ee9292e644bba183c2774 /docs/guides/step-by-step
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+<!--
+title: "The step-by-step Netdata guide"
+date: 2020-03-31
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-00.md
+-->
+
+# The step-by-step Netdata guide
+
+Welcome to Netdata! We're glad you're interested in our health monitoring and performance troubleshooting system.
+
+Because Netdata is entirely open-source software, you can use it free of charge, whether you want to monitor one or ten
+thousand systems! All our code is hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/netdata/netdata).
+
+This guide is designed to help you understand what Netdata is, what it's capable of, and how it'll help you make
+faster and more informed decisions about the health and performance of your systems and applications. If you're
+completely new to Netdata, or have never tried health monitoring/performance troubleshooting systems before, this
+guide is perfect for you.
+
+If you have monitoring experience, or would rather get straight into configuring Netdata to your needs, you can jump
+straight into code and configurations with our [getting started guide](/docs/getting-started.md).
+
+> This guide contains instructions for Netdata installed on a Linux system. Many of the instructions will work on
+> other supported operating systems, like FreeBSD and macOS, but we can't make any guarantees.
+
+## Where to go if you need help
+
+No matter where you are in this Netdata guide, if you need help, head over to our [GitHub
+repository](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/). That's where we collect questions from users, help fix their bugs, and
+point people toward documentation that explains what they're having trouble with.
+
+Click on the **issues** tab to see all the conversations we're having with Netdata users. Use the search bar to find
+previously-written advice for your specific problem, and if you don't see any results, hit the **New issue** button to
+send us a question.
+
+Or, if that's too complicated, feel free to send this guide's author [an email](mailto:joel@netdata.cloud).
+
+## Before we get started
+
+Let's make sure you have Netdata installed on your system!
+
+> If you already installed Netdata, feel free to skip to [Step 1: Netdata's building blocks](step-01.md).
+
+The easiest way to install Netdata on a Linux system is our `kickstart.sh` one-line installer. Run this on your system
+and let it take care of the rest.
+
+This script will install Netdata from source, keep it up to date with nightly releases, connects to the Netdata
+[registry](/registry/README.md), and sends [_anonymous statistics_](/docs/anonymous-statistics.md) about how you use
+Netdata. We use this information to better understand how we can improve the Netdata experience for all our users.
+
+```bash
+bash <(curl -Ss https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh)
+```
+
+Once finished, you'll have Netdata installed, and you'll be set up to get _nightly updates_ to get the latest features,
+improvements, and bugfixes.
+
+If this method doesn't work for you, or you want to use a different process, visit our [installation
+documentation](/packaging/installer/README.md) for details.
+
+## Netdata fundamentals
+
+[Step 1. Netdata's building blocks](step-01.md)
+
+In this introductory step, we'll talk about the fundamental ideas, philosophies, and UX decisions behind Netdata.
+
+[Step 2. Get to know Netdata's dashboard](step-02.md)
+
+Visit Netdata's dashboard to explore, manipulate charts, and check out alarms. Get your first taste of visual anomaly
+detection.
+
+[Step 3. Monitor more than one system with Netdata](step-03.md)
+
+While the dashboard lets you quickly move from one agent to another, Netdata Cloud is our SaaS solution for monitoring
+the health of many systems. We'll cover its features and the benefits of using Netdata Cloud on top of the dashboard.
+
+[Step 4. The basics of configuring Netdata](step-04.md)
+
+While Netdata can monitor thousands of metrics in real-time without any configuration, you may _want_ to tweak some
+settings based on your system's resources.
+
+## Intermediate steps
+
+[Step 5. Health monitoring alarms and notifications](step-05.md)
+
+Learn how to tune, silence, and write custom alarms. Then enable notifications so you never miss a change in health
+status or performance anomaly.
+
+[Step 6. Collect metrics from more services and apps](step-06.md)
+
+Learn how to enable/disable collection plugins and configure a collection plugin job to add more charts to your Netdata
+dashboard and begin monitoring more apps and services, like MySQL, Nginx, MongoDB, and hundreds more.
+
+[Step 7. Netdata's dashboard in depth](step-07.md)
+
+Now that you configured your Netdata monitoring agent to your exact needs, you'll dive back into metrics snapshots,
+updates, and the dashboard's settings.
+
+## Advanced steps
+
+[Step 8. Building your first custom dashboard](step-08.md)
+
+Using simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, we'll build a custom dashboard that displays essential information in any format
+you choose. You can even monitor many systems from a single HTML file.
+
+[Step 9. Long-term metrics storage](step-09.md)
+
+By default, Netdata can store lots of real-time metrics, but you can also tweak our custom database engine to your
+heart's content. Want to take your Netdata metrics elsewhere? We're happy to help you archive data to Prometheus,
+MongoDB, TimescaleDB, and others.
+
+[Step 10. Set up a proxy](step-10.md)
+
+Run Netdata behind an Nginx proxy to improve performance, and enable TLS/HTTPS for better security.
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-00&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-01.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-01.md
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+<!--
+title: "Step 1. Netdata's building blocks"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-01.md
+-->
+
+# Step 1. Netdata's building blocks
+
+Netdata is a distributed and real-time _health monitoring and performance troubleshooting toolkit_ for monitoring your
+systems and applications.
+
+Because the monitoring agent is highly-optimized, you can install it all your physical systems, containers, IoT devices,
+and edge devices without disrupting their core function.
+
+By default, and without configuration, Netdata delivers real-time insights into everything happening on the system, from
+CPU utilization to packet loss on every network device. Netdata can also auto-detect metrics from hundreds of your
+favorite services and applications, like MySQL/MariaDB, Docker, Nginx, Apache, MongoDB, and more.
+
+All metrics are automatically-updated, providing interactive dashboards that allow you to dive in, discover anomalies,
+and figure out the root cause analysis of any issue.
+
+Best of all, Netdata is entirely free, open-source software! Solo developers and enterprises with thousands of systems
+can both use it free of charge. We're hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/netdata/netdata).
+
+Want to learn about the history of Netdata, and what inspired our CEO to build it in the first place, and where we're
+headed? Read Costa's comprehensive blog post: _[Redefining monitoring with Netdata (and how it came to
+be)](https://blog.netdata.cloud/posts/redefining-monitoring-netdata/)_.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In the first step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn about:
+
+- [Netdata's core features](#netdatas-core-features)
+- [Why you should use Netdata](#why-you-should-use-netdata)
+- [How Netdata has complementary systems, not competitors](#how-netdata-has-complementary-systems-not-competitors)
+
+Let's get started!
+
+## Netdata's core features
+
+Netdata has only been around for a few years, but it's a complex piece of software. Here are just some of the features
+we'll cover throughout this guide.
+
+- A sophisticated **dashboard**, which we'll cover in [step 2](step-02.md). The real-time, highly-granular dashboard,
+ with hundreds of charts, is your main source of information about the health and performance of your systems/
+ applications. We designed the dashboard with anomaly detection and quick analysis in mind. We'll return to
+ dashboard-related topics in both [step 7](step-07.md) and [step 8](step-08.md).
+- **Long-term metrics storage** by default. With our new database engine, you can store days, weeks, or months of
+ per-second historical metrics. Or you can archive metrics to another database, like MongoDB or Prometheus. We'll
+ cover all these options in [step 9](step-09.md).
+- **No configuration necessary**. Without any configuration, you'll get thousands of real-time metrics and hundreds of
+ alarms designed by our community of sysadmin experts. But you _can_ configure Netdata in a lot of ways, some of
+ which we'll cover in [step 4](step-04.md).
+- **Distributed, per-system installation**. Instead of centralizing metrics in one location, you install Netdata on
+ _every_ system, and each system is responsible for its metrics. Having distributed agents reduces cost and lets
+ Netdata run on devices with little available resources, such as IoT and edge devices, without affecting their core
+ purpose.
+- **Sophisticated health monitoring** to ensure you always know when an anomaly hits. In [step 5](step-05.md), we dive
+ into how you can tune alarms, write your own alarm, and enable two types of notifications.
+- **High-speed, low-resource collectors** that allow you to collect thousands of metrics every second while using only
+ a fraction of your system's CPU resources and a few MiB of RAM.
+- **Netdata Cloud** is our SaaS toolkit that helps Netdata users monitor the health and performance of entire
+ infrastructures, whether they are two or two thousand (or more!) systems. We'll cover Netdata Cloud in [step
+ 3](step-03.md).
+
+## Why you should use Netdata
+
+Because you care about the health and performance of your systems and applications, and all of the awesome features we
+just mentioned. And it's free!
+
+All these may be valid reasons, but let's step back and talk about Netdata's _principles_ for health monitoring and
+performance troubleshooting. We have a lot of [complementary
+systems](#how-netdata-has-complementary-systems-not-competitors), and we think there's a good reason why Netdata should
+always be your first choice when troubleshooting an anomaly.
+
+We built Netdata on four principles.
+
+### Per-second data collection
+
+Our first principle is per-second data collection for all metrics.
+
+That matters because you can't monitor a 2-second service-level agreement (SLA) with 10-second metrics. You can't detect
+quick anomalies if your metrics don't show them.
+
+How do we solve this? By decentralizing monitoring. Each node is responsible for collecting metrics, triggering alarms,
+and building dashboards locally, and we work hard to ensure it does each step (and others) with remarkable efficiency.
+For example, Netdata can [collect 100,000 metrics](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/issues/1323) every second while
+using only 9% of a single server-grade CPU core!
+
+By decentralizing monitoring and emphasizing speed at every turn, Netdata helps you scale your health monitoring and
+performance troubleshooting to an infrastructure of every size. _And_ you get to keep per-second metrics in long-term
+storage thanks to the database engine.
+
+### Unlimited metrics
+
+We believe all metrics are fundamentally important, and all metrics should be available to the user.
+
+If you don't collect _all_ the metrics a system creates, you're only seeing part of the story. It's like saying you've
+read a book after skipping all but the last ten pages. You only know the ending, not everything that leads to it.
+
+Most monitoring solutions exist to poke you when there's a problem, and then tell you to use a dozen different console
+tools to find the root cause. Netdata prefers to give you every piece of information you might need to understand why an
+anomaly happened.
+
+### Meaningful presentation
+
+We want every piece of Netdata's dashboard not only to look good and update every second, but also provide context as to
+what you're looking at and why it matters.
+
+The principle of meaningful presentation is fundamental to our dashboard's user experience (UX). We could have put
+charts in a grid or hidden some behind tabs or buttons. We instead chose to stack them vertically, on a single page, so
+you can visually see how, for example, a jump in disk usage can also increase system load.
+
+Here's an example of a system undergoing a disk stress test:
+
+![Screen Shot 2019-10-23 at 15 38
+32](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67439589-7f920700-f5ab-11e9-930d-fb0014900d90.png)
+
+> For the curious, here's the command: `stress-ng --fallocate 4 --fallocate-bytes 4g --timeout 1m --metrics --verify
+> --times`!
+
+### Immediate results
+
+Finally, Netdata should be usable from the moment you install it.
+
+As we've talked about, and as you'll learn in the following nine steps, Netdata comes installed with:
+
+- Auto-detected metrics
+- Human-readable units
+- Metrics that are structured into charts, families, and contexts
+- Automatically generated dashboards
+- Charts designed for visual anomaly detection
+- Hundreds of pre-configured alarms
+
+By standardizing your monitoring infrastructure, Netdata tries to make at least one part of your administrative tasks
+easy!
+
+## How Netdata has complementary systems, not competitors
+
+We'll cover this quickly, as you're probably eager to get on with using Netdata itself.
+
+We don't want to lock you in to using Netdata by itself, and forever. By supporting [archiving to
+external databases](/exporting/README.md) like Graphite, Prometheus, OpenTSDB, MongoDB, and others, you can use Netdata _in
+conjunction_ with software that might seem like our competitors.
+
+We don't want to "wage war" with another monitoring solution, whether it's commercial, open-source, or anything in
+between. We just want to give you all the metrics every second, and what you do with them next is your business, not
+ours. Our mission is helping people create more extraordinary infrastructures!
+
+## What's next?
+
+We think it's imperative you understand why we built Netdata the way we did. But now that we have that behind us, let's
+get right into that dashboard you've heard so much about.
+
+[Next: Get to know Netdata's dashboard &rarr;](step-02.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-01&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
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+<!--
+title: "Step 2. Get to know Netdata's dashboard"
+date: 2020-05-04
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-02.md
+-->
+
+# Step 2. Get to know Netdata's dashboard
+
+Welcome to Netdata proper! Now that you understand how Netdata works, how it's built, and why we built it, you can start
+working with the dashboard directly.
+
+This step-by-step guide assumes you've already installed Netdata on a system of yours. If you haven't yet, hop back over
+to ["step 0"](step-00.md#before-we-get-started) for information about our one-line installer script. Or, view the
+[installation docs](/packaging/installer/README.md) to learn more. Once you have Netdata installed, you can hop back
+over here and dig in.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn how to:
+
+- [Visit and explore the dashboard](#visit-and-explore-the-dashboard)
+- [Explore available charts using menus](#explore-available-charts-using-menus)
+- [Read the descriptions accompanying charts](#read-the-descriptions-accompanying-charts)
+- [Interact with charts](#interact-with-charts)
+- [See raised alarms and the alarm log](#see-raised-alarms-and-the-alarm-log)
+
+Let's get started!
+
+## Visit and explore the dashboard
+
+Netdata's dashboard is where you interact with your system's metrics. Time to open it up and start exploring. Open up
+your browser of choice.
+
+Open up your web browser of choice and navigate to `http://NODE:19999`, replacing `NODE` with the IP address or hostname
+of your Agent. If you're unsure, try `http://localhost:19999` first. Hit **Enter**. Welcome to Netdata!
+
+![Animated GIF of navigating to the
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80825153-abaec600-8b94-11ea-8b17-1b770a2abaa9.gif)
+
+> From here on out in this guide, we'll refer to the address you use to view your dashboard as `NODE`. Be sure to
+> replace it with either `localhost`, the IP address, or the hostname of your system.
+
+## Explore available charts using menus
+
+**Menus** are located on the right-hand side of the Netdata dashboard. You can use these to navigate to the
+charts you're interested in.
+
+![Animated GIF of using the menus and
+submenus](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80832425-7c528600-8ba1-11ea-8140-d0a17a62009b.gif)
+
+Netdata shows all its charts on a single page, so you can also scroll up and down using the mouse wheel, your
+touchscreen/touchpad, or the scrollbar.
+
+Both menus and the items displayed beneath them, called **submenus**, are populated automatically by Netdata based on
+what it's collecting. If you run Netdata on many different systems using different OS types or versions, the
+menus and submenus may look a little different for each one.
+
+To learn more about menus, see our documentation about [navigating the standard
+dashboard](/web/gui/README.md#metrics-menus).
+
+> ❗ By default, Netdata only creates and displays charts if the metrics are _not zero_. So, you may be missing some
+> charts, menus, and submenus if those charts have zero metrics. You can change this by changing the **Which dimensions
+> to show?** setting to **All**. In addition, if you start Netdata and immediately load the dashboard, not all
+> charts/menus/submenus may be displayed, as some collectors can take a while to initialize.
+
+## Read the descriptions accompanying charts
+
+Many charts come with a short description of what dimensions the chart is displaying and why they matter.
+
+For example, here's the description that accompanies the **swap** chart.
+
+![Screenshot of the swap
+description](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/63452078-477b1600-c3fa-11e9-836b-2fc90fba8b4b.png)
+
+If you're new to health monitoring and performance troubleshooting, we recommend you spend some time reading these
+descriptions and learning more at the pages linked above.
+
+## Understand charts, dimensions, families, and contexts
+
+A **chart** is an interactive visualization of one or more collected/calculated metrics. You can see the name (also
+known as its unique ID) of a chart by looking at the top-left corner of a chart and finding the parenthesized text. On a
+Linux system, one of the first charts on the dashboard will be the system CPU chart, with the name `system.cpu`:
+
+![Screenshot of the system CPU chart in the Netdata
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67443082-43b16e80-f5b8-11e9-8d33-d6ee052c6678.png)
+
+A **dimension** is any value that gets shown on a chart. The value can be raw data or calculated values, such as
+percentages, aggregates, and more. Most charts will have more than one dimension, in which case it will display each in
+a different color. Here, a `system.cpu` chart is showing many dimensions, such as `user`, `system`, `softirq`, `irq`,
+and more.
+
+![Screenshot of the dimensions shown in the system CPU chart in the Netdata
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/62721031-2bba4d80-b9c0-11e9-9dca-32403617ce72.png)
+
+A **family** is _one_ instance of a monitored hardware or software resource that needs to be monitored and displayed
+separately from similar instances. For example, if your system has multiple partitions, Netdata will create different
+families for `/`, `/boot`, `/home`, and so on. Same goes for entire disks, network devices, and more.
+
+![A number of families created for disk partitions](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67896952-a788e980-fb1a-11e9-880b-2dfb3945c8d6.png)
+
+A **context** groups several charts based on the types of metrics being collected and displayed. For example, the
+**Disk** section often has many contexts: `disk.io`, `disk.ops`, `disk.backlog`, `disk.util`, and so on. Netdata uses
+this context to create individual charts and then groups them by family. You can always see the context of any chart by
+looking at its name or hovering over the chart's date.
+
+It's important to understand these differences, as Netdata uses charts, dimensions, families, and contexts to create
+health alarms and configure collectors. To read even more about the differences between all these elements of the
+dashboard, and how they affect other parts of Netdata, read our [dashboards
+documentation](/web/README.md#charts-contexts-families).
+
+## Interact with charts
+
+We built Netdata to be a big sandbox for learning more about your systems and applications. Time to play!
+
+Netdata's charts are fully interactive. You can pan through historical metrics, zoom in and out, select specific
+timeframes for further analysis, resize charts, and more.
+
+Best of all, Whenever you use a chart in this way, Netdata synchronizes all the other charts to match it.
+
+![Animated GIF of the standard Netdata dashboard being manipulated and synchronizing
+charts](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/81867875-3d6beb00-9526-11ea-94b8-388951e2e03d.gif)
+
+### Pan, zoom, highlight, and reset charts
+
+You can change how charts show their metrics in a few different ways, each of which have a few methods:
+
+| Change | Method #1 | Method #2 | Method #3 |
+| ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **Reset** charts to default auto-refreshing state | `double click` | `double tap` (touchpad/touchscreen) | |
+| **Select** a certain timeframe | `ALT` + `mouse selection` | `⌘` + `mouse selection` (macOS) | |
+| **Pan** forward or back in time | `click and drag` | `touch and drag` (touchpad/touchscreen) | |
+| **Zoom** to a specific timeframe | `SHIFT` + `mouse selection` | | |
+| **Zoom** in/out | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `mouse scrollwheel` | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `two-finger pinch` (touchpad/touchscreen) | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `two-finger scroll` (touchpad/touchscreen) |
+
+These interactions can also be triggered using the icons on the bottom-right corner of every chart. They are,
+respectively, `Pan Left`, `Reset`, `Pan Right`, `Zoom In`, and `Zoom Out`.
+
+### Show and hide dimensions
+
+Each dimension can be hidden by clicking on it. Hiding dimensions simplifies the chart and can help you better discover
+exactly which aspect of your system is behaving strangely.
+
+### Resize charts
+
+Additionally, resize charts by clicking-and-dragging the icon on the bottom-right corner of any chart. To restore the
+chart to its original height, double-click the same icon.
+
+![Animated GIF of resizing a chart and resetting it to the default
+height](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80842459-7d41e280-8bb6-11ea-9488-1bc29f94d7f2.gif)
+
+To learn more about other options and chart interactivity, read our [dashboard documentation](/web/README.md).
+
+## See raised alarms and the alarm log
+
+Aside from performance troubleshooting, the Agent helps you monitor the health of your systems and applications. That's
+why every Netdata installation comes with dozens of pre-configured alarms that trigger alerts when your system starts
+acting strangely.
+
+Find the **Alarms** button in the top navigation bring up a modal that shows currently raised alarms, all running
+alarms, and the alarms log.
+
+Here is an example of a raised `system.cpu` alarm, followed by the full list and alarm log:
+
+![Animated GIF of looking at raised alarms and the alarm
+log](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80842482-8c289500-8bb6-11ea-9791-600cfdbe82ce.gif)
+
+And a static screenshot of the raised CPU alarm:
+
+![Screenshot of a raised system CPU alarm](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80842330-2dfbb200-8bb6-11ea-8147-3cd366eb0f37.png)
+
+The alarm itself is named *system - cpu**, and its context is `system.cpu`. Beneath that is an auto-updating badge that
+shows the latest value the chart that triggered the alarm.
+
+With the three icons beneath that and the **role** designation, you can:
+
+1. Scroll to the chart associated with this raised alarm.
+2. Copy a link to the badge to your clipboard.
+3. Copy the code to embed the badge onto another web page using an `<embed>` element.
+
+The table on the right-hand side displays information about the alarm's configuration. In above example, Netdata
+triggers a warning alarm when CPU usage is between 75 and 85%, and a critical alarm when above 85%. It's a _little_ more
+complicated than that, but we'll get into more complex health entity configurations in a later step.
+
+The `calculation` field is the equation used to calculate those percentages, and the `check every` field specifies how
+often Netdata should be calculating these metrics to see if the alarm should remain triggered.
+
+The `execute` field tells Netdata how to notify you about this alarm, and the `source` field lets you know where you can
+find the configuration file, if you'd like to edit its configuration.
+
+We'll cover alarm configuration in more detail later in the guide, so don't worry about it too much for now! Right
+now, it's most important that you understand how to see alarms, and parse their details, if and when they appear on your
+system.
+
+## What's next?
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you learned how to:
+
+- Visit the dashboard
+- Explore available charts (using the right-side menu)
+- Read the descriptions accompanying charts
+- Interact with charts
+- See raised alarms and the alarm log
+
+Next, you'll learn how to monitor multiple nodes through the dashboard.
+
+[Next: Monitor more than one system with Netdata →](step-03.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-02&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-03.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-03.md
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+<!--
+title: "Step 3. Monitor more than one system with Netdata"
+date: 2020-05-01
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-03.md
+-->
+
+# Step 3. Monitor more than one system with Netdata
+
+The Netdata agent is _distributed_ by design. That means each agent operates independently from any other, collecting
+and creating charts only for the system you installed it on. We made this decision a long time ago to [improve security
+and performance](step-01.md).
+
+You might be thinking, "So, now I have to remember all these IP addresses, and type them into my browser
+manually, to move from one system to another? Maybe I should just make a bunch of bookmarks. What's a few more tabs
+on top of the hundred I have already?"
+
+We get it. That's why we built [Netdata Cloud](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/), which connects many distributed
+agents for a seamless experience when monitoring an entire infrastructure of Netdata-monitored nodes.
+
+![Animated GIF of Netdata
+Cloud](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80828986-1ebb3b00-8b9b-11ea-957f-2c8d0d009e44.gif)
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, we'll talk about the following:
+
+- [Why you should use Netdata Cloud](#why-use-netdata-cloud)
+- [Get started with Netdata Cloud](#get-started-with-netdata-cloud)
+- [Navigate between dashboards with Visited Nodes](#navigate-between-dashboards-with-visited-nodes)
+
+## Why use Netdata Cloud?
+
+Our [Cloud documentation](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/) does a good job (we think!) of explaining why Cloud
+gives you a ton of value at no cost:
+
+> Netdata Cloud gives you real-time visibility for your entire infrastructure. With Netdata Cloud, you can run all your
+> distributed Agents in headless mode _and_ access the real-time metrics and insightful charts from their dashboards.
+> View key metrics and active alarms at-a-glance, and then seamlessly dive into any of your distributed dashboards
+> without leaving Cloud's centralized interface.
+
+You can add as many nodes and team members as you need, and as our free and open source Agent gets better with more
+features, new collectors for more applications, and improved UI, so will Cloud.
+
+## Get started with Netdata Cloud
+
+Signing in, onboarding, and claiming your first nodes only takes a few minutes, and we have a [Get started with
+Cloud](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/get-started) guide to help you walk through every step.
+
+Or, if you're feeling confident, dive right in.
+
+<p><a href="https://app.netdata.cloud" className="button button--lg">Sign in to Cloud</a></p>
+
+When you finish that guide, circle back to this step in the guide to learn how to use the Visited Nodes feature on
+top of Cloud's centralized web interface.
+
+## Navigate between dashboards with Visited Nodes
+
+To add nodes to your visited nodes, you first need to navigate to that node's dashboard, then click the **Sign in**
+button at the top of the dashboard. On the screen that appears, which states your node is requesting access to your
+Netdata Cloud account, sign in with your preferred method.
+
+Cloud redirects you back to your node's dashboard, which is now connected to your Netdata Cloud account. You can now see the menu populated by a single visited node.
+
+![An Agent's dashboard with the Visited nodes
+menu](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80830383-b6ba2400-8b9d-11ea-9eb2-379c7eccd22f.png)
+
+If you previously went through the Cloud onboarding process to create a Space and War Room, you will also see these
+alongside your visited nodes. You can click on your Space or any of your War Rooms to navigate to Netdata Cloud and
+continue monitoring your infrastructure from there.
+
+![A Agent's dashboard with the Visited nodes menu, plus Spaces and War
+Rooms](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80830382-b6218d80-8b9d-11ea-869c-1170b95eeb4a.png)
+
+To add other visited nodes, navigate to their dashboard and sign in to Cloud by clicking on the **Sign in** button. This
+process connects that node to your Cloud account and further populates the menu.
+
+Once you've added more than one node, you can use the menu to switch between various dashboards without remembering IP
+addresses or hostnames or saving bookmarks for every node you want to monitor.
+
+![Switching between dashboards with Visited
+nodes](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80831018-e158ac80-8b9e-11ea-882e-1d82cdc028cd.gif)
+
+## What's next?
+
+Now that you have a Netdata Cloud account with a claimed node (or a few!) and can navigate between your dashboards with
+Visited nodes, it's time to learn more about how you can configure Netdata to your liking. From there, you'll be able to
+customize your Netdata experience to your exact infrastructure and the information you need.
+
+[Next: The basics of configuring Netdata &rarr;](step-04.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-03&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-04.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-04.md
new file mode 100644
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+<!--
+title: "Step 4. The basics of configuring Netdata"
+date: 2020-03-31
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-04.md
+-->
+
+# Step 4. The basics of configuring Netdata
+
+Welcome to the fourth step of the Netdata guide.
+
+Since the beginning, we've covered the building blocks of Netdata, dashboard basics, and how you can monitor many
+individual systems using many distributed Netdata agents.
+
+Next up: configuration.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+We'll talk about Netdata's default configuration, and then you'll learn how to do the following:
+
+- [Find your `netdata.conf` file](#find-your-netdataconf-file)
+- [Use edit-config to open `netdata.conf`](#use-edit-config-to-open-netdataconf)
+- [Navigate the structure of `netdata.conf`](#the-structure-of-netdataconf)
+- [Edit your `netdata.conf` file](#edit-your-netdataconf-file)
+
+## Find your `netdata.conf` file
+
+Netdata primarily uses the `netdata.conf` file to configure its core functionality. `netdata.conf` resides within your
+**Netdata config directory**.
+
+The location of that directory and `netdata.conf` depends on your operating system and the method you used to install
+Netdata.
+
+The most reliable method of finding your Netdata config directory is loading your `netdata.conf` on your browser. Open a
+tab and navigate to `http://HOST:19999/netdata.conf`. Your browser will load a text document that looks like this:
+
+![A netdata.conf file opened in the
+browser](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/68346763-344f1c80-00b2-11ea-9d1d-0ccac74d5558.png)
+
+Look for the line that begins with `# config directory = `. The text after that will be the path to your Netdata config
+directory.
+
+In the system represented by the screenshot, the line reads: `config directory = /etc/netdata`. That means
+`netdata.conf`, and all the other configuration files, can be found at `/etc/netdata`.
+
+> For more details on where your Netdata config directory is, take a look at our [installation
+> instructions](/packaging/installer/README.md).
+
+For the rest of this guide, we'll assume you're editing files or running scripts from _within_ your **Netdata
+configuration directory**.
+
+## Use edit-config to open `netdata.conf`
+
+Inside your Netdata config directory, there is a helper scripted called `edit-config`. This script will open existing
+Netdata configuration files using a text editor. Or, if the configuration file doesn't yet exist, the script will copy
+an example file to your Netdata config directory and then allow you to edit it before saving it.
+
+> `edit-config` will use the `EDITOR` environment variable on your system to edit the file. On many systems, that is
+> defaulted to `vim` or `nano`. We highly recommend `nano` for beginners. To change this variable for the current
+> session (it will revert to the default when you reboot), export a new value: `export EDITOR=nano`. Or, [make the
+> change permanent](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13046624/how-to-permanently-export-a-variable-in-linux).
+
+Let's give it a shot. Navigate to your Netdata config directory. To use `edit-config` on `netdata.conf`, you need to
+have permissions to edit the file. On Linux/macOS systems, you can usually use `sudo` to elevate your permissions.
+
+```bash
+cd /etc/netdata # Replace this path with your Netdata config directory, if different as found in the steps above
+sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf
+```
+
+You should now see `netdata.conf` your editor! Let's walk through how the file is structured.
+
+## The structure of `netdata.conf`
+
+There are two main parts of the file to note: **sections** and **options**.
+
+The `netdata.conf` file is broken up into various **sections**, such as `[global]`, `[web]`, and `[registry]`. Each
+section contains the configuration options for some core component of Netdata.
+
+Each section also contains many **options**. Options have a name and a value. With the option `config directory =
+/etc/netdata`, `config directory` is the name, and `/etc/netdata` is the value.
+
+Most lines are **commented**, in that they start with a hash symbol (`#`), and the value is set to a sane default. To
+tell Netdata that you'd like to change any option from its default value, you must **uncomment** it by removing that
+hash.
+
+### Edit your `netdata.conf` file
+
+Let's try editing the options in `netdata.conf` to see how the process works.
+
+First, add a fake option to show you how Netdata loads its configuration files. Add a `test` option under the `[global]`
+section and give it the value of `1`.
+
+```conf
+[global]
+ test = 1
+```
+
+Restart Netdata with `service restart netdata` or the [appropriate
+alternative](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata) for your system.
+
+Now, open up your browser and navigate to `http://HOST:19999/netdata.conf`. You'll see that Netdata has recognized
+that our fake option isn't valid and added a notice that Netdata will ignore it.
+
+Here's the process in GIF form!
+
+![Animated GIF of creating a fake option in
+netdata.conf](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/65470254-4422e200-de1f-11e9-9597-a97c89ee59b8.gif)
+
+Now, let's make a slightly more substantial edit to `netdata.conf`: change the Agent's name.
+
+If you edit the value of the `hostname` option, you can change the name of your Netdata Agent on the dashboard and a
+handful of other places, like the Visited nodes menu _and_ Netdata Cloud.
+
+Use `edit-config` to change the `hostname` option to a name like `hello-world`. Be sure to uncomment it!
+
+```conf
+[global]
+ hostname = hello-world
+```
+
+Once you're done, restart Netdata and refresh the dashboard. Say hello to your renamed agent!
+
+![Animated GIF of editing the hostname option in
+netdata.conf](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80994808-1c065300-8df2-11ea-81af-d28dc3ba27c8.gif)
+
+Netdata has dozens upon dozens of options you can change. To see them all, read our [daemon
+configuration](/daemon/config/README.md), or hop into our popular guide on [increasing long-term metrics
+storage](/docs/guides/longer-metrics-storage.md).
+
+## What's next?
+
+At this point, you should be comfortable with getting to your Netdata directory, opening and editing `netdata.conf`, and
+seeing your changes reflected in the dashboard.
+
+Netdata has many more configuration files that you might want to change, but we'll cover those in the following steps of
+this guide.
+
+In the next step, we're going to cover one of Netdata's core functions: monitoring the health of your systems via alarms
+and notifications. You'll learn how to disable alarms, create new ones, and push notifications to the system of your
+choosing.
+
+[Next: Health monitoring alarms and notifications &rarr;](step-05.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-04&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-05.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-05.md
new file mode 100644
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+<!--
+title: "Step 5. Health monitoring alarms and notifications"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-05.md
+-->
+
+# Step 5. Health monitoring alarms and notifications
+
+In the fifth step of the Netdata guide, we're introducing you to one of our core features: **health monitoring**.
+
+To accurately monitor the health of your systems and applications, you need to know _immediately_ when there's something
+strange going on. Netdata's alarm and notification systems are essential to keeping you informed.
+
+Netdata comes with hundreds of pre-configured alarms that don't require configuration. They were designed by our
+community of system administrators to cover the most important parts of production systems, so, in many cases, you won't
+need to edit them.
+
+Luckily, Netdata's alarm and notification system are incredibly adaptable to your infrastructure's unique needs.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+We'll talk about Netdata's default configuration, and then you'll learn how to do the following:
+
+- [Tune Netdata's pre-configured alarms](#tune-netdatas-pre-configured-alarms)
+- [Write your first health entity](#write-your-first-health-entity)
+- [Enable Netdata's notification systems](#enable-netdatas-notification-systems)
+
+## Tune Netdata's pre-configured alarms
+
+First, let's tune an alarm that came pre-configured with your Netdata installation.
+
+The first chart you see on any Netdata dashboard is the `system.cpu` chart, which shows the system's CPU utilization
+across all cores. To figure out which file you need to edit to tune this alarm, click the **Alarms** button at the top
+of the dashboard, click on the **All** tab, and find the **system - cpu** alarm entity.
+
+![The system - cpu alarm
+entity](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67034648-ebb4cc80-f0cc-11e9-9d49-1023629924f5.png)
+
+Look at the `source` row in the table. This means the `system.cpu` chart sources its health alarms from
+`4@/usr/lib/netdata/conf.d/health.d/cpu.conf`. To tune these alarms, you'll need to edit the alarm file at
+`health.d/cpu.conf`. Go to your [Netdata config directory](step-04.md#find-your-netdataconf-file) and use the
+`edit-config` script.
+
+```bash
+sudo ./edit-config health.d/cpu.conf
+```
+
+The first **health entity** in that file looks like this:
+
+```yaml
+template: 10min_cpu_usage
+ on: system.cpu
+ os: linux
+ hosts: *
+ lookup: average -10m unaligned of user,system,softirq,irq,guest
+ units: %
+ every: 1m
+ warn: $this > (($status >= $WARNING) ? (75) : (85))
+ crit: $this > (($status == $CRITICAL) ? (85) : (95))
+ delay: down 15m multiplier 1.5 max 1h
+ info: average cpu utilization for the last 10 minutes (excluding iowait, nice and steal)
+ to: sysadmin
+```
+
+Let's say you want to tune this alarm to trigger warning and critical alarms at a lower CPU utilization. You can change
+the `warn` and `crit` lines to the values of your choosing. For example:
+
+```yaml
+ warn: $this > (($status >= $WARNING) ? (60) : (75))
+ crit: $this > (($status == $CRITICAL) ? (75) : (85))
+```
+
+You _can_ [restart Netdata](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata) to enable your tune, but you can
+also reload _only_ the health monitoring component using one of the available [methods](/health/QUICKSTART.md#reload-health-configuration).
+
+You can also tune any other aspect of the default alarms. To better understand how each line in a health entity works,
+read our [health documentation](/health/README.md).
+
+### Silence an individual alarm
+
+Many Netdata users don't need all the default alarms enabled. Instead of disabling any given alarm, or even _all_
+alarms, you can silence individual alarms by changing one line in a given health entity. Let's look at that
+`health/cpu.conf` file again.
+
+```yaml
+template: 10min_cpu_usage
+ on: system.cpu
+ os: linux
+ hosts: *
+ lookup: average -10m unaligned of user,system,softirq,irq,guest
+ units: %
+ every: 1m
+ warn: $this > (($status >= $WARNING) ? (75) : (85))
+ crit: $this > (($status == $CRITICAL) ? (85) : (95))
+ delay: down 15m multiplier 1.5 max 1h
+ info: average cpu utilization for the last 10 minutes (excluding iowait, nice and steal)
+ to: sysadmin
+```
+
+To silence this alarm, change `sysadmin` to `silent`.
+
+```yaml
+ to: silent
+```
+
+Use `netdatacli reload-health` to reload your health configuration. You can add `to: silent` to any alarm you'd rather not
+bother you with notifications.
+
+## Write your first health entity
+
+The best way to understand how health entities work is building your own and experimenting with the options. To start,
+let's build a health entity that triggers an alarm when system RAM usage goes above 80%.
+
+The first line in a health entity will be `alarm:`. This is how you name your entity. You can give it any name you
+choose, but the only symbols allowed are `.` and `_`. Let's call the alarm `ram_usage`.
+
+```yaml
+ alarm: ram_usage
+```
+
+> You'll see some funky indentation in the lines coming up. Don't worry about it too much! Indentation is not important
+> to how Netdata processes entities, and it will make sense when you're done.
+
+Next, you need to specify which chart this entity listens via the `on:` line. You're declaring that you want this alarm
+to check metrics on the `system.ram` chart.
+
+```yaml
+ on: system.ram
+```
+
+Now comes the `lookup`. This line specifies what metrics the alarm is looking for, what duration of time it's looking
+at, and how to process the metrics into a more usable format.
+
+```yaml
+lookup: average -1m percentage of used
+```
+
+Let's take a moment to break this line down.
+
+- `average`: Calculate the average of all the metrics collected.
+- `-1m`: Use metrics from 1 minute ago until now to calculate that average.
+- `percentage`: Clarify that you want to calculate a percentage of RAM usage.
+- `of used`: Specify which dimension (`used`) on the `system.ram` chart you want to monitor with this entity.
+
+In other words, you're taking 1 minute's worth of metrics from the `used` dimension on the `system.ram` chart,
+calculating their average, and returning it as a percentage.
+
+You can move on to the `units` line, which lets Netdata know that we're working with a percentage and not an absolute
+unit.
+
+```yaml
+ units: %
+```
+
+Next, the `every` line tells Netdata how often to perform the calculation you specified in the `lookup` line. For
+certain alarms, you might want to use a shorter duration, which you can specify using values like `10s`.
+
+```yaml
+ every: 1m
+```
+
+We'll put the next two lines—`warn` and `crit`—together. In these lines, you declare at which percentage you want to
+trigger a warning or critical alarm. Notice the variable `$this`, which is the value calculated by the `lookup` line.
+These lines will trigger a warning if that average RAM usage goes above 80%, and a critical alert if it's above 90%.
+
+```yaml
+ warn: $this > 80
+ crit: $this > 90
+```
+
+> ❗ Most default Netdata alarms come with more complicated `warn` and `crit` lines. You may have noticed the line `warn:
+> $this > (($status >= $WARNING) ? (75) : (85))` in one of the health entity examples above, which is an example of
+> using the [conditional operator for hysteresis](/health/REFERENCE.md#special-use-of-the-conditional-operator).
+> Hysteresis is used to keep Netdata from triggering a ton of alerts if the metric being tracked quickly goes above and
+> then falls below the threshold. For this very simple example, we'll skip hysteresis, but recommend implementing it in
+> your future health entities.
+
+Finish off with the `info` line, which creates a description of the alarm that will then appear in any
+[notification](#enable-netdatas-notification-systems) you set up. This line is optional, but it has value—think of it as
+documentation for a health entity!
+
+```yaml
+ info: The percentage of RAM being used by the system.
+```
+
+Here's what the entity looks like in full. Now you can see why we indented the lines, too.
+
+```yaml
+ alarm: ram_usage
+ on: system.ram
+lookup: average -1m percentage of used
+ units: %
+ every: 1m
+ warn: $this > 80
+ crit: $this > 90
+ info: The percentage of RAM being used by the system.
+```
+
+What about what it looks like on the Netdata dashboard?
+
+![An active alert for the ram_usage alarm](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67056219-f89ee380-f0ff-11e9-8842-7dc210dd2908.png)
+
+If you'd like to try this alarm on your system, you can install a small program called
+[stress](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/disco/en/man1/stress.1.html) to create a synthetic load. Use the command
+below, and change the `8G` value to a number that's appropriate for the amount of RAM on your system.
+
+```bash
+stress -m 1 --vm-bytes 8G --vm-keep
+```
+
+Netdata is capable of understanding much more complicated entities. To better understand how they work, read the [health
+documentation](/health/README.md), look at some [examples](/health/REFERENCE.md#example-alarms), and open the files
+containing the default entities on your system.
+
+## Enable Netdata's notification systems
+
+Health alarms, while great on their own, are pretty useless without some way of you knowing they've been triggered.
+That's why Netdata comes with a notification system that supports more than a dozen services, such as email, Slack,
+Discord, PagerDuty, Twilio, Amazon SNS, and much more.
+
+To see all the supported systems, visit our [notifications documentation](/health/notifications/).
+
+We'll cover email and Slack notifications here, but with this knowledge you should be able to enable any other type of
+notifications instead of or in addition to these.
+
+### Email notifications
+
+To use email notifications, you need `sendmail` or an equivalent installed on your system. Linux systems use `sendmail`
+or similar programs to, unsurprisingly, send emails to any inbox.
+
+> Learn more about `sendmail` via its [documentation](http://www.postfix.org/sendmail.1.html).
+
+Edit the `health_alarm_notify.conf` file, which resides in your Netdata directory.
+
+```bash
+sudo ./edit-config health_alarm_notify.conf
+```
+
+Look for the following lines:
+
+```conf
+# if a role recipient is not configured, an email will be send to:
+DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL="root"
+# to receive only critical alarms, set it to "root|critical"
+```
+
+Change the value of `DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL` to the email address at which you'd like to receive notifications.
+
+```conf
+# if a role recipient is not configured, an email will be sent to:
+DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_EMAIL="me@example.com"
+# to receive only critical alarms, set it to "root|critical"
+```
+
+Test email notifications system by first becoming the Netdata user and then asking Netdata to send a test alarm:
+
+```bash
+sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata
+/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test
+```
+
+You should see output similar to this:
+
+```bash
+# SENDING TEST WARNING ALARM TO ROLE: sysadmin
+2019-10-17 18:23:38: alarm-notify.sh: INFO: sent email notification for: hostname test.chart.test_alarm is WARNING to 'me@example.com'
+# OK
+
+# SENDING TEST CRITICAL ALARM TO ROLE: sysadmin
+2019-10-17 18:23:38: alarm-notify.sh: INFO: sent email notification for: hostname test.chart.test_alarm is CRITICAL to 'me@example.com'
+# OK
+
+# SENDING TEST CLEAR ALARM TO ROLE: sysadmin
+2019-10-17 18:23:39: alarm-notify.sh: INFO: sent email notification for: hostname test.chart.test_alarm is CLEAR to 'me@example.com'
+# OK
+```
+
+... and you should get three separate emails, one for each test alarm, in your inbox! (Be sure to check your spam
+folder.)
+
+## Enable Slack notifications
+
+If you're one of the many who spend their workday getting pinged with GIFs by your colleagues, why not add Netdata
+notifications to the mix? It's a great way to immediately see, collaborate around, and respond to anomalies in your
+infrastructure.
+
+To get Slack notifications working, you first need to add an [incoming
+webhook](https://slack.com/apps/A0F7XDUAZ-incoming-webhooks) to the channel of your choice. Click the green **Add to
+Slack** button, choose the channel, and click the **Add Incoming WebHooks Integration** button.
+
+On the following page, you'll receive a **Webhook URL**. That's what you'll need to configure Netdata, so keep it handy.
+
+Time to dive back into your `health_alarm_notify.conf` file:
+
+```bash
+sudo ./edit-config health_alarm_notify.conf
+```
+
+Look for the `SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=" "` line and add the incoming webhook URL you got from Slack:
+
+```conf
+SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL="https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXXXXXXXX/XXXXXXXXX/XXXXXXXXXXXX"
+```
+
+A few lines down, edit the `DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_SLACK` line to contain a single hash `#` character. This instructs Netdata
+to send a notification to the channel you configured with the incoming webhook.
+
+```conf
+DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_SLACK="#"
+```
+
+Time to test the notifications again!
+
+```bash
+sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata
+/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test
+```
+
+You should receive three notifications in your Slack channel.
+
+Congratulations! You're set up with two awesome ways to get notified about any change in the health of your systems or
+applications.
+
+To further configure your email or Slack notification setup, or to enable other notification systems, check out the
+following documentation:
+
+- [Email notifications](/health/notifications/email/README.md)
+- [Slack notifications](/health/notifications/slack/README.md)
+- [Netdata's notification system](/health/notifications/README.md)
+
+## What's next?
+
+In this step, you learned the fundamentals of Netdata's health monitoring tools: alarms and notifications. You should be
+able to tune default alarms, silence them, and understand some of the basics of writing health entities. And, if you so
+chose, you'll now have both email and Slack notifications enabled.
+
+You're coming along quick!
+
+Next up, we're going to cover how Netdata collects its metrics, and how you can get Netdata to collect real-time metrics
+from hundreds of services with almost no configuration on your part. Onward!
+
+[Next: Collect metrics from more services and apps &rarr;](step-06.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-05&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-06.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-06.md
new file mode 100644
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+<!--
+title: "Step 6. Collect metrics from more services and apps"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/guides/docs/step-by-step/step-06.md
+-->
+
+# Step 6. Collect metrics from more services and apps
+
+When Netdata _starts_, it auto-detects dozens of **data sources**, such as database servers, web servers, and more.
+
+To auto-detect and collect metrics from a source you just installed, you need to [restart
+Netdata](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata).
+
+However, auto-detection only works if you installed the source using its standard installation
+procedure. If Netdata isn't collecting metrics after a restart, your source probably isn't configured
+correctly.
+
+Check out the [collectors that come pre-installed with Netdata](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md) to find the module for the
+source you want to monitor.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+We'll begin with an overview on Netdata's collector architecture, and then dive into the following:
+
+- [Netdata's collector architecture](#netdatas-collector-architecture)
+- [Enable and disable plugins](#enable-and-disable-plugins)
+- [Enable the Nginx collector as an example](#example-enable-the-nginx-collector)
+
+## Netdata's collector architecture
+
+Many Netdata users never have to configure collector or worry about which plugin orchestrator they want to use.
+
+But, if you want to configure collector or write a collector for your custom source, it's important to understand the
+underlying architecture.
+
+By default, Netdata collects a lot of metrics every second using any number of discrete collector. Collectors, in turn,
+are organized and manged by plugins. **Internal** plugins collect system metrics, **external** plugins collect
+non-system metrics, and **orchestrator** plugins group individual collectors together based on the programming language
+they were built in.
+
+These modules are primarily written in [Go](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/collectors/go.d.plugin/) (`go.d`) and
+[Python](/collectors/python.d.plugin/README.md), although some use [Bash](/collectors/charts.d.plugin/README.md)
+(`charts.d`) or [Node.js](/collectors/node.d.plugin/README.md) (`node.d`).
+
+## Enable and disable plugins
+
+You don't need to explicitly enable plugins to auto-detect properly configured sources, but it's useful to know how to
+enable or disable them.
+
+One reason you might want to _disable_ plugins is to improve Netdata's performance on low-resource systems, like
+ephemeral nodes or edge devices. Disabling orchestrator plugins like `python.d` can save significant resources if you're
+not using any of its data collector modules.
+
+You can enable or disable plugins in the `[plugin]` section of `netdata.conf`. This section features a list of all the
+plugins with a boolean setting (`yes` or `no`) to enable or disable them. Be sure to uncomment the line by removing the
+hash (`#`)!
+
+Enabled:
+
+```conf
+[plugins]
+ # node.d = yes
+```
+
+Disabled:
+
+```conf
+[plugins]
+ node.d = no
+```
+
+When you explicitly disable a plugin this way, it won't auto-collect metrics using its collectors.
+
+## Example: Enable the Nginx collector
+
+To help explain how the auto-detection process works, let's use an Nginx web server as an example.
+
+Even if you don't have Nginx installed on your system, we recommend you read through the following section so you can
+apply the process to other data sources, such as Apache, Redis, Memcached, and more.
+
+The Nginx collector, which helps Netdata collect metrics from a running Nginx web server, is part of the
+`python.d.plugin` external plugin _orchestrator_.
+
+In order for Netdata to auto-detect an Nginx web server, you need to enable `ngx_http_stub_status_module` and pass the
+`stub_status` directive in the `location` block of your Nginx configuration file.
+
+You can confirm if the `stub_status` Nginx module is already enabled or not by using following command:
+
+```sh
+nginx -V 2>&1 | grep -o with-http_stub_status_module
+```
+
+If this command returns nothing, you'll need to [enable this module](https://www.nginx.com/blog/monitoring-nginx/).
+
+Next, edit your `/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default` file to include a `location` block with the following:
+
+```conf
+ location /stub_status {
+ stub_status;
+ }
+```
+
+Restart Netdata using `service netdata restart` or the [correct
+alternative](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata) for your system, and Netdata will auto-detect
+metrics from your Nginx web server!
+
+While not necessary for most auto-detection and collection purposes, you can also configure the Nginx collector itself
+by editing its configuration file:
+
+```sh
+./edit-config python.d/nginx.conf
+```
+
+After configuring any source, or changing the configuration files for their respective modules, always restart Netdata.
+
+## What's next?
+
+Now that you've learned the fundamentals behind configuring data sources for auto-detection, it's time to move back to
+the dashboard to learn more about some of its more advanced features.
+
+[Next: Netdata's dashboard in depth &rarr;](step-07.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-06&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-07.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-07.md
new file mode 100644
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+<!--
+title: "Step 7. Netdata's dashboard in depth"
+date: 2020-05-04
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-07.md
+-->
+
+# Step 7. Netdata's dashboard in depth
+
+Welcome to the seventh step of the Netdata guide!
+
+This step of the guide aims to get you more familiar with the features of the dashboard not previously mentioned in
+[step 2](/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-02.md).
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn how to:
+
+- [Change the dashboard's settings](#change-the-dashboards-settings)
+- [Check if there's an update to Netdata](#check-if-theres-an-update-to-netdata)
+- [Export and import a snapshot](#export-and-import-a-snapshot)
+
+Let's get started!
+
+## Change the dashboard's settings
+
+The settings area at the top of your Netdata dashboard houses browser settings. These settings do not affect the
+operation of your Netdata server/daemon. They take effect immediately and are permanently saved to browser local storage
+(except the refresh on focus / always option).
+
+You can see the **Performance**, **Synchronization**, **Visual**, and **Locale** tabs on the dashboard settings modal.
+
+![Animated GIF of opening the settings
+modal](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80841197-c93f5800-8bb3-11ea-907d-85bfe23565e1.gif)
+
+To change any setting, click on the toggle button. We recommend you spend some time reading the descriptions for each setting to understand them before making changes.
+
+Pay particular attention to the following settings, as they have dramatic impacts on the performance and appearance of
+your Netdata dashboard:
+
+- When to refresh the charts?
+- How to handle hidden charts?
+- Which chart refresh policy to use?
+- Which theme to use?
+- Do you need help?
+
+Some settings are applied immediately, and others are only reflected after you refresh the page.
+
+## Check if there's an update to Netdata
+
+You can always check if there is an update available from the **Update** area of your Netdata dashboard.
+
+![Opening the Agent's Update modal](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80829493-1adbe880-8b9c-11ea-9770-cc3b23a89414.gif)
+
+If an update is available, you'll see a modal similar to the one above.
+
+When you use the [automatic one-line installer script](/packaging/installer/README.md) attempt to update every day. If
+you choose to update it manually, there are [several well-documented methods](/packaging/installer/UPDATE.md) to achieve
+that. However, it is best practice for you to first go over the [changelog](/CHANGELOG.md).
+
+## Export and import a snapshot
+
+Netdata can export and import snapshots of the contents of your dashboard at a given time. Any Netdata agent can import
+a snapshot created by any other Netdata agent.
+
+Snapshot files include all the information of the dashboard, including the URL of the origin server, its unique ID, and
+chart data queries for the visible timeframe. While snapshots are not in real-time, and thus won't update with new
+metrics, you can still pan, zoom, and highlight charts as you see fit.
+
+Snapshots can be incredibly useful for diagnosing anomalies after they've already happened. Let's say Netdata triggered
+an alarm while you were sleeping. In the morning, you can look up the exact moment the alarm was raised, export a
+snapshot, and send it to a colleague for further analysis.
+
+> ❗ Know how you shouldn't go around downloading software from suspicious-looking websites? Same policy goes for loading
+> snapshots from untrusted or anonymous sources. Importing a snapshot loads quite a bit of data into your web browser,
+> and so you should always err on the side of protecting your system.
+
+To export a snapshot, click on the **export** icon.
+
+![Animated GIF of opening the export
+modal](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/80993197-82d63d00-8def-11ea-88fa-98827814e930.gif)
+
+Edit the snapshot file name and select your desired compression method. Click on **Export**.
+
+When the export is complete, your browser will prompt you to save the `.snapshot` file to your machine. You can now
+share this file with any other Netdata user via email, Slack, or even to help describe your Netdata experience when
+[filing an issue](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/issues/new/choose) on GitHub.
+
+To import a snapshot, click on the **import** icon.
+
+![Animated GIF of opening the import
+modal](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12263278/64901503-ee696f80-d691-11e9-9678-8d0e2a162402.gif)
+
+Select the Netdata snapshot file to import. Once the file is loaded, the dashboard will update with critical information
+about the snapshot and the system from which it was taken. Click **import** to render it.
+
+Your Netdata dashboard will load data contained in the snapshot into charts. Because the snapshot only covers a certain
+period, it won't update with new metrics.
+
+An imported snapshot is also temporary. If you reload your browser tab, Netdata will remove the snapshot data and
+restore your real-time dashboard for your machine.
+
+## What's next?
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you learned how to:
+
+- Change the dashboard's settings
+- Check if there's an update to Netdata
+- Export or import a snapshot
+
+Next, you'll learn how to build your first custom dashboard!
+
+[Next: Build your first custom dashboard &rarr;](step-08.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-07&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-08.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-08.md
new file mode 100644
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+<!--
+title: "Step 8. Build your first custom dashboard"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-08.md
+-->
+
+# Step 8. Build your first custom dashboard
+
+In previous steps of the guide, you have learned how several sections of the Netdata dashboard worked.
+
+This step will show you how to set up a custom dashboard to fit your unique needs. If nothing else, Netdata is really,
+really flexible. 🤸
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn:
+
+- [Why you might want a custom dashboard](#why-should-i-create-a-custom-dashboard)
+- [How to create and prepare your `custom-dashboard.html` file](#create-and-prepare-your-custom-dashboardhtml-file)
+- [Where to add `dashboard.js` to your custom dashboard file](#add-dashboardjs-to-your-custom-dashboard-file)
+- [How to add basic styling](#add-some-basic-styling)
+- [How to add charts of different types, shapes, and sizes](#creating-your-dashboards-charts)
+
+Let's get on with it!
+
+## Why should I create a custom dashboard?
+
+Because it's cool!
+
+But there are way more reasons than that, most of which will prove more valuable to you.
+
+You could use custom dashboards to aggregate real-time data from multiple Netdata agents in one place. Or, you could put
+all the charts with metrics collected from your custom application via `statsd` and perform application performance
+monitoring from a single dashboard. You could even use a custom dashboard and a standalone web server to create an
+enriched public status page for your service, and give your users something fun to look at while they're waiting for the
+503 errors to clear up!
+
+Netdata's custom dashboarding capability is meant to be as flexible as your ideas. We hope you can take these
+fundamental ideas and turn them into something amazing.
+
+## Create and prepare your `custom-dashboard.html` file
+
+By default, Netdata stores its web server files at `/usr/share/netdata/web`. As with finding the location of your
+`netdata.conf` file, you can double-check this location by loading up `http://HOST:19999/netdata.conf` in your browser
+and finding the value of the `web files directory` option.
+
+To create your custom dashboard, create a file at `/usr/share/netdata/web/custom-dashboard.html` and copy in the
+following:
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+ <title>My custom dashboard</title>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
+ <meta charset="utf-8">
+ <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
+ <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+ <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
+ <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black-translucent">
+
+ <!-- Add dashboard.js here! -->
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+ <main class="container">
+
+ <h1>My custom dashboard</h1>
+
+ <!-- Add charts here! -->
+
+ </main>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+```
+
+Try visiting `http://HOST:19999/custom-dashboard.html` in your browser.
+
+If you get a blank page with this text: `Access to file is not permitted: /usr/share/netdata/web/custom-dashboard.html`.
+You can fix this error by changing the dashboard file's permissions to make it owned by the `netdata` user.
+
+```bash
+sudo chown netdata:netdata /usr/share/netdata/web/custom-dashboard.html
+```
+
+Reload your browser, and you should see a blank page with the title: **Your custom dashboard**!
+
+## Add `dashboard.js` to your custom dashboard file
+
+You need to include the `dashboard.js` file of a Netdata agent to add Netdata charts. Add the following to the `<head>`
+of your custom dashboard page and change `HOST` according to your setup.
+
+```html
+ <!-- Add dashboard.js here! -->
+ <script type="text/javascript" src="http://HOST:19999/dashboard.js"></script>
+```
+
+When you add `dashboard.js` to any web page, it loads several JavaScript and CSS files to create and style charts. It
+also scans the page for elements that define charts, builds them, and refreshes with new metrics.
+
+> If you enabled SSL on your Netdata dashboard already, you'll need to use `https://` to grab the `dashboard.js` file.
+
+## Add some basic styling
+
+While not necessary, let's add some basic styling to make our dashboard look a little nicer. We're putting some
+basic CSS into a `<style>` tag inside of the page's `<head>` element.
+
+```html
+ <!-- Add dashboard.js here! -->
+ <script type="text/javascript" src="http://HOST:19999/dashboard.js"></script>
+
+ <style>
+ .wrap {
+ max-width: 1280px;
+ margin: 0 auto;
+ }
+
+ h1 {
+ margin-bottom: 30px;
+ text-align: center;
+ }
+
+ .charts {
+ display: flex;
+ flex-flow: row wrap;
+ justify-content: space-around;
+ }
+ </style>
+
+</head>
+```
+
+## Creating your dashboard's charts
+
+Time to create a chart!
+
+You need to create a `<div>` for each new chart. Each `<div>` element accepts a few `data-` attributes, some of which
+are required and some of which are optional.
+
+Let's cover a few important ones. And while we do it, we'll create a custom dashboard that shows a few CPU-related
+charts on a single page.
+
+### The chart unique ID (required)
+
+You need to specify the unique ID of a chart to show it on your custom dashboard. If you forgot how to find the unique
+ID, head back over to [step 2](/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-02.md#understand-charts-dimensions-families-and-contexts)
+for a re-introduction.
+
+You can then put this unique ID into a `<div>` element with the `data-netdata` attribute. Put this in the `<body>` of
+your custom dashboard file beneath the helpful comment.
+
+```html
+<body>
+
+ <main class="wrap">
+
+ <h1>My custom dashboard</h1>
+
+ <div class="charts">
+
+ <!-- Add charts here! -->
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"></div>
+
+ </div>
+
+ </main>
+
+</body>
+```
+
+Reload the page, and you should see a real-time `system.cpu` chart!
+
+... and a whole lot of white space. Let's fix that by adding a few more charts.
+
+```html
+ <!-- Add charts here! -->
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="apps.cpu"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="groups.cpu"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="users.cpu"></div>
+```
+
+![Custom dashboard with four charts
+added](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67526566-e675f580-f669-11e9-8ff5-d1f21a84fb2b.png)
+
+### Set chart duration
+
+By default, these charts visualize 10 minutes of Netdata metrics. Let's get a little more granular on this dashboard. To
+do so, add a new `data-after=""` attribute to each chart.
+
+`data-after` takes a _relative_ number of seconds from _now_. So, by putting `-300` as the value, you're asking the
+custom dashboard to display the _last 5 minutes_ (`5m * 60s = 300s`) of data.
+
+```html
+ <!-- Add charts here! -->
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"
+ data-after="-300">
+ </div>
+ <div data-netdata="apps.cpu"
+ data-after="-300">
+ </div>
+ <div data-netdata="groups.cpu"
+ data-after="-300">
+ </div>
+ <div data-netdata="users.cpu"
+ data-after="-300">
+ </div>
+```
+
+### Set chart size
+
+You can set the size of any chart using the `data-height=""` and `data-width=""` attributes. These attributes can be
+anything CSS accepts for width and height (e.g. percentages, pixels, em/rem, calc, and so on).
+
+Let's make the charts a little taller and allow them to fit side-by-side for a more compact view. Add
+`data-height="200px"` and `data-width="50%"` to each chart.
+
+```html
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="50%"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="apps.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="50%"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="groups.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="50%"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="users.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="50%"></div>
+```
+
+Now we're getting somewhere!
+
+![A custom dashboard with four charts
+side-by-side](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67526620-ff7ea680-f669-11e9-92d3-575665fc3a8e.png)
+
+## Final touches
+
+While we already have a perfectly workable dashboard, let's add some final touches to make it a little more pleasant on
+the eyes.
+
+First, add some extra CSS to create some vertical whitespace between the top and bottom row of charts.
+
+```html
+ <style>
+ ...
+
+ .charts > div {
+ margin-bottom: 6rem;
+ }
+ </style>
+```
+
+To create horizontal whitespace, change the value of `data-width="50%"` to `data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"`.
+
+```html
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="apps.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="groups.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="users.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+```
+
+Told you the `data-width` and `data-height` attributes can take any CSS values!
+
+Prefer a dark theme? Add this to your `<head>` _above_ where you added `dashboard.js`:
+
+```html
+ <script>
+ var netdataTheme = 'slate';
+ </script>
+
+ <!-- Add dashboard.js here! -->
+ <script type="text/javascript" src="https://HOST/dashboard.js"></script>
+```
+
+Refresh the dashboard to give your eyes a break from all that blue light!
+
+![A finished custom
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67531221-a23d2200-f676-11e9-91fe-c2cf1c426bf9.png)
+
+## The final `custom-dashboard.html`
+
+In case you got lost along the way, here's the final version of the `custom-dashboard.html` file:
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+ <title>My custom dashboard</title>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
+ <meta charset="utf-8">
+ <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
+ <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+ <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
+ <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black-translucent">
+
+ <script>
+ var netdataTheme = 'slate';
+ </script>
+
+ <!-- Add dashboard.js here! -->
+ <script type="text/javascript" src="http://localhost:19999/dashboard.js"></script>
+
+ <style>
+ .wrap {
+ max-width: 1280px;
+ margin: 0 auto;
+ }
+
+ h1 {
+ margin-bottom: 30px;
+ text-align: center;
+ }
+
+ .charts {
+ display: flex;
+ flex-flow: row wrap;
+ justify-content: space-around;
+ }
+
+ .charts > div {
+ margin-bottom: 6rem;
+ position: relative;
+ }
+ </style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+ <main class="wrap">
+
+ <h1>My custom dashboard</h1>
+
+ <div class="charts">
+
+ <!-- Add charts here! -->
+ <div data-netdata="system.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="apps.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="groups.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+ <div data-netdata="users.cpu"
+ data-after="-300"
+ data-height="250px"
+ data-width="calc(50% - 2rem)"></div>
+
+ </div>
+
+ </main>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+```
+
+## What's next?
+
+In this guide, you learned the fundamentals of building a custom Netdata dashboard. You should now be able to add more
+charts to your `custom-dashboard.html`, change the charts that are already there, and size them according to your needs.
+
+Of course, the custom dashboarding features covered here are just the beginning. Be sure to read up on our [custom
+dashboard documentation](/web/gui/custom/README.md) for details on how you can use other chart libraries, pull metrics
+from multiple Netdata agents, and choose which dimensions a given chart shows.
+
+Next, you'll learn how to store long-term historical metrics in Netdata!
+
+[Next: Long-term metrics storage &rarr;](/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-09.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-08&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-09.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-09.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..636ffea1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-09.md
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+<!--
+title: "Step 9. Long-term metrics storage"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-09.md
+-->
+
+# Step 9. Long-term metrics storage
+
+By default, Netdata stores metrics in a custom database we call the [database engine](/database/engine/README.md), which
+stores recent metrics in your system's RAM and "spills" historical metrics to disk. By using both RAM and disk, the
+database engine helps you store a much larger dataset than the amount of RAM your system has.
+
+On a system that's collecting 2,000 metrics every second, the database engine's default configuration will store about
+two day's worth of metrics in RAM and on disk.
+
+That's a lot of metrics. We're talking 345,600,000 individual data points. And the database engine does it with a tiny
+a portion of the RAM available on most systems.
+
+To store _even more_ metrics, you have two options. First, you can tweak the database engine's options to expand the RAM
+or disk it uses. Second, you can archive metrics to an external database. For that, we'll use MongoDB as examples.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn how to:
+
+- [Tweak the database engine's settings](#tweak-the-database-engines-settings)
+- [Archive metrics to an external database](#archive-metrics-to-an-external-database)
+ - [Use the MongoDB database](#archive-metrics-via-the-mongodb-exporting-connector)
+
+Let's get started!
+
+## Tweak the database engine's settings
+
+If you're using Netdata v1.18.0 or higher, and you haven't changed your `memory mode` settings before following this
+guide, your Netdata agent is already using the database engine.
+
+Let's look at your `netdata.conf` file again. Under the `[global]` section, you'll find three connected options.
+
+```conf
+[global]
+ # memory mode = dbengine
+ # page cache size = 32
+ # dbengine disk space = 256
+```
+
+The `memory mode` option is set, by default, to `dbengine`. `page cache size` determines the amount of RAM, in MiB, that
+the database engine dedicates to caching the metrics it's collecting. `dbengine disk space` determines the amount of
+disk space, in MiB, that the database engine will use to store these metrics once they've been "spilled" to disk..
+
+You can uncomment and change either `page cache size` or `dbengine disk space` based on how much RAM and disk you want
+the database engine to use. The higher those values, the more metrics Netdata will store. If you change them to 64 and
+512, respectively, the database engine should store about four day's worth of data on a system collecting 2,000 metrics
+every second.
+
+[**See our database engine calculator**](/docs/store/change-metrics-storage.md) to help you correctly set `dbengine disk
+space` based on your needs. The calculator gives an accurate estimate based on how many child nodes you have, how many
+metrics your Agent collects, and more.
+
+```conf
+[global]
+ memory mode = dbengine
+ page cache size = 64
+ dbengine disk space = 512
+```
+
+After you've made your changes, [restart Netdata](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata).
+
+To confirm the database engine is working, go to your Netdata dashboard and click on the **Netdata Monitoring** menu on
+the right-hand side. You can find `dbengine` metrics after `queries`.
+
+![Image of the database engine reflected in the Netdata
+Dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12263278/64781383-9c71fe00-d55a-11e9-962b-efd5558efbae.png)
+
+## Archive metrics to an external database
+
+You can archive all the metrics collected by Netdata to **external databases**. The supported databases and services
+include Graphite, OpenTSDB, Prometheus, AWS Kinesis Data Streams, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, MongoDB, and the list is always
+growing.
+
+As we said in [step 1](/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-01.md), we have only complimentary systems, not competitors! We're
+happy to support these archiving methods and are always working to improve them.
+
+A lot of Netdata users archive their metrics to one of these databases for long-term storage or further analysis. Since
+Netdata collects so many metrics every second, they can quickly overload small devices or even big servers that are
+aggregating metrics streaming in from other Netdata agents.
+
+We even support resampling metrics during archiving. With resampling enabled, Netdata will archive only the average or
+sum of every X seconds of metrics. This reduces the sheer amount of data, albeit with a little less accuracy.
+
+How you archive metrics, or if you archive metrics at all, is entirely up to you! But let's cover two easy archiving
+methods, MongoDB and Prometheus remote write, to get you started.
+
+### Archive metrics via the MongoDB exporting connector
+
+Begin by installing MongoDB its dependencies via the correct package manager for your system.
+
+```bash
+sudo apt-get install mongodb # Debian/Ubuntu
+sudo dnf install mongodb # Fedora
+sudo yum install mongodb # CentOS
+```
+
+Next, install the one essential dependency: v1.7.0 or higher of
+[libmongoc](http://mongoc.org/libmongoc/current/installing.html).
+
+```bash
+sudo apt-get install libmongoc-1.0-0 libmongoc-dev # Debian/Ubuntu
+sudo dnf install mongo-c-driver mongo-c-driver-devel # Fedora
+sudo yum install mongo-c-driver mongo-c-driver-devel # CentOS
+```
+
+Next, create a new MongoDB database and collection to store all these archived metrics. Use the `mongo` command to start
+the MongoDB shell, and then execute the following command:
+
+```mongodb
+use netdata
+db.createCollection("netdata_metrics")
+```
+
+Next, Netdata needs to be [reinstalled](/packaging/installer/REINSTALL.md) in order to detect that the required
+libraries to make this exporting connection exist. Since you most likely installed Netdata using the one-line installer
+script, all you have to do is run that script again. Don't worry—any configuration changes you made along the way will
+be retained!
+
+```bash
+bash <(curl -Ss https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh)
+```
+
+Now, from your Netdata config directory, initialize and edit a `exporting.conf` file to tell Netdata where to find the
+database you just created.
+
+```sh
+./edit-config exporting.conf
+```
+
+Add the following section to the file:
+
+```conf
+[mongodb:my_mongo_instance]
+ enabled = yes
+ destination = mongodb://localhost
+ database = netdata
+ collection = netdata_metrics
+```
+
+[Restart](/docs/getting-started.md#start-stop-and-restart-netdata) Netdata to enable the MongoDB exporting connector.
+Click on the **Netdata Monitoring** menu and check out the **exporting my mongo instance** sub-menu. You should start
+seeing these charts fill up with data about the exporting process!
+
+![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/70443852-25171200-1a56-11ea-8be3-494544b1c295.png)
+
+If you'd like to try connecting Netdata to another database, such as Prometheus or OpenTSDB, read our [exporting
+documentation](/exporting/README.md).
+
+## What's next?
+
+You're getting close to the end! In this step, you learned how to make the most of the database engine, or archive
+metrics to MongoDB for long-term storage.
+
+In the last step of this step-by-step guide, we'll put our sysadmin hat on and use Nginx to proxy traffic to and from
+our Netdata dashboard.
+
+[Next: Set up a proxy &rarr;](/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-10.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-09&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-10.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-10.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..28ab47c67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-10.md
@@ -0,0 +1,230 @@
+<!--
+title: "Step 10. Set up a proxy"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-10.md
+-->
+
+# Step 10. Set up a proxy
+
+You're almost through! At this point, you should be pretty familiar with now Netdata works and how to configure it to
+your liking.
+
+In this step of the guide, we're going to add a proxy in front of Netdata. We're doing this for both improved
+performance and security, so we highly recommend following these steps. Doubly so if you installed Netdata on a
+publicly-accessible remote server.
+
+> ❗ If you installed Netdata on the machine you're currently using (e.g. on `localhost`), and have been accessing
+> Netdata at `http://localhost:19999`, you can skip this step of the guide. In most cases, there is no benefit to
+> setting up a proxy for a service running locally.
+
+> ❗❗ This guide requires more advanced administration skills than previous parts. If you're still working on your
+> Linux administration skills, and would rather get back to Netdata, you might want to [skip this
+> step](step-99.md) for now and return to it later.
+
+## What you'll learn in this step
+
+In this step of the Netdata guide, you'll learn:
+
+- [What a proxy is and the benefits of using one](#wait-whats-a-proxy)
+- [How to connect Netdata to Nginx](#connect-netdata-to-nginx)
+- [How to enable HTTPS in Nginx](#enable-https-in-nginx)
+- [How to secure your Netdata dashboard with a password](#secure-your-netdata-dashboard-with-a-password)
+
+Let's dive in!
+
+## Wait. What's a proxy?
+
+A proxy is a middleman between the internet and a service you're running on your system. Traffic from the internet at
+large enters your system through the proxy, which then routes it to the service.
+
+A proxy is often used to enable encrypted HTTPS connections with your browser, but they're also useful for load
+balancing, performance, and password-protection.
+
+We'll use [Nginx](https://nginx.org/en/) for this step of the guide, but you can also use
+[Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) as a simple proxy if you prefer.
+
+## Required before you start
+
+You need three things to run a proxy using Nginx:
+
+- Nginx and Certbot installed on your system
+- A fully qualified domain name
+- A subdomain for Netdata that points to your system
+
+### Nginx and Certbot
+
+This step of the guide assumes you can install Nginx on your system. Here are the easiest methods to do so on Debian,
+Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS systems.
+
+```bash
+sudo apt-get install nginx # Debian/Ubuntu
+sudo dnf install nginx # Fedora
+sudo yum install nginx # CentOS
+```
+
+Check out [Nginx's installation
+instructions](https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/installing-nginx/installing-nginx-open-source/) for details on
+other Linux distributions.
+
+Certbot is a tool to help you create and renew certificate+key pairs for your domain. Visit their
+[instructions](https://certbot.eff.org/instructions) to get a detailed installation process for your operating system.
+
+### Fully qualified domain name
+
+The only other true prerequisite of using a proxy is a **fully qualified domain name** (FQDN). In other words, a domain
+name like `example.com`, `netdata.cloud`, or `github.com`.
+
+If you don't have a domain name, you won't be able to use a proxy the way we'll describe here.
+
+Because we strongly recommend running Netdata behind a proxy, the cost of a domain name is worth the benefit. If you
+don't have a preferred domain registrar, try [Google Domains](https://domains.google/),
+[Cloudflare](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/), or [Namecheap](https://www.namecheap.com/).
+
+### Subdomain for Netdata
+
+Any of the three domain registrars mentioned above, and most registrars in general, will allow you to create new DNS
+entries for your domain.
+
+To create a subdomain for Netdata, use your registrar's DNS settings to create an A record for a `netdata` subdomain.
+Point the A record to the IP address of your system.
+
+Once finished with the steps below, you'll be able to access your dashboard at `http://netdata.example.com`.
+
+## Connect Netdata to Nginx
+
+The first part of enabling the proxy is to create a new server for Nginx.
+
+Use your favorite text editor to create a file at `/etc/nginx/sites-available/netdata`, copy in the following
+configuration, and change the `server_name` line to match your domain.
+
+```nginx
+upstream backend {
+ server 127.0.0.1:19999;
+ keepalive 64;
+}
+
+server {
+ listen 80;
+
+ # Change `example.com` to match your domain name.
+ server_name netdata.example.com;
+
+ location / {
+ proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
+ proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
+ proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+ proxy_pass http://backend;
+ proxy_http_version 1.1;
+ proxy_pass_request_headers on;
+ proxy_set_header Connection "keep-alive";
+ proxy_store off;
+ }
+}
+```
+
+Save and close the file.
+
+Test your configuration file by running `sudo nginx -t`.
+
+If that returns no errors, it's time to make your server available. Run the command to create a symbolic link in the
+`sites-enabled` directory.
+
+```bash
+sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/netdata /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/netdata
+```
+
+Finally, restart Nginx to make your changes live. Open your browser and head to `http://netdata.example.com`. You should
+see your proxied Netdata dashboard!
+
+## Enable HTTPS in Nginx
+
+All this proxying doesn't mean much if we can't take advantage of one of the biggest benefits: encrypted HTTPS
+connections! Let's fix that.
+
+Certbot will automatically get a certificate, edit your Nginx configuration, and get HTTPS running in a single step. Run
+the following:
+
+```bash
+sudo certbot --nginx
+```
+
+> See this error after running `sudo certbot --nginx`?
+>
+> ```
+> Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
+> The requested nginx plugin does not appear to be installed`
+> ```
+>
+> You must install `python-certbox-nginx`. On Ubuntu or Debian systems, you can run `sudo apt-get install
+> python-certbot-nginx` to download and install this package.
+
+You'll be prompted with a few questions. At the `Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?` question, hit
+`Enter`. Next comes this question:
+
+```bash
+Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
+2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
+new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
+change by editing your web server's configuration.
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+```
+
+You _do_ want to force HTTPS, so hit `2` and then `Enter`. Nginx will now ensure all attempts to access
+`netdata.example.com` use HTTPS.
+
+Certbot will automatically renew your certificate whenever it's needed, so you're done configuring your proxy. Open your
+browser again and navigate to `https://netdata.example.com`, and you'll land on an encrypted, proxied Netdata dashboard!
+
+## Secure your Netdata dashboard with a password
+
+Finally, let's take a moment to put your Netdata dashboard behind a password. This step is optional, but you might not
+want _anyone_ to access the metrics in your proxied dashboard.
+
+Run the below command after changing `user` to the username you want to use to log in to your dashboard.
+
+```bash
+sudo sh -c "echo -n 'user:' >> /etc/nginx/.htpasswd"
+```
+
+Then run this command to create a password:
+
+```bash
+sudo sh -c "openssl passwd -apr1 >> /etc/nginx/.htpasswd"
+```
+
+You'll be prompted to create a password. Next, open your Nginx configuration file at
+`/etc/nginx/sites-available/netdata` and add these two lines under `location / {`:
+
+```nginx
+ location / {
+ auth_basic "Restricted Content";
+ auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
+ ...
+```
+
+Save, exit, and restart Nginx. Then try visiting your dashboard one last time. You'll see a prompt for the username and
+password you just created.
+
+![Username/password
+prompt](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/67431031-5320bf80-f598-11e9-9573-f9f9912f1ef6.png)
+
+Your Netdata dashboard is now a touch more secure.
+
+## What's next?
+
+You're a real sysadmin now!
+
+If you want to configure your Nginx proxy further, check out the following:
+
+- [Running Netdata behind Nginx](/docs/Running-behind-nginx.md)
+- [How to optimize Netdata's performance](/docs/guides/configure/performance.md)
+- [Enabling TLS on Netdata's dashboard](/web/server/README.md#enabling-tls-support)
+
+And... you're _almost_ done with the Netdata guide.
+
+For some celebratory emoji and a clap on the back, head on over to our final step.
+
+[Next: The end. &rarr;](step-99.md)
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-10&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)
diff --git a/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-99.md b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-99.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b893d5a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-99.md
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+<!--
+title: "Step ∞. You're finished!"
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/step-by-step/step-99.md
+-->
+
+# Step ∞. You're finished!
+
+Congratulations. 🎉
+
+You've completed the step-by-step Netdata guide. That means you're well on your way to becoming an expert in using
+our toolkit for health monitoring and performance troubleshooting.
+
+But, perhaps more importantly, also that much closer to being an expert in the _fundamental skills behind health
+monitoring and performance troubleshooting_, which you can take with you to any job or project.
+
+And that is the entire point of this guide, and Netdata's [documentation](https://learn.netdata.cloud) as a
+whole—give you every resource possible to help you build faster, more resilient systems, services, and applications.
+
+Along the way, you learned how to:
+
+- Navigate Netdata's dashboard and visually detect anomalies using its charts.
+- Monitor multiple systems using Netdata agents connected together with your browser and Netdata Cloud.
+- Edit your `netdata.conf` file to tweak Netdata to your liking.
+- Tune existing alarms and create entirely new ones, plus get notifications about alarms on your favorite services.
+- Take advantage of Netdata's auto-detection capabilities to ensure your applications/services are monitored with
+ little to no configuration.
+- Use advanced features within Netdata's dashboard.
+- Build a custom dashboard using `dashboard.js`.
+- Save more historical metrics with the database engine or archive metrics to MongoDB.
+- Put Netdata behind a proxy to enable HTTPS and improve performance.
+
+Seems like a lot, right? Well, we hope it felt manageable and, yes, even _fun_.
+
+## What's next?
+
+Now that you're at the end of our step-by-step Netdata guide, the next steps are entirely up to you. In fact, you're
+just at the beginning of your journey into health monitoring and performance troubleshooting.
+
+Our documentation exists to put every Netdata resource in front of you as easily and coherently as we possibly can.
+Click around, search, and find new mountains to climb.
+
+If that feels like too much possibility to you, why not one of these options:
+
+- Share your experience with Netdata and this guide. Be sure to [@mention](https://twitter.com/linuxnetdata) us on
+ Twitter!
+- Contribute to what we do. Browse our [open issues](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/issues) and check out out
+ [contributions doc](/CONTRIBUTING.md) for ideas of how you can pitch in.
+
+We can't wait to see what you monitor next! Bon voyage! ⛵
+
+[![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%2Fguides%2Fstep-by-step%2Fstep-99&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)