# Collecting metrics Netdata can collect metrics from hundreds of different sources, be they internal data created by the system itself, or external data created by services or applications. To see _all_ of the sources Netdata collects from, view our [list of supported collectors](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/collectors/COLLECTORS.md). There are two essential points to understand about how collecting metrics works in Netdata: - All collectors are **installed by default** with every installation of Netdata. You do not need to install collectors manually to collect metrics from new sources. - Upon startup, Netdata will **auto-detect** any application or service that has a [collector](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/collectors/COLLECTORS.md), as long as both the collector and the app/service are configured correctly. Most users will want to enable a new Netdata collector for their app/service. For those details, see our [collectors' configuration reference](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/collectors/REFERENCE.md). ## Take your next steps with collectors [Supported collectors list](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/collectors/COLLECTORS.md) [Collectors configuration reference](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/collectors/REFERENCE.md) ## Guides [Monitor Nginx or Apache web server log files with Netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/guides/collect-apache-nginx-web-logs.md) [Monitor CockroachDB metrics with Netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/guides/monitor-cockroachdb.md) [Monitor Unbound DNS servers with Netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/guides/collect-unbound-metrics.md) [Monitor a Hadoop cluster with Netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/guides/monitor-hadoop-cluster.md) ## Related features **[Dashboards](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/web/README.md)**: Visualize your newly-collect metrics in real-time using Netdata's [built-in dashboard](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/web/gui/README.md). **[Exporting](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/exporting/README.md)**: Extend our built-in [database engine](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/database/engine/README.md), which supports long-term metrics storage, by archiving metrics to external databases like Graphite, Prometheus, MongoDB, TimescaleDB, and more. It can export metrics to multiple databases simultaneously.