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Netdata RestAPI

Overview​

Netdata is an open source tool to visualize and monitor real-time metrics, optimized to accumulate all types of data, such as CPU usage, disk activity, SQL queries, visits to a website, etc.

The tool is designed to visualize activity in the greatest possible detail, allowing the user to obtain an overview of what is happening and what has just happened in their system or application.

Monitoring Connector assets​

Monitored Objects​

The Netdata RestAPI Centreon Monitoring Connector allows to collect and monitor servers' key metrics by interacting with the Netdata agent RestAPI. The open-source and highly efficient Netdata agent can be used on the following platforms

  • Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS, Fedora, Arch...)
  • BSD
  • MacOs
  • pfSense
  • Synology

Available services​

The current version of the Netdata RestAPI Monitoring Connector can monitor the following services:

  • Alarms
  • CPU
  • Disks (Usage & Inodes)
  • Load
  • RAM
  • Swap
  • Inodes
  • Network traffic
  • Custom Netdata "chart"

Collected metrics​

The following metrics are collected by the Centreon Netdata RestAPI Plugin:

Metric nameDescriptionUnit
netdata.alarms.current.total.countCurrent total active alarms triggered by the Netdata agent
netdata.alarms.current.warning.countCurrent warning alarms triggered by the Netdata agent
netdata.alarms.current.critical.countCurrent critical alarms triggered by the Netdata agent

Prerequisites​

Netdata agent setup​

The Netdata agent has to be set up and configured on the targeted server in order to use the Monitoring Connector.

More information about how to get and install the agent is available in the official Netdata documentation: https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/packaging/installer

Installation​

  1. Install the Centreon package on every Centreon poller expected to monitor Netdata agents:
yum install centreon-plugin-Applications-Monitoring-Netdata-Restapi
  1. On the centreon Web interface, install the Netdata RestAPI Centreon Monitoring Connector on the Configuration > Monitoring Connector Manager page

Configuration​

  • Log into Centreon and add new host through "Configuration > Hosts".
  • Apply the template App-Monitoring-Netdata-Restapi to the Host and configure all the mandatories Macros:
MandatoryNameDescription
XNETDATAAPIPORTPort used (Default: 19999)
XNETDATAAPIPROTOCOLSpecify https if needed (Default: 'http')
XNETDATAAPIENDPOINTSpecify the API URL path (Default: '/api/v1')
EXTRAOPTIONSAny extra option you may want to add to the command (eg. a --verbose flag)

FAQ​

How can I test my configuration and what do the main parameters stand for ?​

Once the Centreon plugin installed, you can test it directly from the Centreon Poller CLI by logging with the centreon-engine user:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_monitoring_netdata_restapi.pl \
    --plugin=apps::monitoring::netdata::restapi::plugin \
    --hostname=10.0.0.1 \
    --mode=cpu \
    --warning-average=70 \
    --critical-average=80 \
    --verbose

Expected command output is shown below:

OK: 2 CPU(s) average usage is 17.23 % | 
'cpu.utilization.percentage'=17.23%;0:40;0:50;0;100 '0#core.cpu.utilization.percentage'=16.71%;;;0;100 '1#core.cpu.utilization.percentage'=17.75%;;;0;100
CPU '0' usage: 16.71 %
CPU '1' usage: 17.75 %

The above command checks the average CPU usage (--mode=cpu) of an Unix server hosting the Netdata agent. The Plugin gets the information by requesting the agent API (--plugin=apps::monitoring::netdata::restapi::plugin --hostname=10.0.0.1).

This command would trigger a WARNING alarm if the average CPU usage raises beyond 70% (--warning-average=70) and a CRITICAL beyond 80% (--critical-average=80).

The available thresholds as well as all of the options that can be used with this Plugin can be displayed by adding the --help parameter to the command:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_monitoring_netdata_restapi.pl \
    --plugin=apps::monitoring::netdata::restapi::plugin \
    --hostname=10.0.0.1 \
    --mode=cpu \
    --help

Why do I get the following error message:​

UNKNOWN: 500 Can't connect to myserver.mycompany.com:19999​

This error message means that the Centreon Plugin couldn't successfully connect to the Netdata agent API. Check that no third party device (such as a firewall) is blocking the request. A proxy connection may also be necessary to connect to the API. This can be done by using this option in the command: --proxyurl='http://proxy.mycompany:8080'.

UNKNOWN: 501 Protocol scheme 'connect' is not supported |​

When using a proxy to connect to the Netdata agent API, this error message means that the Centreon Plugin library does not support the proxy connection protocol.

In order to prevent this issue, use the curl HTTP backend by adding the following option to the command: --http-backend='curl'.

UNKNOWN: Cannot load module 'Net::Curl::Easy'​

This error message means that a Perl library required to use the curl backend is missing.

In order to fix this issue, install the 'Net::Curl::Easy' Perl library using the following command:

yum install perl-Net-Curl