Chances are, you’re using Linux as a cloud server in your data center. That being the case, you probably need to keep close tabs on what’s going on with that server. Fortunately, you’re using Linux, so there are a lot of available options. If you’re looking for an option that offers plenty of information on your server, with a very well designed UI, and is incredibly easy to install, I have just the tool for you. Said tool is Netdata.

Netdata is an open source monitoring tool that offers admins real-time insight into everything that is happening on your Linux systems and applications. Features include:

  • Stunning UI
  • Interactive web dashboards
  • Powerful performance and health alarms

SEE: Cloud migration decision tool (Tech Pro Research)

I’m going to show you how to install and connect to Netdata on the Ubuntu Server 18.04 platform. All you need is the server up and running and a user account with sudo privileges.

With that said, let’s install.

Installation

The installation of Netdata can be done via a single command. Before you do this, you might want to run an update on your server. Be warned, should the kernel be upgraded, you’ll need to reboot the server for the changes to take effect. Because of this, you might want to run the update during off-production hours.

To update/upgrade, open a terminal and issue the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Once that completes, you can install Netdata with the command:

sudo apt-get install netdata

Let’s start and enable the Netdata service (so it runs at boot) with the commands:

sudo systemctl start netdata
sudo systemctl enable netdata

That’s all there is to the installation.

Configuration

There’s isn’t much to the configuration of Netdata. You will want to configure it to only listen to the IP address of the server in which it is running. Back at the terminal, issue the command:

sudo nano /etc/netdata/netdata.conf

In that file, you’ll see the line:

bind socket to IP = 127.0.0.1

Change that line to:

bind socket to IP = SERVER_IP

where SERVER_IP is the IP address of your server.

Save and close that file.

Restart Netdata with the command:

sudo systemctl restart netdata

Access the web UI

Open a browser and point it to http://SERVER_IP:19999. You should now see the Netdata dashboard (Figure A).

Figure A

Plenty of information

You will probably find that Netdata gives you all of the information you need to keep tabs on your cloud server (or any Linux server) in your data center. Considering how simple this tool is to install, it’s a no-brainer to try.