/nginx-prometheus-exporter

NGINX Prometheus Exporter for NGINX and NGINX Plus

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NGINX Prometheus Exporter

NGINX Prometheus exporter makes it possible to monitor NGINX or NGINX Plus using Prometheus.

Overview

NGINX exposes a handful of metrics via the stub_status page. NGINX Plus provides a richer set of metrics via the API and the monitoring dashboard. NGINX Prometheus exporter fetches the metrics from a single NGINX or NGINX Plus, converts the metrics into appropriate Prometheus metrics types and finally exposes them via an HTTP server to be collected by Prometheus.

Getting Started

In this section, we show how to quickly run NGINX Prometheus Exporter for NGINX or NGINX Plus.

A Note about NGINX Ingress Controller

If you’d like to use the NGINX Prometheus Exporter with NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes, see this doc for the installation instructions.

Prerequisites

We assume that you have already installed Prometheus and NGINX or NGINX Plus. Additionally, you need to:

  • Expose the built-in metrics in NGINX/NGINX Plus:
    • For NGINX, expose the stub_status page at /stub_status on port 8080.
    • For NGINX Plus, expose the API at /api on port 8080.
  • Configure Prometheus to scrape metrics from the server with the exporter. Note that the default scrape port of the exporter is 9113 and the default metrics path -- /metrics.

Running the Exporter in a Docker Container

To start the exporter we use the docker run command.

  • To export NGINX metrics, run:

    $ docker run -p 9113:9113 nginx/nginx-prometheus-exporter:0.10.0 -nginx.scrape-uri=http://<nginx>:8080/stub_status

    where <nginx> is the IP address/DNS name, through which NGINX is available.

  • To export NGINX Plus metrics, run:

    $ docker run -p 9113:9113 nginx/nginx-prometheus-exporter:0.10.0 -nginx.plus -nginx.scrape-uri=http://<nginx-plus>:8080/api

    where <nginx-plus> is the IP address/DNS name, through which NGINX Plus is available.

Running the Exporter Binary

  • To export NGINX metrics, run:

    $ nginx-prometheus-exporter -nginx.scrape-uri=http://<nginx>:8080/stub_status

    where <nginx> is the IP address/DNS name, through which NGINX is available.

  • To export NGINX Plus metrics:

    $ nginx-prometheus-exporter -nginx.plus -nginx.scrape-uri=http://<nginx-plus>:8080/api

    where <nginx-plus> is the IP address/DNS name, through which NGINX Plus is available.

  • To export and scrape NGINX metrics with unix domain sockets, run:

    $ nginx-prometheus-exporter -nginx.scrape-uri=unix:<nginx>:/stub_status -web.listen-address=unix:/path/to/socket.sock

    where <nginx> is the path to unix domain socket, through which NGINX stub status is available.

Note. The nginx-prometheus-exporter is not a daemon. To run the exporter as a system service (daemon), configure the init system of your Linux server (such as systemd or Upstart) accordingly. Alternatively, you can run the exporter in a Docker container.

Usage

Command-line Arguments

Usage of ./nginx-prometheus-exporter:
  -nginx.plus
        Start the exporter for NGINX Plus. By default, the exporter is started for NGINX. The default value can be overwritten by NGINX_PLUS environment variable.
  -nginx.retries int
        A number of retries the exporter will make on start to connect to the NGINX stub_status page/NGINX Plus API before exiting with an error. The default value can be overwritten by NGINX_RETRIES environment variable.
  -nginx.retry-interval duration
        An interval between retries to connect to the NGINX stub_status page/NGINX Plus API on start. The default value can be overwritten by NGINX_RETRY_INTERVAL environment variable. (default 5s)
  -nginx.scrape-uri string
        A URI or unix domain socket path for scraping NGINX or NGINX Plus metrics.
        For NGINX, the stub_status page must be available through the URI. For NGINX Plus -- the API. The default value can be overwritten by SCRAPE_URI environment variable. (default "http://127.0.0.1:8080/stub_status")
  -nginx.ssl-ca-cert string
        Path to the PEM encoded CA certificate file used to validate the servers SSL certificate. The default value can be overwritten by SSL_CA_CERT environment variable.
  -nginx.ssl-client-cert string
        Path to the PEM encoded client certificate file to use when connecting to the server. The default value can be overwritten by SSL_CLIENT_CERT environment variable.
  -nginx.ssl-client-key string
        Path to the PEM encoded client certificate key file to use when connecting to the server. The default value can be overwritten by SSL_CLIENT_KEY environment variable.
  -nginx.ssl-verify
        Perform SSL certificate verification. The default value can be overwritten by SSL_VERIFY environment variable. (default true)
  -nginx.timeout duration
        A timeout for scraping metrics from NGINX or NGINX Plus. The default value can be overwritten by TIMEOUT environment variable. (default 5s)
  -prometheus.const-labels value
        A comma separated list of constant labels that will be used in every metric. Format is label1=value1,label2=value2... The default value can be overwritten by CONST_LABELS environment variable.
  -web.listen-address string
        An address or unix domain socket path to listen on for web interface and telemetry. The default value can be overwritten by LISTEN_ADDRESS environment variable. (default ":9113")
  -web.telemetry-path string
        A path under which to expose metrics. The default value can be overwritten by TELEMETRY_PATH environment variable. (default "/metrics")
  -web.secured-metrics
        Expose metrics using https. The default value can be overwritten by SECURED_METRICS variable.  (default false)
  -web.ssl-server-cert string
        Path to the PEM encoded certificate for the nginx-exporter metrics server(when web.secured-metrics=true). The default value can be overwritten by SSL_SERVER_CERT variable.
  -web.ssl-server-key string
        Path to the PEM encoded key for the nginx-exporter metrics server (when web.secured-metrics=true). The default value can be overwritten by SSL_SERVER_KEY variable.
  -version
        Display the NGINX exporter version. (default false)

Exported Metrics

Common metrics:

Name Type Description Labels
nginxexporter_build_info Gauge Shows the exporter build information. gitCommit, version
nginx_up Gauge Shows the status of the last metric scrape: 1 for a successful scrape and 0 for a failed one []

Metrics for NGINX OSS:

Stub status metrics

Name Type Description Labels
nginx_connections_accepted Counter Accepted client connections. []
nginx_connections_active Gauge Active client connections. []
nginx_connections_handled Counter Handled client connections. []
nginx_connections_reading Gauge Connections where NGINX is reading the request header. []
nginx_connections_waiting Gauge Idle client connections. []
nginx_connections_writing Gauge Connections where NGINX is writing the response back to the client. []
nginx_http_requests_total Counter Total http requests. []

Metrics for NGINX Plus:

Connections

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_connections_accepted Counter Accepted client connections []
nginxplus_connections_active Gauge Active client connections []
nginxplus_connections_dropped Counter Dropped client connections dropped []
nginxplus_connections_idle Gauge Idle client connections []

HTTP

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_http_requests_total Counter Total http requests []
nginxplus_http_requests_current Gauge Current http requests []

SSL

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_ssl_handshakes Counter Successful SSL handshakes []
nginxplus_ssl_handshakes_failed Counter Failed SSL handshakes []
nginxplus_ssl_session_reuses Counter Session reuses during SSL handshake []

HTTP Server Zones

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_server_zone_processing Gauge Client requests that are currently being processed server_zone
nginxplus_server_zone_requests Counter Total client requests server_zone
nginxplus_server_zone_responses Counter Total responses sent to clients code (the response status code. The values are: 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx and 5xx), server_zone
nginxplus_server_zone_discarded Counter Requests completed without sending a response server_zone
nginxplus_server_zone_received Counter Bytes received from clients server_zone
nginxplus_server_zone_sent Counter Bytes sent to clients server_zone

Stream Server Zones

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_processing Gauge Client connections that are currently being processed server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_connections Counter Total connections server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_sessions Counter Total sessions completed code (the response status code. The values are: 2xx, 4xx, and 5xx), server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_discarded Counter Connections completed without creating a session server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_received Counter Bytes received from clients server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_zone_sent Counter Bytes sent to clients server_zone

HTTP Upstreams

Note: for the state metric, the string values are converted to float64 using the following rule: "up" -> 1.0, "draining" -> 2.0, "down" -> 3.0, "unavail" –> 4.0, "checking" –> 5.0, "unhealthy" -> 6.0.

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_upstream_server_state Gauge Current state server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_active Gauge Active connections server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_limit Gauge Limit for connections which corresponds to the max_conns parameter of the upstream server. Zero value means there is no limit server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_requests Counter Total client requests server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_responses Counter Total responses sent to clients code (the response status code. The values are: 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx and 5xx), server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_sent Counter Bytes sent to this server server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_received Counter Bytes received to this server server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_fails Counter Number of unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the server server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_unavail Counter How many times the server became unavailable for client requests (state 'unavail') due to the number of unsuccessful attempts reaching the max_fails threshold server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_header_time Gauge Average time to get the response header from the server server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_response_time Gauge Average time to get the full response from the server server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_health_checks_checks Counter Total health check requests server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_health_checks_fails Counter Failed health checks server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_health_checks_unhealthy Counter How many times the server became unhealthy (state 'unhealthy') server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_keepalives Gauge Idle keepalive connections upstream
nginxplus_upstream_zombies Gauge Servers removed from the group but still processing active client requests upstream

Stream Upstreams

Note: for the state metric, the string values are converted to float64 using the following rule: "up" -> 1.0, "down" -> 3.0, "unavail" –> 4.0, "checking" –> 5.0, "unhealthy" -> 6.0.

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_state Gauge Current state server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_active Gauge Active connections server , upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_limit Gauge Limit for connections which corresponds to the max_conns parameter of the upstream server. Zero value means there is no limit server , upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_connections Counter Total number of client connections forwarded to this server server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_connect_time Gauge Average time to connect to the upstream server server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_first_byte_time Gauge Average time to receive the first byte of data server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_response_time Gauge Average time to receive the last byte of data server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_sent Counter Bytes sent to this server server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_received Counter Bytes received from this server server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_fails Counter Number of unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the server server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_unavail Counter How many times the server became unavailable for client connections (state 'unavail') due to the number of unsuccessful attempts reaching the max_fails threshold server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_health_checks_checks Counter Total health check requests server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_health_checks_fails Counter Failed health checks server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_health_checks_unhealthy Counter How many times the server became unhealthy (state 'unhealthy') server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_zombies Gauge Servers removed from the group but still processing active client connections upstream

Stream Zone Sync

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_records_pending Gauge The number of records that need to be sent to the cluster zone
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_records_total Gauge The total number of records stored in the shared memory zone zone
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_bytes_in Counter Bytes received by this node []
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_bytes_out Counter Bytes sent by this node []
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_msgs_in Counter Total messages received by this node []
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_msgs_out Counter Total messages sent by this node []
nginxplus_stream_zone_sync_zone_nodes_online Gauge Number of peers this node is connected to []

Location Zones

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_location_zone_requests Counter Total client requests location_zone
nginxplus_location_zone_responses Counter Total responses sent to clients code (the response status code. The values are: 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx and 5xx), location_zone
nginxplus_location_zone_discarded Counter Requests completed without sending a response location_zone
nginxplus_location_zone_received Counter Bytes received from clients location_zone
nginxplus_location_zone_sent Counter Bytes sent to clients location_zone

Resolver

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_resolver_name Counter Total requests to resolve names to addresses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_srv Counter Total requests to resolve SRV records resolver
nginxplus_resolver_addr Counter Total requests to resolve addresses to names resolver
nginxplus_resolver_noerror Counter Total number of successful responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_formerr Counter Total number of FORMERR responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_servfail Counter Total number of SERVFAIL responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_nxdomain Counter Total number of NXDOMAIN responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_notimp Counter Total number of NOTIMP responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_refused Counter Total number of REFUSED responses resolver
nginxplus_resolver_timedout Counter Total number of timed out request resolver
nginxplus_resolver_unknown Counter Total requests completed with an unknown error resolver

Connect to the /metrics page of the running exporter to see the complete list of metrics along with their descriptions. Note: to see server zones related metrics you must configure status zones and to see upstream related metrics you must configure upstreams with a shared memory zone.

Troubleshooting

The exporter logs errors to the standard output. When using Docker, if the exporter doesn’t work as expected, check its logs using docker logs command.

Releases

Docker images

We publish the Docker image on DockerHub, GitHub Container and Amazon ECR Public Gallery.

As an alternative, you can choose the edge version built from the latest commit from the master branch. The edge version is useful for experimenting with new features that are not yet published in a stable release.

Binaries

We publish the binaries for multiple Operating Systems and architectures on the GitHub releases page.

Homebrew

You can add the NGINX homebrew tap with

$ brew tap nginxinc/tap

and then install the formula with

$ brew install nginx-prometheus-exporter

Building the Exporter

You can build the exporter using the provided Makefile. Before building the exporter, make sure the following software is installed on your machine:

  • make
  • git
  • Docker for building the container image
  • Go for building the binary

Building the Docker Image

To build the Docker image with the exporter, run:

$ make container

Note: go is not required, as the exporter binary is built in a Docker container. See the Dockerfile.

Building the Binary

To build the binary, run:

$ make

Note: the binary is built for the OS/arch of your machine. To build binaries for other platforms, see the Makefile.

The binary is built with the name nginx-prometheus-exporter.

Grafana Dashboard

The official Grafana dashboard is provided with the exporter for NGINX. Check the Grafana Dashboard documentation for more information.

Support

The commercial support is available for NGINX Plus customers when the NGINX Prometheus Exporter is used with NGINX Ingress Controller.

License

Apache License, Version 2.0.