i have an important archlinux server which i wanna monitor with netdata.
But building it with via the archlinux aur repo just gives me:
“an with version of netdata isnt complied with netdata-cloud” etc. and so on.
any idea what i could do?
This is relevant to the packaging story that we are trying to streamline these days Austin, I am noting them down. I feel that there is an overarching theme that we need to address, and that’s the general installation story of Netdata Agent, both from a Developer Experience perspective and a Technological standpoint.
Yes, namely that we:
- Shouldn’t be manipulating core system configuration such as the value of
$PATH(there’s too much risk of us causing issues for users). - Actually cannot manipulate such things reliably because no two distros seem to agree about how to do it (not to mention that some distros (NixOS for example) actively prevent such changes at the system level).
IMO, the correct solution here is to change our default install prefix from / to /opt/netdata (IOW, make it so that the regular installs with kickstart.sh and the binary packages are consistent with static installs) and then use absolute paths in the documentation (with notes that users who installed to a different prefix need to use that prefix instead).
Hey Austin,
What I mean is that the kickstarter script shouldn’t add the location of the claiming script in the $PATH so that the user can evoke it as netdata-claim.sh instead of supplying the full path? Our documentation assumes that the user can evoke the script as such. Am I missing something?
- No, we absolutely should not put things in places outside of the requested install prefix, at least not until we actually get our install method set up to properly track what we install so we can sanely uninstall everything. The only thing we currently put outside of the install prefix are init scripts and the updater script, and those are only because there is literally no other way to integrate with the system service manager and handle scheduling for auto-updates.
- Yes, we should probably update the documentation, but we need to update the cloud too because that is probably about 95% of where users are getting confused. This is part of the problem with providing ‘easy one-line’ commands for this, they do not account for different configurations on user systems.
@zerberus893 I am happy! This shouldn’t happen, you can be sure that we will improve on this regard! Other than that, we hope that you enjoy netdata and it proves as useful as you hoped it to be 
@joel @Austin-Hemmelgarn
Various users have reported that the claiming script is not in the PATH, and thus they can’t use it as we say in the documentation.
- Should the installer always place it in PATH? Can we improve the installer story here?
- Should we add explicit mentions in the documentation to be on the safe side?
Cheers everyone!
okay worked out.
Ok, thanks for that!
It may be possible that the script exists, but it’s not in PATH. Can you try this to find the script in this path? /opt/netdata/usr/sbin/netdata-claim.sh?
1 Like
┌root at cthulhu in ~
└$ bash <(curl -Ss https://my-netdata.io/kickstart-static64.sh)
--- Found existing install of Netdata under: /opt/netdata ---
--- Attempting to update existing install instead of creating a new one ---
[/root]# /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/netdata-updater.sh --not-running-from-cron
Entering /tmp/netdata-updater-xWG7nIS2rE
^
|.-. .-. .-. .-. . netdata
| '-' '-' '-' '-' real-time performance monitoring, done right!
+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--->
(C) Copyright 2017, Costa Tsaousis
All rights reserved
Released under GPL v3+
You are about to install netdata to this system.
netdata will be installed at:
/opt/netdata
The following changes will be made to your system:
# USERS / GROUPS
User 'netdata' and group 'netdata' will be added, if not present.
# LOGROTATE
This file will be installed if logrotate is present.
- /etc/logrotate.d/netdata
# SYSTEM INIT
This file will be installed if this system runs with systemd:
- /lib/systemd/system/netdata.service
or, for older Centos, Debian/Ubuntu or OpenRC Gentoo:
- /etc/init.d/netdata will be created
This package can also update a netdata installation that has been
created with another version of it.
Your netdata configuration will be retained.
After installation, netdata will be (re-)started.
netdata re-distributes a lot of open source software components.
Check its full license at:
https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/LICENSE.md
Creating directory /opt/netdata
Verifying archive integrity... 100% All good.
Uncompressing netdata, the real-time performance and health monitoring system 100%
--- Attempt to create user/group netdata/netadata ---
Group 'netdata' already exists.
User 'netdata' already exists.
--- Add user netdata to required user groups ---
Group 'docker' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'nginx' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'varnish' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'haproxy' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
User 'netdata' is already in group 'adm'.
Group 'nsd' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'proxy' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'squid' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
Group 'ceph' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
User 'netdata' is already in group 'nobody'.
Group 'I2C' does not exist.
FAILED Failed to add netdata user to secondary groups
--- Check SSL certificates paths ---
--- Install logrotate configuration for netdata ---
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 644 /etc/logrotate.d/netdata
OK
--- Telemetry configuration ---
You can opt out from anonymous statistics via the --disable-telemetry option, or by creating an empty file /opt/netdata/etc/netdata/.opt-out-from-anonymous-statistics
--- Install netdata at system init ---
Installing systemd service...
[/opt/netdata]# cp system/netdata.service /lib/systemd/system/netdata.service
OK
[/opt/netdata]# systemctl daemon-reload
OK
[/opt/netdata]# systemctl enable netdata
OK
--- Install (but not enable) netdata updater tool ---
Unit /usr/lib/systemd/system/netdata-updater.timer is masked, ignoring.
cat: /system/netdata-updater.timer: No such file or directory
cat: /system/netdata-updater.service: No such file or directory
Update script is located at /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/netdata-updater.sh
--- Check if we must enable/disable the netdata updater tool ---
Unable to determine what type of auto-update scheduling to use, not enabling auto-updates.
FAILED Cannot enable netdata updater tool
--- creating quick links ---
[/opt/netdata]# rm sbin
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s bin sbin
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# rm bin
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# ln -s ../bin bin
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# rm sbin
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# ln -s ../bin sbin
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# rm local
OK
[/opt/netdata/usr]# ln -s . local
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-configs
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s etc/netdata netdata-configs
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-web-files
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s usr/share/netdata/web netdata-web-files
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-plugins
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s usr/libexec/netdata netdata-plugins
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-dbs
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s var/lib/netdata netdata-dbs
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-metrics
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s var/cache/netdata netdata-metrics
OK
[/opt/netdata]# rm netdata-logs
OK
[/opt/netdata]# ln -s var/log/netdata netdata-logs
OK
[/opt/netdata/etc/netdata]# rm orig
OK
[/opt/netdata/etc/netdata]# ln -s ../../usr/lib/netdata/conf.d orig
OK
--- fix permissions ---
[/opt/netdata]# chmod g+rx\,o+rx /opt
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chown -R netdata:netdata /opt/netdata
OK
--- fix plugin permissions ---
[/opt/netdata]# chown root:netdata usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/apps.plugin
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 4750 usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/apps.plugin
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chown root:netdata usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ioping
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 4750 usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ioping
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chown root:netdata usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/cgroup-network
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 4750 usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/cgroup-network
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chown root:netdata bin/fping
OK
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 4750 bin/fping
OK
Configure TLS certificate paths
Using /etc/ssl for TLS configuration and certificates
Save install options
--- starting netdata ---
--- Restarting netdata instance ---
Stopping all netdata threads
[/opt/netdata]# stop_all_netdata
OK
Starting netdata using command 'systemctl start netdata'
[/opt/netdata]# systemctl start netdata
OK
^
|.-. .-. .-. .-. .-. . netdata .-. .-. .-. .-
| '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' is installed now! -' '-' '-' '-'
+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+--->
[/opt/netdata]# chmod 0644 /opt/netdata/etc/netdata/netdata.conf
OK
Switching back to /root
OK
--- Updated existing install at /opt/netdata/bin/netdata ---
┌root at cthulhu in ~
└$ sudo netdata-claim.sh -token=kvQzM4o3ffXip3Y1_afKhsZ1bIN5lPW1sFewzRQZ1cAX66ilvIsXaQt5pYQPAIzBu5xMhKIYlEy5nfzyibn1VuENqErffLfolYkT7cWCPFrg0hxytAwqtfppyFzNb8KpKvsLVb8 -rooms=86230735-523a-4719-8cb5-179e5a025cea -url=https://app.netdata.cloud
sudo: netdata-claim.sh: command not found
┌root at cthulhu in ~
└$
Hey @zerberys893,
Can you share the full terminal log that is outputted when you run the kickstart script? Also the exact version of the Linux distribution + kernel version would be handy. We will get to the bottom of this!
Sadly ive tried to use the kickstart installer on the webpage but it doesnt work.
any idea what i can do, i really need to monitor this server. 
@Manos-Saratsis Strictly speaking, we do not in fact meet distro packaging requirements in many cases, entirely because of the cloud support. The issue is the handling of the bundled libraries, distros (and most sane sysadmins) do not like programs which insist on statically linking libraries due to the security implications.
@zerberus893 Please use our preferred method, the kickstart script instead of the package manager of Arch linux. Installation guide | Learn Netdata
We meet the packaging requirements of the distros but some times they deactivate cloud from the packaged Netdata application.
Hey,
Welcome to our community and thank you for asking this question. It’s an important one that has been asked by various users. It would be best to follow the instructions as mentioned in our documentation. We don’t have any control over the netdata package of any Linux distribution, as this is maintained by their own maintainers.
If you have any other question, just fire away!
@Manos-Saratsis you might find this interesting.