Correct way to set up simple Windows metrics monitoring?

Help
, ,
1

I did my best to follow some guides and other links e.g.

But, I am left with what seems to be a partly-broken setup. Not sure if I am supposed to be switching to the WSL2 flavor of this setup or if it’s enough to stick with the old Prometheus exporter.

I have netdata nightly running (successfully) on Debian 12.

I configured windows.conf

jobs:
  - name: win10
    vnode: win10
    url: http://192.168.1.103:9182/metrics

and vnodes.conf

- hostname: win10
  guid: a6dc90a3-bf48-4bdb-acfa-836f189609be

I installed windows_exporter on a Windows 10 VM as a test. Directly accessible via the network, no firewall and I can pull the http://192.168.1.103:9182/metrics successfully, so I know it is populating data. I installed it using this commandline:

msiexec /i windows_exporter-0.26.0-amd64.msi ENABLED_COLLECTORS=cpu,memory,net,logical_disk,os,system,logon,tcp,thermalzone,process,service

But, there is nothing showing up under Collectors:

image
image1742×874 32.9 KB

And, the dashboard misses a lot of basic info, such as RAM, CPU, etc.

image
image850×118 12.5 KB

Just seems like something is off… Am I holding this thing upside down?

2

Hi. The correct way is to wait for the native Netdata Agent on Windows.

3

Ok but for now is there any way to just get most basic info? I am trying to troubleshoot ram ballooning on a certain cursed Windows system, and I would love to just get an alarm for RAM>90% consumed. Maybe I am hitting the ant with sledge hammer…

4

Widget in dashboard will be fixed with native netdata agent. Have you run the debug steps in the docs? the windows box has the prometheus exporter that needs to be pulled.
debug info here Windows | Learn Netdata

5

Yes - as I mentioned above I have installed windows_exporter and am able to access the stats page at http://windows.host:9182

Also yes I have run the debug commands from the netdata server, it is able to pull/poll successfully.

I think it’s not parsing the responses correctly maybe because I’m using a beta/rc of windows_exporter OR haven’t got the right metrics being published? In any case I will give up for now and wait a bit more for the next ND release as Ilya suggested…

6

The native Netdata Agent for Windows is now available!

1 Like
7

Yes! I’ve been playing with it. Working amazingly well so far!

1 Like
8

Hi Shyan
I installed the native windows agent released in v2.0.0 on a Windows Server but I need help configuring the mssql collector to display some database metrics on my Netdata dashboard. I have read some docs but none explain a success case. I also visited the windows room demos and the MSSQL section is not working.

Could you please help me?

9

@Docarly_Romero, Are you using the Express edition of Microsoft SQL Server? Due to a known bug, Netdata versions 2.0.0 and 2.0.1 do not currently support metric collection from the Express edition.

10

Hello @Docarly_Romero ,

There is no need to configure the current Netdata Agent. The agent now directly parses data available on Windows and publishes it to the cloud.

At present, the only configurable option is the ability to disable the plugin.

Please check your control panel to confirm your current Netdata Agent version. If you are using our older .exe version, it’s possible that you have two agents installed simultaneously, which could lead to issues.

Let us know if you have any questions or need further assistance.

Best regards.

11

Hi
No, I am using SQLSERVER 2019 Standard Edition

1 Like
12

Hello Tiago, Thank you for you answer
I have checked and actually had 2 netdata agent installed. I have uninstalled the older one.
But I have an additional question. I have installed the exported windows. Is it necessary or only the new netdata agent collects all metrics including MSSQL Server and publishes them to the cloud.
Regards

13

Hello @Docarly_Romero ,

I just recalled another factor that might be affecting your setup. Do you have the go.d.plugin module enabled?

Netdata still provides some go.d.plugin modules, but they are no longer necessary for certain features that have already been integrated into the latest windows.plugin.

Let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance!

Best regards,

14

Thiago
Do you have the go.d.plugin module activated?
A. Not that I remember, but could you help me in telling me how to validate it?

15

Thiago
Also, in my netdata cloud in the Applications section of my windows node MSSQL Server does not appear and it is installed and running.

It is very strange

16

Hello @Docarly_Romero ,

To verify this, please check if the file windows.conf is present, check inside your installation directory at:
C:\Program Files\Netdata\etc\netdata\go.d.

If the file is not there, it means it was not configured previously.

Let me know if you need further assistance!

Best regards,

17

In this path C:\Program Files\Netdata\etc\netdata
I have only 3 files (claim.conf,edit-config and .install-type). I don’t have any directory.

The windows.conf file has some special configuration to detect MSSQL Server. Because, I can bring the windows.conf file from ‘C:\Program Files\Netdata\usr\lib\netdata\conf.d\go.d’ and copy it to the suggested path (C:\Program Files\Netdata\etc\netdata\go.d). Currently the file is empty

Do you have any reference links to do this configuration successfully?

18

Hello,

This behavior is not expected at all.

Our current collector relies on a specific naming pattern, so I’ll need some additional information from you to debug the issue. To maintain your privacy, you don’t need to share server-specific details—just answer “yes” or “no” if that’s more comfortable for you. Alternatively, feel free to contact me directly via my company email: thiago@netdata.cloud, especially if you’d like to discuss specific metrics.

Here are the key questions:

  1. Do you have instances listed under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Names\SQL?
  2. When accessing the dashboard, do you see .NET Framework metrics?
  3. In your Event Log, under Application Logs and Services, do you find any Netdata entries? If yes, can you check for information about windows.plugin in the Collectors section?

It seems that, for some reason, the collector may have started but failed to collect data or sent invalid data. Your responses will help me debug the issue and move forward.

Let me know if you need further assistance!

Best regards,
Thiago

19

Hi Thiago, Thank you for your support
The answers for the questions:

  1. Yes
  2. Yes
  3. No
1 Like
20

Hi Thiago
Today we installed the new netdata agent released yesterday, and now netdata entries are shown in the event log, under Application and Service Logs.

Additionally the following steps were also done:

  1. Install python 3 (latest version 3.13.0)

  2. Install windows exporter using .msi (latest stable version 2.28):
    msiexec /i windows_exporter-0.28.2-amd64.msi --% ENABLED_COLLECTORS=cpu,memory,net,logical_disk,os,system,logon,tcp,thermalzone,process,service,mssql

  3. Create the windows.conf file in C:\Netdata files.

jobs:

  1. Restart netdata agent

Applying all these steps, now the dashboard show in Applications → MS SQL

We will continue do tests to enabled new metrics to SQL Server monitoring