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NGINX Prometheus Exporter

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

Table of Contents

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:1.3.0 --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:1.3.0 --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 scrape NGINX metrics with unix domain sockets, run:

    nginx-prometheus-exporter --nginx.scrape-uri=unix:<nginx>:/stub_status

    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), you can follow the example in examples/systemd. Alternatively, you can run the exporter in a Docker container.

Usage

Command-line Arguments

usage: nginx-prometheus-exporter [<flags>]


Flags:
  -h, --[no-]help                Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
      --[no-]web.systemd-socket  Use systemd socket activation listeners instead
                                 of port listeners (Linux only). ($SYSTEMD_SOCKET)
      --web.listen-address=:9113 ...
                                 Addresses on which to expose metrics and web interface. Repeatable for multiple addresses. ($LISTEN_ADDRESS)
      --web.config.file=""       Path to configuration file that can enable TLS or authentication. See: https://github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit/blob/master/docs/web-configuration.md ($CONFIG_FILE)
      --web.telemetry-path="/metrics"
                                 Path under which to expose metrics. ($TELEMETRY_PATH)
      --[no-]nginx.plus          Start the exporter for NGINX Plus. By default, the exporter is started for NGINX. ($NGINX_PLUS)
      --nginx.scrape-uri=http://127.0.0.1:8080/stub_status ...
                                 A URI or unix domain socket path for scraping NGINX or NGINX Plus metrics. For NGINX, the stub_status page must be available through the URI. For NGINX Plus -- the API. Repeatable for multiple URIs. ($SCRAPE_URI)
      --[no-]nginx.ssl-verify    Perform SSL certificate verification. ($SSL_VERIFY)
      --nginx.ssl-ca-cert=""     Path to the PEM encoded CA certificate file used to validate the servers SSL certificate. ($SSL_CA_CERT)
      --nginx.ssl-client-cert=""
                                 Path to the PEM encoded client certificate file to use when connecting to the server. ($SSL_CLIENT_CERT)
      --nginx.ssl-client-key=""  Path to the PEM encoded client certificate key file to use when connecting to the server. ($SSL_CLIENT_KEY)
      --nginx.timeout=5s         A timeout for scraping metrics from NGINX or NGINX Plus. ($TIMEOUT)
      --prometheus.const-label=PROMETHEUS.CONST-LABEL ...
                                 Label that will be used in every metric. Format is label=value. It can be repeated multiple times. ($CONST_LABELS)
      --log.level=info           Only log messages with the given severity or above. One of: [debug, info, warn, error]
      --log.format=logfmt        Output format of log messages. One of: [logfmt, json]
      --[no-]version             Show application version.

Exported Metrics

Common metrics

Name Type Description Labels
nginx_exporter_build_info Gauge Shows the exporter build information. branch, goarch, goos, goversion, revision, tags and version
promhttp_metric_handler_requests_total Counter Total number of scrapes by HTTP status code. code (the HTTP status code)
promhttp_metric_handler_requests_in_flight Gauge Current number of scrapes being served. []
go_* Multiple Go runtime metrics. []

Metrics for NGINX OSS

Name Type Description Labels
nginx_up Gauge Shows the status of the last metric scrape: 1 for a successful scrape and 0 for a failed one []
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

Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_up Gauge Shows the status of the last metric scrape: 1 for a successful scrape and 0 for a failed one []
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 []
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_http_requests_total Counter Total http requests []
nginxplus_http_requests_current Gauge Current http requests []
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 []
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_responses_codes Counter Total responses sent to clients by code code (the response status code. The possible values are here), 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
nginxplus_server_ssl_handshakes Counter Successful SSL handshakes server_zone
nginxplus_server_ssl_handshakes_failed Counter Failed SSL handshakes server_zone
nginxplus_server_ssl_session_reuses Counter Session reuses during SSL handshake server_zone
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
nginxplus_stream_server_ssl_handshakes Counter Successful SSL handshakes server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_ssl_handshakes_failed Counter Failed SSL handshakes server_zone
nginxplus_stream_server_ssl_session_reuses Counter Session reuses during SSL handshake server_zone

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_responses_codes Counter Total responses sent to clients by code code (the response status code. The possible values are here), 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_server_ssl_handshakes Counter Successful SSL handshakes server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_ssl_handshakes_failed Counter Failed SSL handshakes server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_server_ssl_session_reuses Counter Session reuses during SSL handshake server, upstream
nginxplus_upstream_keepalive Gauge Idle keepalive connections upstream
nginxplus_upstream_zombies Gauge Servers removed from the group but still processing active client requests upstream

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_server_ssl_handshakes Counter Successful SSL handshakes server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_ssl_handshakes_failed Counter Failed SSL handshakes server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_server_ssl_session_reuses Counter Session reuses during SSL handshake server, upstream
nginxplus_stream_upstream_zombies Gauge Servers removed from the group but still processing active client connections upstream
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 []
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_responses_codes Counter Total responses sent to clients by code code (the response status code. The possible values are here), 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
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
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_limit_request_passed Counter Total number of requests that were neither limited nor accounted as limited zone
nginxplus_limit_request_rejected Counter Total number of requests that were rejected zone
nginxplus_limit_request_delayed Counter Total number of requests that were delayed zone
nginxplus_limit_request_rejected_dry_run Counter Total number of requests accounted as rejected in the dry run mode zone
nginxplus_limit_request_delayed_dry_run Counter Total number of requests accounted as delayed in the dry run mode zone
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_limit_connection_passed Counter Total number of connections that were neither limited nor accounted as limited zone
nginxplus_limit_connection_rejected Counter Total number of connections that were rejected zone
nginxplus_limit_connection_rejected_dry_run Counter Total number of connections accounted as rejected in the dry run mode zone
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_stream_limit_connection_passed Counter Total number of connections that were neither limited nor accounted as limited zone
nginxplus_stream_limit_connection_rejected Counter Total number of connections that were rejected zone
nginxplus_stream_limit_connection_rejected_dry_run Counter Total number of connections accounted as rejected in the dry run mode zone
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_cache_size Gauge Total size of the cache cache
nginxplus_cache_max_size Gauge Maximum size of the cache cache
nginxplus_cache_cold Gauge Is the cache considered cold cache
nginxplus_cache_hit_responses Counter Total number of cache hits cache
nginxplus_cache_hit_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache hits cache
nginxplus_cache_stale_responses Counter Total number of stale cache hits cache
nginxplus_cache_stale_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from stale cache hits cache
nginxplus_cache_updating_responses Counter Total number of cache hits while cache is updating cache
nginxplus_cache_updating_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache while cache is updating cache
nginxplus_cache_revalidated_responses Counter Total number of cache revalidations cache
nginxplus_cache_revalidated_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache revalidations cache
nginxplus_cache_miss_responses Counter Total number of cache misses cache
nginxplus_cache_miss_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache misses cache
nginxplus_cache_expired_responses Counter Total number of cache hits with expired TTL cache
nginxplus_cache_expired_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache hits with expired TTL cache
nginxplus_cache_expired_responses_written Counter Total number of cache hits with expired TTL written to cache cache
nginxplus_cache_expired_bytes_written Counter Total number of bytes written to cache from cache hits with expired TTL cache
nginxplus_cache_bypass_responses Counter Total number of cache bypasses cache
nginxplus_cache_bypass_bytes Counter Total number of bytes returned from cache bypasses cache
nginxplus_cache_bypass_responses_written Counter Total number of cache bypasses written to cache cache
nginxplus_cache_bypass_bytes_written Counter Total number of bytes written to cache from cache bypasses cache
Name Type Description Labels
nginxplus_worker_connection_accepted Counter The total number of accepted client connections id, pid
nginxplus_worker_connection_dropped Counter The total number of dropped client connections id, pid
nginxplus_worker_connection_active Gauge The current number of active client connections id, pid
nginxplus_worker_connection_idle Gauge The current number of idle client connection id, pid
nginxplus_worker_http_requests_total Counter The total number of client requests received id, pid
nginxplus_worker_http_requests_current Gauge The current number of client requests that are currently being processed id, pid

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, Amazon ECR Public Gallery and Quay.io.

As an alternative, you can choose the edge version built from the latest commit from the main 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

Snap

You can install the NGINX Prometheus Exporter from the Snap Store.

snap install nginx-prometheus-exporter

Scoop

You can add the NGINX Scoop bucket with

scoop bucket add nginx https://github.com/nginxinc/scoop-bucket.git

and then install the package with

scoop install nginx-prometheus-exporter

Nix

First include NUR in your packageOverrides as explained in the NUR documentation.

Then you can use the exporter with the following command:

nix-shell --packages nur.repos.nginx.nginx-prometheus-exporter

or install it with:

nix-env -f '<nixpkgs>' -iA nur.repos.nginx.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.

SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)

We generate SBOMs for the binaries and the Docker image.

Binaries

The SBOMs for the binaries are available in the releases page. The SBOMs are generated using syft and are available in SPDX format.

Docker Image

The SBOM for the Docker image is available in the DockerHub, GitHub Container registry, Amazon ECR Public Gallery and Quay.io repositories. The SBOMs are generated using syft and stored as an attestation in the image manifest.

For example to retrieve the SBOM for linux/amd64 from Docker Hub and analyze it using grype you can run the following command:

docker buildx imagetools inspect nginx/nginx-prometheus-exporter:edge --format '{{ json (index .SBOM "linux/amd64").SPDX }}' | grype

Provenance

We generate provenance for the Docker image and it's available in the DockerHub, GitHub Container registry, Amazon ECR Public Gallery and Quay.io repositories, stored as an attestation in the image manifest.

For example to retrieve the provenance for linux/amd64 from Docker Hub you can run the following command:

docker buildx imagetools inspect nginx/nginx-prometheus-exporter:edge --format '{{ json (index .Provenance "linux/amd64").SLSA }}'

Contacts

We’d like to hear your feedback! If you have any suggestions or experience issues with the NGINX Prometheus Exporter, please create an issue or send a pull request on GitHub. You can contact us directly via integrations@nginx.com or on the NGINX Community Slack in the #nginx-prometheus-exporter channel.

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to the project, please read our Contributing guide.

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.