Web server
The Netdata web server runs as static-threaded, i.e. with a fixed, configurable number of threads.
It uses non-blocking I/O and respects the keep-alive HTTP header to serve multiple HTTP requests via the same connection.
Configuration#
Disable the web server by editing netdata.conf and setting:
With the web server enabled, control the number of threads and sockets with the following settings:
The default number of processor threads is min(cpu cores, 6).
The web server max sockets setting is automatically adjusted to 50% of the max number of open files Netdata is allowed to use (via /etc/security/limits.conf or systemd), to allow enough file descriptors to be available for data collection.
Binding Netdata to multiple ports#
Netdata can bind to multiple IPs and ports, offering access to different services on each. Up to 100 sockets can be used (increase it at compile time with CFLAGS="-DMAX_LISTEN_FDS=200" ./netdata-installer.sh ...).
The ports to bind are controlled via [web].bind to, like this:
Using the above, Netdata will bind to:
- IPv4 127.0.0.1 at port 19999 (port was used from
default port). Only the UI (dashboard) and the read API will be accessible on this port. Both HTTP and HTTPS requests will be accepted. - IPv4 10.1.1.1 at port 19998. The management API and
netdata.confwill be accessible on this port. - All the IPs
hostnameresolves to (both IPv4 and IPv6 depending on the resolved IPs) at port 19997. Only badges will be accessible on this port. - All IPv6 IPs at port 19996. Only metric streaming requests from other Netdata agents will be accepted on this port. Only encrypted streams will be allowed (i.e. child nodes also need to be configured for TLS.
- All the IPs
localhostresolves to (both IPv4 and IPv6 depending the resolved IPs) at port 19996. This port will only accept registry API requests. - All IPv4 and IPv6 IPs at port
httpas set in/etc/services. Only the UI (dashboard) and the read API will be accessible on this port. - Unix domain socket
/run/netdata/netdata.sock. All requests are serviceable on this socket. Note that in some OSs like Fedora, every service sees a different/tmp, so don't create a Unix socket under/tmp./runor/var/runis suggested.
The option [web].default port is used when an entries in [web].bind to do not specify a port.
Note that the access permissions specified with the =request type|request type|... format are available from version 1.12 onwards.
As shown in the example above, these permissions are optional, with the default being to permit all request types on the specified port.
The request types are strings identical to the allow X from directives of the access lists, i.e. dashboard, streaming, registry, netdata.conf, badges and management.
The access lists themselves and the general setting allow connections from in the next section are applied regardless of the ports that are configured to provide these services.
The API requests are serviced as follows:
dashboardgives access to the UI, the read API and badges API calls.badgesgives access only to the badges API calls.managementgives access only to the management API calls.
Enabling TLS support#
Since v1.16.0, Netdata supports encrypted HTTP connections to the web server, plus encryption of streaming data to a parent from its child nodes, via the TLS protocol.
Inbound unix socket connections are unaffected, regardless of the TLS settings.
While Netdata uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 to encrypt communications rather than the obsolete SSL protocol, it's still common practice to refer to encrypted web connections as
SSL. Many vendors, like Nginx and even Netdata itself, useSSLin configuration files, whereas documentation will always refer to encrypted communications asTLSorTLS/SSL.
To enable TLS, provide the path to your certificate and private key in the [web] section of netdata.conf:
Both files must be readable by the netdata user. If either of these files do not exist or are unreadable, Netdata will fall back to HTTP. For a parent-child connection, only the parent needs these settings.
For test purposes, generate self-signed certificates with the following command:
If you use 4096 bits for your key and the certificate, Netdata will need more CPU to process the communication.
rsa4096can be up to 4 times slower thanrsa2048, so we recommend using 2048 bits. Verify the difference by running:
Select TLS version#
Beginning with version 1.21, specify the TLS version and the ciphers that you want to use:
If you do not specify these options, Netdata will use the highest available protocol version on your system and the default cipher list for that protocol provided by your TLS implementation.
While Netdata accepts all the TLS version as arguments (1 or 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3), we recommend you use 1.3 for the most secure encryption.
TLS/SSL enforcement#
When the certificates are defined and unless any other options are provided, a Netdata server will:
- Redirect all incoming HTTP web server requests to HTTPS. Applies to the dashboard, the API,
netdata.confand badges. - Allow incoming child connections to use both unencrypted and encrypted communications for streaming.
To change this behavior, you need to modify the bind to setting in the [web] section of netdata.conf. At the end of each port definition, append ^SSL=force or ^SSL=optional. What happens with these settings differs, depending on whether the port is used for HTTP/S requests, or for streaming.
| SSL setting | HTTP requests | HTTPS requests | Unencrypted Streams | Encrypted Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| none | Redirected to HTTPS | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
force | Redirected to HTTPS | Accepted | Denied | Accepted |
optional | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
Example:
For information how to configure the child to use TLS, check securing the communication in the streaming documentation. There you will find additional details on the expected behavior for client and server nodes, when their respective TLS options are enabled.
When we define the use of SSL in a Netdata agent for different ports, Netdata will apply the behavior specified on each port. For example, using the configuration line below:
Netdata will:
- Force all HTTP requests to the default port to be redirected to HTTPS (same port).
- Refuse unencrypted streaming connections from child nodes on the default port.
- Allow both HTTP and HTTPS requests to port 20000 for
netdata.conf - Force HTTP requests to port 20001 to be redirected to HTTPS (same port). Only allow requests for the dashboard, the read API and the registry on port 20001.
TLS/SSL errors#
When you start using Netdata with TLS, you may find errors in the Netdata log, which is stored at /var/log/netdata/error.log by default.
Most of the time, these errors are due to incompatibilities between your browser's options related to TLS/SSL protocols and Netdata's internal configuration. The most common error is error:00000006:lib(0):func(0):EVP lib.
In the near future, Netdata will allow our users to change the internal configuration to avoid similar errors. Until then, we're recommending only the most common and safe encryption protocols listed above.
Access lists#
Netdata supports access lists in netdata.conf:
* does string matches on the IPs or FQDNs of the clients.
allow connections frommatches anyone that connects on the Netdata port(s). So, if someone is not allowed, it will be connected and disconnected immediately, without reading even a single byte from its connection. This is a global settings with higher priority to any of the ones below.allow dashboard fromreceives the request and examines if it is a static dashboard file or an API call the dashboards do.allow badges fromchecks if the API request is for a badge. Badges are not matched byallow dashboard from.allow streaming fromchecks if the child willing to stream metrics to this Netdata is allowed. This can be controlled per API KEY and MACHINE GUID instream.conf. The setting innetdata.confis checked before the ones instream.conf.allow netdata.conf fromchecks the IP to allowhttp://netdata.host:19999/netdata.conf. The IPs listed are all the private IPv4 addresses, including link local IPv6 addresses. Keep in mind that connections to Netdata API ports are filtered byallow connections from. So, IPs allowed byallow netdata.conf fromshould also be allowed byallow connections from.allow management fromchecks the IPs to allow API management calls. Management via the API is currently supported for health
In order to check the FQDN of the connection without opening the Netdata agent to DNS-spoofing, a reverse-dns record must be setup for the connecting host. At connection time the reverse-dns of the peer IP address is resolved, and a forward DNS resolution is made to validate the IP address against the name-pattern.
Please note that this process can be expensive on a machine that is serving many connections. Each access list has an associated configuration option to turn off DNS-based patterns completely to avoid incurring this cost at run-time:
The three possible values for each of these options are yes, no and heuristic. The heuristic option disables
the check when the pattern only contains IPv4/IPv6 addresses or localhost, and enables it when wildcards are
present that may match DNS FQDNs.
Other netdata.conf [web] section options#
| setting | default | info |
|---|---|---|
| ses max window | 15 | See single exponential smoothing |
| des max window | 15 | See double exponential smoothing |
| listen backlog | 4096 | The port backlog. Check man 2 listen. |
| web files owner | netdata | The user that owns the web static files. Netdata will refuse to serve a file that is not owned by this user, even if it has read access to that file. If the user given is not found, Netdata will only serve files owned by user given in run as user. |
| web files group | netdata | If this is set, Netdata will check if the file is owned by this group and refuse to serve the file if it's not. |
| disconnect idle clients after seconds | 60 | The time in seconds to disconnect web clients after being totally idle. |
| timeout for first request | 60 | How long to wait for a client to send a request before closing the socket. Prevents slow request attacks. |
| accept a streaming request every seconds | 0 | Can be used to set a limit on how often a parent node will accept streaming requests from child nodes in a streaming and replication setup |
| respect do not track policy | no | If set to yes, Netdata will respect the user's browser preferences for Do Not Track (DNT) and storing cookies. If DNT is enabled in the browser, and this option is set to yes, users will not be able to sign in to Netdata Cloud via their local Agent dashboard, and their node will not connect to any registry. For certain browsers, users must disable DNT and change this option to yes for full functionality. |
| x-frame-options response header | Avoid clickjacking attacks, by ensuring that the content is not embedded into other sites. | |
| enable gzip compression | yes | When set to yes, Netdata web responses will be GZIP compressed, if the web client accepts such responses. |
| gzip compression strategy | default | Valid strategies are default, filtered, huffman only, rle and fixed |
| gzip compression level | 3 | Valid levels are 1 (fastest) to 9 (best ratio) |
DDoS protection#
If you publish your Netdata to the internet, you may want to apply some protection against DDoS:
- Use the
static-threadedweb server (it is the default) - Use reasonable
[web].web server max sockets(the default is) - Don't use all your CPU cores for Netdata (lower
[web].web server threads) - Run the
netdataprocess with a low process scheduling priority (the default is the lowest) - If possible, proxy Netdata via a full featured web server (nginx, apache, etc)