docs/getting-started-netdata/guide.md
Netdata Cloud gives you complete visibility into every system and application performance metric across your entire infrastructure, whether it's on-premises or in the cloud. Bring teams together to find answers faster and squash the threat of anomalies or outages with composite charts, metric correlations, pre-built and custom dashboards, intelligent alarms, and collaboration tools to help you drive down your time to resolution.
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This guide will show you how simple it is to get started with Netdata and experience the instant value of real-time observability.
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What happens next:
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Why Cloud Connection is Essential: Starting with Netdata v2.0, all dashboards use Netdata Cloud for authentication, providing enhanced security and unified experience across all platforms. This unlocks enterprise-grade monitoring capabilities for deployments of any size.
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Connect Your First Agent Once logged into Netdata Cloud, you'll see connection instructions. There are three easy ways to connect:
<details> <summary><strong>Method 1: Through the Cloud Interface</strong></summary>:::tip
The One-Command Solution: All methods will show you a command like this:
bash <(curl -Ss https://get.netdata.cloud/kickstart.sh) --claim-token YOUR_TOKEN --claim-rooms YOUR_ROOMS --claim-url https://app.netdata.cloud
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<details> <summary><strong>What this single command does:</strong></summary>:::
What You'll See When Connected:
Within seconds of connection, you'll experience the power of real-time observability:
Automatic Dashboards:
Auto-Discovery in Action: Netdata automatically discovers and monitors:
Metric Correlations: Click the correlation button on any chart to instantly find related metrics that help diagnose issues - turning complex troubleshooting into point-and-click simplicity.
Out-of-the-Box Alerts: Netdata comes with intelligent alerts pre-configured for common issues. But you can easily customize them.
Simple Alert Customization: Navigate to your node and click "Edit" on any alert to modify thresholds:
# Example: Adjust CPU warning from 85% to 75%
warn: $this > 75
crit: $this > 90
Create New Alerts:
# Example: Custom RAM alert
alarm: custom_ram_usage
on: system.ram
calc: $used * 100 / ($used + $free)
warn: $this > 80
crit: $this > 95
Notification Methods: Configure alerts to reach you through:
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Silencing Alerts: Need to temporarily quiet alerts during maintenance?
Quick Silence Options:
to: silent in alert configurationnetdata.conf with enabled alarms = !alert_name *enabled = no in [health] sectionTemporary Control: Use the Health Management API for dynamic control without config changes - perfect for maintenance windows.
Permanent Solutions:
sudo netdatacli reload-healthhealth.d/*.conf files:::
Spaces and Rooms:
Team Collaboration: Click "Invite Users" in your Space sidebar to add team members. Set appropriate access levels:
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Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Business plan subscribers get fine-grained control over who can access what data, execute functions, and modify configurations - perfect for teams with different responsibilities.
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Organize by Your Needs:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| By Service | Web servers, databases, applications |
| By Location | Data centers, cloud regions |
| By Team | DevOps, SRE, development teams |
| By Environment | Production, staging, development |
Start Your Free Business Trial: Experience the full power of Netdata Business with our free trial:
| Traditional Monitoring | Netdata Business | |
|---|---|---|
| Navigate complex interfaces during incidents | Get instant analysis with natural language | |
| Build dashboards during incidents | VS | Automatic dashboards with zero configuration |
| Manually correlate data across systems | AI-powered correlation and root cause analysis | |
| Wait 15 seconds to 1 minute for updates | Real-time 1-second granularity | |
| Pay per metric with surprise bills | 70% less expensive than most competitors |
Experience the future of infrastructure monitoring with AI that actually works. Chat with your infrastructure in natural language, get professional reports in minutes, and let machine learning find problems before they impact your users. From automated troubleshooting to predictive insights, Netdata's AI capabilities turn complex monitoring into simple conversations.
AI Features Overview:
| Capability | What It Does | Access |
|---|---|---|
| AI Chat with Netdata | Ask questions in natural language | Available now for all deployments |
| AI DevOps Copilot | CLI-based AI automation | Available now with MCP tools |
| AI Insights | Professional reports in 2-3 minutes | Business plans get unlimited reports |
| Anomaly Advisor | Find root causes in minutes | Available to all users |
| ML Anomaly Detection | Continuous anomaly detection | Free for everyone |
Transform troubleshooting from complex queries to natural conversation. Ask questions like "Which servers have high CPU usage?" or "Show database errors from last hour" or "What is wrong with my infrastructure now?"
Why this matters: No more complex queries or dashboard hunting - get instant answers about performance, find specific logs, identify top resource consumers, or investigate issues through simple conversation.
How it works: Multi-node visibility through Netdata Parents, flexible AI options including Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini, with real-time access to metrics, logs, processes, network connections, and system state.
</details> <details> <summary><strong>Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration</strong></summary>MCP is available via Netdata Cloud for infrastructure-wide access (Business/Homelab plan) and on every Agent/Parent for direct local access (free, open-source), enabling seamless integration with AI assistants for natural language queries and automated analysis.
Why this matters: Use your existing AI tools or our standalone web chat with choice of AI providers. Query live metrics, logs, processes, network connections, and system state securely.
Technical details: MCP integration via WebSocket/HTTP, choice of Claude, GPT-4, Gemini and others, multiple deployment options (Cloud MCP, Agent MCP, Parent MCP), real-time data access, secure connection where LLM has access to your data via the LLM client.
</details>Transform observability into action with CLI AI assistants. Combine the power of AI with system automation for intelligent infrastructure optimization.
Why this matters: CLI-based AI assistants like Claude Code and Gemini CLI can access your Netdata metrics and execute commands, enabling observability-driven automation, automated troubleshooting, and configuration management driven by real observability data.
Key capabilities: Observability-driven automation where AI analyzes metrics and executes fixes, infrastructure optimization with automatic tuning based on performance data, intelligent troubleshooting from problem detection to resolution, and AI-generated configs based on actual usage.
</details>Generate comprehensive reports in 2-3 minutes that explain what happened, why it happened, and what to do about it. Transform past data into actionable insights with AI-generated reports.
Why this matters: Perfect for capacity planning, performance reviews, and executive briefings. Get comprehensive analysis of your infrastructure trends, optimization opportunities, and future requirements in professionally formatted PDFs.
Four report types:
Access: Business subscriptions get unlimited reports, free trial users get full access during trial, Community users get 10 free reports.
</details>Revolutionary troubleshooting that finds root causes in minutes. Stop guessing what went wrong - the Anomaly Advisor instantly shows you how problems cascade across your infrastructure.
Why this matters: Root causes typically appear in the top 20-30 results, turning hours of investigation into minutes of discovery. See cascading effects as anomalies propagate across systems with automatic ranking of every metric by anomaly severity.
Revolutionary approach: Data-driven analysis with no hypotheses needed, influence tracking showing what influenced and what was influenced, works identically from 10 to 10,000 nodes, visual propagation of anomaly clusters and cascades.
</details> <details> <summary><strong>Machine Learning Anomaly Detection</strong></summary>The foundation of Netdata's AI capabilities. Machine learning models run locally on every Agent, continuously learning normal patterns and detecting anomalies in real-time with zero configuration required.
Why this matters: Automatic protection across every metric with ML analyzing all metrics continuously. Visual anomaly indicators show purple ribbons on every chart displaying anomaly rates, with ML scores saved with metrics for past analysis.
How it works: Local ML engine runs on every Netdata Agent with no cloud dependency, multiple models use consensus approach reducing noise and false positives by 99%, integrated storage saves anomaly scores in database with metrics, designed for production environments with minimal overhead.
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What Happens Next:
Transform your infrastructure monitoring today. Your future self and your team will thank you.
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