Organize systems, metrics, and alerts

When you monitor dozens or hundreds of systems, you need powerful ways to keep everything organized. Netdata helps you structure your infrastructure with Spaces, Rooms, virtual nodes, host labels, and metric labels.

Choose your organization strategy

Netdata provides multiple organization methods that work together:

• Spaces and Rooms: Group your infrastructure and team members
• Virtual nodes: Monitor multi-component systems as separate entities
• Host labels: Tag systems by purpose, location, or any custom criteria
• Metric labels: Filter and group metrics within charts

Organize your infrastructure and team

• Organize team members and manage access levels
• Connect nodes for monitoring
• Create a unified monitoring environment

• Infrastructure-wide dashboards
• Real-time metrics visualization
• Focused monitoring views
• Flexible node grouping

:::info

Each node belongs to exactly one Space but can be assigned to multiple Rooms within that Space.

:::

Set up your organization

1. Create a Space using the plus (+) icon in the left-most sidebar
2. Invite team members and set their access levels
3. Create Rooms to organize nodes by:
   • Service type (Nginx, MySQL, Pulsar)
   • Purpose (webserver, database, application)
   • Location or infrastructure type (cloud provider, bare metal, containers)

:::tip

Most organizations need only one Space. Create multiple Rooms within that Space to organize your infrastructure effectively.

:::

Learn more in our Spaces and Rooms documentation.

Virtual nodes

Monitor complex systems as separate entities

Virtual nodes let you split multi-component systems into distinct, monitorable units. For example, you can monitor each Windows server in your infrastructure as its own node, even when collecting metrics through a single Netdata Agent.

To create a virtual node for your Windows server:

1. Define the virtual node in /etc/netdata/vnodes/vnodes.conf:

   yamlCopy

   - hostname: win_server1
     guid: <value>
   

   :::tip Generate a valid GUID using uuidgen on Linux or [guid]::NewGuid() in Windows PowerShell. :::

2. Add the vnode configuration to your data collection job in go.d/windows.conf:

   yamlCopy

   jobs:
     - name: win_server1
       vnode: win_server1
       url: http://203.0.113.10:9182/metrics
   

Host labels

Tag your systems for smarter monitoring

Host labels help you:

• Create alerts that adapt to each system's purpose
• Archive metrics with proper categorization for analysis
• Track ephemeral containers in Kubernetes clusters

Use automatic labels

Netdata automatically generates host labels when it starts, capturing:

View your automatic labels at http://HOST-IP:19999/api/v1/info:

{
  "host_labels": {
    "_is_k8s_node": "false",
    "_is_parent": "false"
  }
}

Create custom labels

Add your own labels to categorize systems by any criteria you need.

1. Edit your Netdata configuration:

   bashCopy

   cd /etc/netdata   # Replace with your Netdata config directory
   sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf
   

2. Add a [host labels] section:

   textCopy

   [host labels]
       type = webserver
       location = us-seattle
       installed = 20200218
   

   :::info Label naming rules

   • Names cannot start with _
   • Use only letters, numbers, dots, and dashes
   • Values cannot contain: ! ' " * :::

3. You can use environment variables in label values:

   textCopy

   [host labels]
       region = ${REGION}
       rack = ${RACK:-unknown}
       env = ${DEPLOYMENT_ENV:-production}
       location = ${DC}-${RACK:-default}
   

   Syntax	Behavior
   ${VAR}	Replaced with the value of VAR. If unset or empty, the label value becomes [none]
   ${VAR:-default}	Replaced with the value of VAR. If unset or empty, uses default

   Environment variables are resolved when labels are loaded or reloaded. You can mix them with literal text (e.g., ${DC}-${RACK}).

4. Enable your labels without restarting Netdata:

   bashCopy

   netdatacli reload-labels
   

5. Verify your labels at http://HOST-IP:19999/api/v1/info

Stream labels from Child to Parent

In Parent-Child setups, host labels automatically stream from children to the parent node. Access any child's labels through the parent at: http://localhost:19999/host/CHILD_HOSTNAME/api/v1/info

:::warning

Child node labels contain sensitive system information. Secure your streaming connections with SSL and consider using access lists or restricting API access.

:::

Apply labels to alerts

Create targeted alerts based on host labels. For example, monitor disk space only on webservers:

   template: disk_fill_rate
         on: disk.space
     lookup: max -1s at -30m unaligned of avail
       calc: ($this - $avail) / (30 * 60)
      every: 15s
host labels: type = webserver

Target systems by multiple criteria:

See the health documentation for more possibilities.

Export labels with metrics

When using metrics exporters, include host labels with your exported data:

[exporting:global]
enabled = yes
send configured labels = yes
send automatic labels = no

Configure per-connection settings:

[opentsdb:my_instance3]
enabled = yes
destination = localhost:4242
data source = sum
update every = 10
send charts matching = system.cpu
send configured labels = no
send automatic labels = yes

Metric labels

Filter and group metrics within charts

Netdata's aggregate charts let you filter and group metrics using label name-value pairs. All go.d plugin collectors support labels at the collection job level.

Configure metric labels when collected from multiple sources. For example, label two Apache servers by service and location:

jobs:
  - name: my_webserver1
    url: http://host1/server-status?auto
    labels:
      service: "Payments"
      location: "Atlanta"
  - name: my_webserver2
    url: http://host2/server-status?auto
    labels:
      service: "Payments"
      location: "New York"

:::tip

Define as many label pairs as you need across all your data collection jobs to create meaningful groupings in your dashboards.

:::

Next steps

1. Start with Spaces and Rooms to organize your infrastructure and team
2. Add host labels to categorize your systems
3. Configure metric labels for detailed filtering within charts
4. Set up virtual nodes if you monitor complex, multi-component systems