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

<details> <summary><strong>Spaces</strong> are your primary collaboration environment where you:</summary>

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

</details> <details> <summary><strong>Rooms</strong> function as organizational units within Spaces, providing:</summary>

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

</details>

:::info

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

:::

Set up your organization

Create a Space using the plus (+) icon in the left-most sidebar
Invite team members and set their access levels
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.

See Virtual Nodes (vnodes) for the full reference: how to define a vnode via YAML or the dynamic configuration GUI, and how to attach it to a collector job.

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:

Label Category	Information Captured
System Info	Kernel version, OS name and version
Hardware	CPU architecture, cores, frequency, RAM, disk space, product ID, product name, product type
Environment	Container details, Kubernetes node status
Infrastructure	Virtualization layer, Parent-child streaming status

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

Host-label values use Netdata's label sanitizer. For example, commas in hardware model identifiers are exposed as dots in host labels.

json

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

Create custom labels

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

Edit your Netdata configuration:

bash

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

On Windows, follow [Edit Configuration Files](/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#edit-configuration-files) instead. The `[host labels]` example, naming rules, and environment variable expansion in steps 2 and 3 below work identically on Windows.
:::

Add a [host labels] section:
text
```
[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: ! ' " * :::
You can use environment variables in label values:
text
```
[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}).
Enable your labels without restarting Netdata:
bash
```
netdatacli reload-labels
```
On Windows, run this through netdatacli.exe — see Using netdatacli.
Verify your labels at http://HOST-IP:19999/api/v1/info

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`

Use custom host labels such as environment with Node Rule-Based Room Assignment to route Kubernetes Nodes into separate Rooms.

Remove custom labels

Remove a custom label you no longer need.

Edit your Netdata configuration:

bash

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

On Windows, follow Edit Configuration Files instead.

In the [host labels] section, delete the line for the label you want to remove.
Save the file.
Apply the change without restarting Netdata:
bash
```
netdatacli reload-labels
```
On Windows, run this through netdatacli.exe — see Using netdatacli.
Confirm the label is gone 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:

text

   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:

Target	Host Label	Use Case
Specific OS	`_os_name = Debian*`	Apply alerts to Debian systems
Child nodes only	`_is_child = true`	Monitor streaming children
Docker containers	`_container = docker`	Container-specific alerts

See the health documentation for more possibilities.

Export labels with metrics

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

text

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

Configure per-connection settings:

text

[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:

yaml

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

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