Podman

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: prometheus

Overview

Keep tabs on Podman container runtime metrics for efficient container management and performance.

Metrics are gathered by periodically sending HTTP requests to PODMAN exporter.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

By default, it detects instances running on the local host by trying to connect to known ports that are allocated to exporters.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Setup

You can configure the prometheus collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for prometheus, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit `go.d/prometheus.conf` and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

Install Exporter

Install PODMAN exporter by following the instructions mentioned in the exporter README.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

<details open><summary>Config options</summary>

Group	Option	Description	Default	Required
Collection	update_every	Data collection interval (seconds).	10	no
	autodetection_retry	Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable.	0	no
Target	url	Target endpoint URL.		yes
	timeout	HTTP request timeout (seconds).	10	no
	expected_prefix	If set, the job's check passes only when at least one post-job, pre-profile metric name starts with this prefix. Guards against scraping an unexpected endpoint; profile-owned relabeling cannot satisfy it.		no
Customization	app	Application name used as the app segment of chart contexts (`prometheus.<app>.<metric>`). When unset, it is taken from a matched profile, otherwise it falls back to the job name.		no
Filters	selector	Time series selector (filter).		no
Limits	max_time_series	Global time series limit applied after job and profile relabeling. If the final output exceeds it, the data is not processed.	2000	no
	max_time_series_per_metric	Per-metric time series limit applied to final metric families. Metrics exceeding it are skipped.	200	no
Customization	fallback_type	Job-level fallback type overrides for untyped metrics.		no
	relabeling	Job-owned Prometheus-compatible metric relabeling, applied before profile selection.		no
	profiles	Curated, exporter-specific chart profiles with optional untyped classification, profile-owned normalization, and scoped fallback-chart policy. User profiles may constrain unmatched fallback charts; stock profiles preserve unknown future families. Disable profiles with mode `none`.	auto	no
HTTP Auth	username	Username for Basic HTTP authentication.		no
	password	Password for Basic HTTP authentication.		no
	bearer_token_file	Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for `Authorization: Bearer`).		no
TLS	tls_skip_verify	Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure).	no	no
	tls_ca	Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate.		no
	tls_cert	Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS).		no
	tls_key	Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS).		no
Proxy	proxy_url	HTTP proxy URL.		no
	proxy_username	Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
	proxy_password	Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
Request	method	HTTP method to use.	GET	no
	body	Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT).		no
	headers	Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value).		no
	not_follow_redirects	Do not follow HTTP redirects.	no	no
	force_http2	Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP).	no	no
Virtual Node	vnode	Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node.		no

selector

This option allows you to filter out unwanted time series. Only metrics matching the selector will be collected.

Logic: (pattern1 OR pattern2) AND !(pattern3 or pattern4)
Pattern syntax: selector.
Option syntax:

yaml

selector:
  allow:
    - pattern1
    - pattern2
  deny:
    - pattern3
    - pattern4

fallback_type

This job option allows you to process untyped metrics as Counter or Gauge instead of ignoring them. Classification uses the post-job, pre-profile metric name. Profile relabeling preserves the selected type but cannot create or change it by renaming the final metric.

Selected profiles may provide exporter-owned fallback_type defaults inside their own match scope. Job gauge rules take precedence over job counter rules, and both job rule sets take precedence over every profile rule. Use them for deployment-specific overrides rather than exporter behavior that belongs in a profile. Keep patterns narrow: a broad job rule such as gauge: ['*'] overrides profile counter classifications. Blank patterns and patterns with leading or trailing whitespace are rejected.

Metric name pattern syntax: shell file name pattern.
Option syntax:

yaml

fallback_type:
  counter:
    - metric_name_pattern1
    - metric_name_pattern2
  gauge:
    - metric_name_pattern3
    - metric_name_pattern4

relabeling

A list of job-owned relabeling blocks, applied after selector and before profile selection. Each block applies a list of Prometheus metric_relabel_configs rules to the metrics whose name matches match. Profiles may own the same block format for exporter normalization after selection. See the relabeling reference for the full action set and more examples.

match: Netdata simple patterns matched against the full metric name — including any _bucket/_sum/_count suffix, so prefer globs like app_lat* over an exact app_lat (space-separated; * matches any sequence, ? any character, a leading ! negates). Use * to target every metric. Required.
metric_relabel_configs: Prometheus relabel rules (source_labels, separator, regex, modulus, target_label, replacement, action), applied in order to the scraped samples before charts are built.

Relabeling that would corrupt a histogram or summary — splitting it, dropping a component, mutating the le/quantile label, or merging two families — is rejected.

yaml

relabeling:
  - match: 'http_*'
    metric_relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [code]
        regex: '(\d)\d\d'
        target_label: code_class
        replacement: '${1}xx'

profiles

Profiles ship curated charts for recognized exporters -- see the profile format for the file format and how to author your own. profiles.mode selects them:

auto (default): every profile whose match hits at least one scraped metric.
exact: only the profiles named in mode_exact.entries (each must match, or the job fails its check).
combined: auto plus the profiles named in mode_combined.entries.
none: no profiles — generic autogen charts only (the pre-profile behavior).

Selection uses post-job, pre-profile family names. A selected profile may carry fallback_type rules that classify untyped scalar families inside its match scope and relabeling blocks that normalize matching source families automatically before chart routing. Job fallback policy takes precedence; conflicting profile rules use the same ordering as normalization. Each original family is processed only by the first applicable profile normalizer: profile-name order in auto, configured entry order in exact, and configured entries followed by remaining auto profiles in name order in combined. Later profile pipelines do not see the family. All selected templates consume the same final names and labels; the collector does not create a private metric stream per profile.

Only the block matching the selected mode (mode_exact or mode_combined) is read; entries under the other block are ignored. Metrics not covered by an authored profile chart keep their generic autogen charts unless an applicable profile autogen.selector rejects them. Every selector is limited to its profile's match scope; when scopes overlap, every applicable selector must accept the series. This changes fallback charts only; use selector or a relabeling drop rule to discard samples. Stock profiles leave unknown future families eligible for generic fallback; closed fallback selectors are a user-owned deployment policy, not a stock-profile authoring pattern.

yaml

profiles:
  mode: exact
  mode_exact:
    entries:
      - name: haproxy

</details>

via UI

Configure the prometheus collector from the Netdata web interface:

Go to Nodes.
Select the node where you want the prometheus data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
In the Search box, type prometheus (or scroll the list) to locate the prometheus collector.
Click the + next to the prometheus collector to add a new job.
Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
- Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
- If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/prometheus.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

yaml

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

bash

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/prometheus.conf

Examples

Basic

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

A basic example configuration.

yaml

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

Read metrics from a file

An example configuration to read metrics from a file.

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

# use "file://" scheme
jobs:
  - name: myapp
    url: file:///opt/metrics/myapp/metrics.txt

</details>

HTTP authentication

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Basic HTTP authentication.

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
    username: username
    password: password

</details>

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: https://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
    tls_skip_verify: yes

</details>

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique. Note: Change the port of the monitored application on which it provides metrics.

Collecting metrics from local and remote instances.

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics

  - name: remote
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9090/metrics

</details>

Metric relabeling

Derive a code_class label (2xx, 4xx, ...) on metrics named http_*.

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

jobs:
  - name: local
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics
    relabeling:
      - match: 'http_*'
        metric_relabel_configs:
          - source_labels: [code]
            regex: '(\d)\d\d'
            target_label: code_class
            replacement: '${1}xx'

</details>

Rename labels that collide with Netdata's reserved labels

When these metrics are re-exported in Prometheus format, Netdata adds its own instance, family, chart, and dimension labels. If the scraped endpoint already uses one of those names, the re-export emits a duplicate label and a downstream Prometheus rejects the scrape. Rename the colliding labels to avoid it (the use case the former label_prefix option served).

<details open><summary>Config</summary>

yaml

jobs:
  - name: coredns
    url: http://127.0.0.1:9153/metrics
    relabeling:
      - match: '*'
        metric_relabel_configs:
          - regex: '(instance|family)'
            action: labelmap
            replacement: 'coredns_$1'
          - regex: '(instance|family)'
            action: labeldrop

</details>

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Metrics

This collector has built-in grouping logic based on the type of metrics.

Metric	Chart	Dimension(s)	Algorithm
Gauge	for each label set	one, the metric name	absolute
Counter	for each label set	one, the metric name	incremental
Summary (quantiles)	for each label set (excluding 'quantile')	for each quantile	absolute
Summary (sum and count)	for each label set	the metric name	incremental
Histogram (buckets)	for each label set (excluding 'le')	for each bucket	incremental
Histogram (sum and count)	for each label set	the metric name	incremental

Untyped metrics (have no '# TYPE') processing:

As Counter or Gauge depending on pattern match when 'fallback_type' is used.
As Counter if it has suffix '_total'.
As Summary if it has 'quantile' label.
As Histogram if it has 'le' label.

The rest are ignored.

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the prometheus collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].
bash
```
cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
```
Switch to the netdata user.
bash
```
sudo -u netdata -s
```
Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:
bash
```
./go.d.plugin -d -m prometheus
```
To debug a specific job:
bash
```
./go.d.plugin -d -m prometheus -j jobName
```

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the prometheus collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

bash

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep prometheus

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

bash

grep prometheus /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

bash

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep prometheus

Disappearing or sparse metrics not clearing alerts

When a metric disappears from the Prometheus endpoint response (for example, a gauge that is only exposed when its value is greater than 0), Netdata does not require any special value to stop tracking it. The Prometheus collector automatically detects metrics that are no longer present in the scrape response. After 10 consecutive collection cycles where the metric is absent, the associated chart is automatically removed and any alerts on that chart will clear. You do not need to send a special value (such as 0, NaN, or StaleNaN) — simply omitting the metric from the response is sufficient. Note that during the 10-cycle grace period, the last known value remains and alerts may not clear immediately.