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NGINX Metrics

Collect and ship NGINX server metrics to Logstash and Elasticsearch.

Metricbeat is a lightweight shipper that helps you monitor your NGINX web servers by collecting metrics running on the NGINX server. Configure Metricbeat using the pre-defined examples below to collect and ship NGINX web service metrics and statistics to Logstash or Elasticsearch.

Step 1 - Install Metricbeat

deb (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint)

curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats//-oss-7.8.1-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i -oss-7.8.1-amd64.deb

rpm (CentOS/RHEL/Fedora)

curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats//-oss-7.8.1-x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -vi -oss-7.8.1-x86_64.rpm

macOS

curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats//-oss-7.8.1-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzvf -oss-7.8.1-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz

Windows

Download the Windows zip file from the official downloads page.
Extract the contents of the zip file into C:\Program Files.
Rename the -<version>-windows directory to ``.
Open a PowerShell prompt as an Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run As Administrator). If you are running Windows XP, you may need to download and install PowerShell.
Run the following commands to install as a Windows service:

cd 'C:\Program Files\'
.\install-service-.ps1

If script execution is disabled on your system, you need to set the execution policy for the current session to allow the script to run. For example: PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted -File .\install-service-.ps1.

My OS isn't here! Don't see your system? Check out the official downloads page for more options (including 32-bit versions).

Step 2 - Locate configuration file

deb/rpm /etc/metricbeat/metricbeat.yml
mac/win <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/metricbeat.yml

Step 3 - Configure output

We'll be shipping to Logstash so that we have the option to run filters before the data is indexed.
Comment out the elasticsearch output block.

## Comment out elasticsearch output
#output.elasticsearch:
#  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]

No input available! Your stack is missing the required input for this data source Talk to support to add the input

Step 4 - Validate configuration

Let's check the configuration file is syntactically correct by running directly inside the terminal. If the file is invalid, will print an error loading config file error message with details on how to correct the problem.

deb/rpm

sudo  -e -c /etc//.yml

macOS

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
./ -e -c .yml

Windows

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
.\.exe -e -c .yml

Step 5 - Enable module

There are several built in metricbeat modules you can use. To enable the NGINX module, run the following:

deb/rpm

metricbeat modules list
metricbeat modules enable nginx

macOS

./metricbeat modules list
./metricbeat modules enable nginx

Windows

PS > .\metricbeat.exe modules enable nginx

Step 6 - Configure module

Each module has its own configuration file where different metricsets can be enabled / disabled. Locate the configuration file for the NGINX module.

deb/rpm /etc/metricbeat/modules.d/nginx.yml

mac/win ~/<EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/modules.d/nginx.yml

By default the stubstatus metricset is disabled. To enable or disable a metric simply comment or uncomment the line out.

- module: nginx
  metricsets:
    - stubstatus
  period: 10s

  # NGINX hosts
  hosts: ["http://127.0.0.1"]

  # Path to server status. Default server-status
  server_status_path: "nginx_status"

  #username: "user"
  #password: "secret"

In order for the status metricset to work and correctly display the dashboard on Kibana, you will need to enable ngx_http_stub_status on your NGINX web server.

Step 7 - Start Metricbeat

Ok, time to start gathering metrics!

deb/rpm

sudo systemctl enable metricbeat
sudo systemctl start metricbeat

macOS

./metricbeat

Windows

PS C:\Program Files\Metricbeat> Start-Service metricbeat

Step 8 - Compatibility

The NGINX metricsets were tested with NGINX 1.9 and are expected to work with all versions >= 1.9.

Step 9 - NGINX Module Dashboard

The NGINX module comes with a predefined Kibana dashboard. To view your dashboards for any of your Logit.io stacks, launch Kibana and choose Dashboards.

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