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Netdata

Real-time infrastructure and application monitoring platform

infra

Alternative to: Prometheus, Grafana, Nagios, Zabbix, Datadog, New Relic, Sensu, Dynatrace

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v2.1.0

2024-12-19

Table of Contents

Netdata Growth

  • 1.5 million downloads per day
  • 72.6k GitHub stars!
  • 651M Docker Hub pulls!

Netdata continues to experience phenomenal growth, with over 1.5 million downloads daily through Cloudflare and Docker Hub, fueling observability for users worldwide.

Thanks to your unwavering support ❤️, Netdata is the leader in the observability category in the CNCF landscape, ahead of all other solutions, including Elasticsearch, Grafana, and Prometheus, in GitHub stars. This demonstrates the trust and admiration of our community.

This success drives rapid adoption among enterprises, reflecting the growing recognition of Netdata as the go-to observability solution for both cloud-native and on-premises environments. Our commitment remains steadfast: to deliver cutting-edge, AI-powered observability with unmatched performance and simplicity—all while being significantly more affordable.

As we evolve, our focus on empowering businesses with higher-fidelity AI insights ensures Netdata remains the easiest and fastest way to optimize infrastructure and applications at any scale. 🚀

You like Netdata? Give Netdata a ⭐ too, on GitHub!

Release Summary

This release focuses heavily on streaming functionality, enabling unprecedented scalability, reduced CPU overhead, and optimized memory utilization. Netdata has been re-architected to meet the demands of enterprise environments while maintaining its hallmark ease of use and affordability.

Release Summary

This release focuses heavily on streaming functionality, enabling unprecedented scalability, reduced CPU overhead, and optimized memory utilization. Netdata has been re-architected to meet the demands of enterprise environments while maintaining its hallmark ease of use and affordability.

Release Highlights

Major Performance and Scalability Improvements

This release significantly enhances Netdata’s performance and streaming capabilities, with particular focus on multi-parent infrastructures:

  • Optimized CPU Usage: Streamlined ML model distribution and improved thread management reduce CPU utilization by 30–50% in parent-child setups.
  • Smarter Memory Management: New features prevent out-of-memory situations while maximizing cache usage for better query performance.
  • Enhanced Multi-Parent Scalability: Improved load balancing and connection handling for more stable operation at scale.
  • Optimized Query Processing: Prioritized handling of user queries ensures responsive experience even under heavy load.

Detailed Technical Improvements:

CategoryFeatureBenefit
CPU OptimizationML Model Streaming• ML models now stream between Netdata Agents alongside metric data
• Options for edge or central ML training
• 30-50% CPU reduction in parent-child setups
• Note: Next major version will disable ML training on children by default
Thread Management• Streaming threads fixed to match CPU cores
• Single thread handles ingestion and re-streaming per node
• Reduced context switches and cross-CPU communication
Memory ManagementOut-of-Memory Protection• Dynamic cache adjustment maintains 10% system memory buffer (max 5 GiB)
• Container-aware (supports cgroups v1 and v2)
• Configurable via [db].dbengine out of memory protection
Cache Optimization• Option to utilize all available memory for caching
• Reduced disk I/O on busy parent nodes
• Enable with [db].dbengine use all ram for caches
ML Training Management• Dynamic queue management prevents memory overload
• Consistent performance during heavy ML workloads
ScalabilityParent Cluster Load Distribution• Random parent selection for load distribution
• Prevents single-node bottlenecks in large deployments
Connection Handling• Randomized reconnection timing
• Prevents connection floods
• Smoother large-scale reconnect handling
Query PerformanceQuery Prioritization• Immediate response to user queries under any load
• Connection operations get secondary priority
• Background tasks (replication, ML) yield to high-priority operations
• Quick new node integration through expedited backfilling
Real-Time Response• Responsive user experience during heavy processing
• Efficient concurrent query handling
• Maintains performance during high-load background operations

Cloud: Automated Room Assignment with Label-Based Rules

Netdata Cloud Dashboard introduces node rule-based room assignment—a powerful new feature that transforms how you organize your infrastructure monitoring:

  • Dynamic Room Assignment: Nodes are automatically placed into relevant rooms based on their host labels, eliminating manual organization.
  • Rule-Based Management: Create flexible rules using host labels to define where nodes belong, ensuring consistent organization.
  • Scale-Ready Architecture: As your infrastructure grows, new nodes are automatically sorted into appropriate rooms, maintaining clean monitoring structure.

Dynamic Room Allocation

Cloud: Configurable Alert Repeat Notifications

Netdata Cloud enhances alert management with customizable notification repeats:

  • Custom Repeat Intervals: Set how often you want to be reminded about ongoing alerts for each notification channel.
  • Automated Follow-ups: Receive automatic notification repeats for unresolved alerts based on your specified timeframe.
  • Channel-Specific Settings: Configure different repeat frequencies for each integration to match your workflow.

Repeat Notifications Help Text

Cloud: Pin Your Essential Charts with Dashboard Favorites

Netdata Cloud Dashboard introduces favorites pinning for faster access to your critical monitoring views:

  • One-Click Pinning: Select and pin your most important charts and sections directly from the dashboard.
  • Quick-Access Organization: Pinned items appear at the top of your Table of Contents for instant visibility.

Favourites

Dynamic Configuration: Bulk Operations for Collectors and Alerts

Dynamic Configuration in Netdata now supports bulk operations on monitoring settings. You can perform the following operations on multiple collector jobs and health checks at once:

  • Enable/Disable
  • Restart
  • Delete

Acknowledgments

  • @orisano for removing a duplicated row in logging readme.

Contributions

Collectors

Improvements
Bug fixes
  • Prevent connection leak when Ping fails (go.d/mongodb) (#19232, @ilyam8)
  • Properly release file locks during service reload (go.d.plugin) (#19153, #19154 @ilyam8)
  • Handle “HPE Smart Array” line in HPSSA collector (go.d/hpssa) (#19084, @ilyam8)
  • Handle missing sysName gracefully in SNMP collector (go.d/snmp) (#18970, @ilyam8)
Other

Packaging/Installation

All changes

Documentation

All changes

Other Notable Changes

Improvements
Bug Fixes
  • Dynamic updates of Virtual Host name now properly sync to Netdata Cloud (#19163, @stelfrag)
Other

Deprecation notice

Important Changes in Next Major Release

This release will be the last version supporting the following legacy components:

Deprecated Components

Component TypeVersions Being Deprecated
APIsv1, v2
Dashboardsv0, v1

What This Means

Starting with the next major release, only the v3 API and v3 Dashboard will be supported. These newer versions offer improved performance, enhanced features, and better security.

Important Changes in Next Release

1. Removal of go.d Windows Collector

The go.d Windows collector will be removed in the next release. Users should migrate to the native Windows Netdata Agent.

2. Kubernetes Service Discovery Changes

Removed Components

The Agent Service Discovery sidecar container will be removed from the Netdata Helm chart as this functionality is now natively integrated into the go.d.plugin.

Impact on Custom Configurations

If you have custom Kubernetes service discovery configurations, you will need to update your settings in the following sections:

Old SectionNew SectionDescription
discoverydiscoverSection for configuring the Kubernetes service discoverer
buildcomposeSection for creating data collection job configurations
Example Migration

  • Previous Configuration Format

    discovery:
  k8s:
    - tags: unknown
      role: pod
      local_mode: true
build:
  - name: "Applications"
    selector: '!unknown applications'
    tags: file
    apply:
      - selector: apache
        template: |
          - module: apache
            name: apache-{{.TUID}}
            url: http://{{.Address}}/server-status?auto

  • New Configuration Format

    # Root sections renamed to "discover" and "compose"
discover:
  - discoverer: k8s
    k8s:
      - tags: unknown
        role: pod
        pod:
          local_mode: yes
compose:  # Renamed from "build"
  - name: "Applications"
    selector: "app"
    config:  # Renamed from "apply"
      - selector: "apache"
        template: |
          - module: apache
            name: apache-{{.TUID}}
            url: http://{{.Address}}/server-status?auto

Required Actions

  • Migrate to the new syntax before upgrading
  • Refer to the current Netdata Helm chart service discovery configuration for the updated syntax.

Support options

As we grow, we stay committed to providing the best support ever seen from an open-source solution. Should you encounter an issue with any of the changes made in this release or any feature in the Netdata Agent, feel free to contact us through one of the following channels:

  • Premium Support: Customers who wish to have a direct channel with Netdata and prioritized support with defined SLAs can contact us.
  • Netdata Learn: Find documentation, guides, and reference material for monitoring and troubleshooting your systems with Netdata.
  • GitHub Issues: Make use of the Netdata repository to report bugs or open a new feature request.
  • GitHub Discussions: Join the conversation around the Netdata development process and be a part of it.
  • Community Forums: Visit the Community Forums and contribute to the collaborative knowledge base.
  • Discord Server: Jump into the Netdata Discord and hang out with like-minded sysadmins, DevOps, SREs, and other troubleshooters. More than 2000 engineers are already using it!
Changelog on GitHub →