How Install node exporter on Ubuntu

Node Exporter is a Prometheus exporter that exposes hardware and OS metrics such as CPU, memory, disk usage, and network statistics. Prometheus scrapes these metrics to monitor your server performance. Installing node exporter on ubuntu enables you to collect and visualize these system metrics efficiently for better infrastructure monitoring.

Download Node Exporter

Go to the official Prometheus download page: Prometheus Node Exporter Releases

Or use wget with the latest version link. For example:

# Replace VERSION with the latest stable version
VERSION="1.7.2"
wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v${VERSION}/node_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz
Extract Node Exporter
tar xvfz node_exporter-version.linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd node_exporter-version.linux-amd64

You will see the node_exporter binary.

 Create a Node Exporter User

For security, run Node Exporter under a non-root user:

sudo useradd -rs /bin/false node_exporter
Move Binary to /usr/local/bin
sudo mv node_exporter /usr/local/bin/

Check by:

node_exporter --version

Create a Systemd Service

Create a service file so Node Exporter can run in the background and start at boot:

sudo vim/etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service

Add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=node_exporter
Group=node_exporter
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Step 6: Reload Systemd and Start Node Exporter
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start node_exporter
sudo systemctl enable node_exporter

Check status:

sudo systemctl status node_exporter

Verify Node Exporter

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://<server-ip>:9100/metrics

You should see Prometheus-formatted metrics like CPU usage, memory stats, disk IO, and more.

Configure Prometheus to Scrape Node Exporter

Edit Prometheus config file (prometheus.yml):

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'node_exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['<server-ip>:9100']

Reload Prometheus:

systemctl restart prometheus

Verify in Prometheus UI under Targets.

Conclusion

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