Active Directory

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: windows

Overview

This collector monitors the performance of Windows machines, collects both host metrics and metrics from various Windows applications (e.g. Active Directory, MSSQL).

It collect metrics by periodically sending HTTP requests to Prometheus exporter for Windows machines, a native Windows agent running on each host.

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

It detects Windows exporter instances running on localhost (requires using Netdata MSI installer).

Using the Netdata MSI installer is recommended for testing purposes only. For production use, you need to install Netdata on a Linux host and configure it to collect metrics remotely.

Limits

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

Performance Impact

Data collection affects the CPU usage of the Windows host. CPU usage depends on the frequency of data collection and the enabled collectors.

Setup

Prerequisites

Install Windows exporter

To install the Windows exporter, follow the official installation guide.

Configuration

File

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

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

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

Options

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

Examples

Basic

A basic example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: win_server
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9182/metrics

HTTP authentication

Basic HTTP authentication.

jobs:
  - name: win_server
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9182/metrics
    username: username
    password: password

HTTPS with self-signed certificate

Do not validate server certificate chain and hostname.

jobs:
  - name: win_server
    url: https://192.0.2.1:9182/metrics
    tls_skip_verify: yes

Virtual Node

The Virtual Node functionality allows you to define nodes in configuration files and treat them as ordinary nodes in all interfaces, panels, tabs, filters, etc. You can create a virtual node for all your Windows machines and control them as separate entities.

To make your Windows server a virtual node, you need to define virtual nodes in /etc/netdata/vnodes/vnodes.conf:

Note: To create a valid guid, you can use the uuidgen command on Linux, or the [guid]::NewGuid() command in PowerShell on Windows.

# /etc/netdata/vnodes/vnodes.conf
- hostname: win_server
  guid: <value>

jobs:
  - name: win_server
    vnode: win_server
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9182/metrics

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Collecting metrics from multiple remote instances.

jobs:
  - name: win_server1
    url: http://192.0.2.1:9182/metrics

  - name: win_server2
    url: http://192.0.2.2:9182/metrics

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

The collected set of metrics depends on the enabled collectors.

Supported collectors:

• cpu
• iis
• memory
• net
• logical_disk
• os
• system
• logon
• tcp
• thermalzone
• process
• service
• mssql
• ad
• adcs
• adfs
• netframework_clrexceptions
• netframework_clrinterop
• netframework_clrjit
• netframework_clrloading
• netframework_clrlocksandthreads
• netframework_clrmemory
• netframework_clrremoting
• exchange
• hyperv

Per Active Directory instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored host.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Per cpu core

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per logical disk

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per network device

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per thermalzone

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per service

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per website

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per mssql instance

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per database

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per certificate template

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per process

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per exchange workload

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per ldap process

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per http proxy

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per vm

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per vm device

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per vm interface

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Per vswitch

TBD

Labels:

Metrics:

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

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 windows 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].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
  

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s
  

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m windows
  

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the windows 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:

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

System without systemd

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

grep windows /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:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep windows