Nginx Prometheus Exporter

12.8. Nginx Prometheus Exporter#

12.8.1. Download nginx-prometheus-exporter#

  • Download

  • Extract

  • Copy to /usr/local/bin

  • Set ownership and permissions

# mkdir -p /tmp/nginx_exporter_tmp && cd /tmp/nginx_exporter_tmp
# wget https://github.com/nginxinc/nginx-prometheus-exporter/releases/download/v1.2.0/nginx-prometheus-exporter_1.2.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
# tar axf nginx-prometheus-exporter_1.2.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
# cd nginx-prometheus-exporter
# cp nginx-prometheus-exporter /usr/local/bin

12.8.2. Create a system user#

# useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /bin/false nginx-exporter

12.8.3. Systemd configuration#

12.8.3.1. Nginx-prometheus-exporter systemd service file#

# Path:/etc/systemd/system/nginx-exporter.service

[Unit]
Description=NGINX Prometheus Exporter
Requires=nginx-exporter.socket

[Service]
User=nginx-exporter
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nginx-prometheus-exporter --nginx.scrape-uri="http://127.0.0.1/metrics" --web.systemd-socket

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

12.8.3.2. Nginx-prometheus-exporter systemd socket file#

# Path: /etc/systemd/system/nginx-exporter.socket

[Unit]
Description=NGINX Prometheus Exporter

[Socket]
ListenStream=9113

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

12.8.4. Modify the Prometheus configuration file#

# Path: /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

# Job, for nginx_exporter
  - job_name: 'nginx_exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9113'] # choose port number

12.8.5. Nginx configuration#

server {
   listen localhost;
   root /var/www/html;
   index index.html;
   server_name _;

   location /metrics {
      stub_status on;
      access_log off;
      allow 127.0.0.1;
      deny all;
      }

  }


## Create the Nginx symbolic link to enable the virtualhost file
# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nginx-exporter.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/nginx-exporter.conf
# nginx -t
# systemctl reload nginx
## Check with curl
# curl http://localhost/metrics

12.8.6. Restart everything#

# systemctl daemon-reload # Only necessary if modified
# systemctl enable --now node-exporter.service
# systemctl status node-exporter.service
# systemctl restart prometheus.service

12.8.7. Close the 9113 port with Nginx#

  • Change the nginx-exporter.socket file

# Path: /etc/systemd/system/nginx-exporter.socket

[Unit]
Description=NGINX Prometheus Exporter

# Add here the loopback ip address
[Socket]
ListenStream=127.0.0.1:9113

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

12.8.8. Add a new server block to Nginx#

server {
 listen 80;
 listen [::]:80;

 server_name ip_address | subdomain.ltd;
     location /nginx-exporter {
       proxy_pass http://localhost:9113;
       }

}

12.8.9. Create a new dashboard in Grafana#

You can now go to the Grafana dashboards and easily add the new dashboard for the Nginx Exporter program. Please make sure you choose the right Prometheus data source.