Node Exporter

This document describes how to configure your Google Kubernetes Engine deployment so that you can use Google Cloud Managed Service for Prometheus to collect metrics from Node Exporter. This document shows you how to do the following:

  • Set up Node Exporter to report metrics.
  • Access a predefined dashboard in Cloud Monitoring to view the metrics.
  • Configure alerting rules to monitor the metrics.

These instructions apply only if you are using managed collection with Managed Service for Prometheus. If you are using self-deployed collection, then see the source repository for Node Exporter for installation information.

These instructions are provided as an example and are expected to work in most Kubernetes environments. If you are having trouble installing an application or exporter due to restrictive security or organizational policies, then we recommend you consult open-source documentation for support.

Prerequisites

To collect metrics from Node Exporter by using Managed Service for Prometheus and managed collection, your deployment must meet the following requirements:

  • Your cluster must be running Google Kubernetes Engine version 1.28.15-gke.2475000 or later.
  • You must be running Managed Service for Prometheus with managed collection enabled. For more information, see Get started with managed collection.

  • To use dashboards available in Cloud Monitoring for the integration, you must use node_exporter version 1.3.1 or later.

    For more information about available dashboards, see Install dashboards.

These metrics are already enabled for nodes in GKE Autopilot clusters.

Install Node Exporter

You can use the following configuration to install Node Exporter:

# Copyright 2022 Google LLC # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: DaemonSet metadata:  namespace: gmp-public  name: node-exporter  labels:  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter  app.kubernetes.io/version: 1.8.2 spec:  selector:  matchLabels:  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter  updateStrategy:  type: RollingUpdate  rollingUpdate:  maxUnavailable: 10%  template:  metadata:  labels:  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter  app.kubernetes.io/version: 1.8.2  spec:  affinity:  nodeAffinity:  requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:  nodeSelectorTerms:  - matchExpressions:  - key: kubernetes.io/arch  operator: In  values:  - arm64  - amd64  - key: kubernetes.io/os  operator: In  values:  - linux  containers:  - name: node-exporter  image: quay.io/prometheus/node-exporter:v1.8.2  args:  - --web.listen-address=:8080  - --path.sysfs=/host/sys  - --path.rootfs=/host/root  - --no-collector.wifi  - --no-collector.hwmon  - --collector.filesystem.ignored-mount-points=^/(dev|proc|sys|var/lib/docker/.+|var/lib/kubelet/pods/.+)($|/)  - --collector.netclass.ignored-devices=^(veth.*)$  - --collector.netdev.device-exclude=^(veth.*)$  ports:  - name: metrics  containerPort: 8080  resources:  limits:  memory: 180Mi  requests:  cpu: 102m  memory: 180Mi  volumeMounts:  - mountPath: /host/sys  mountPropagation: HostToContainer  name: sys  readOnly: true  - mountPath: /host/root  mountPropagation: HostToContainer  name: root  readOnly: true  hostNetwork: true  hostPID: true  securityContext:  runAsNonRoot: true  runAsUser: 65534  volumes:  - hostPath:  path: /sys  name: sys  - hostPath:  path: /  name: root --- apiVersion: monitoring.googleapis.com/v1 kind: PodMonitoring metadata:  namespace: gmp-public  name: node-exporter  labels:  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter  app.kubernetes.io/part-of: google-cloud-managed-prometheus spec:  selector:  matchLabels:  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter  endpoints:  - port: metrics  interval: 30s

To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command: 

 kubectl apply -f FILE_NAME

You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.

Define rules and alerts

You can use the following Rules configuration to define alerts on your metrics:

# Copyright 2022 Google LLC # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. apiVersion: monitoring.googleapis.com/v1 kind: Rules metadata:  namespace: gmp-public  name: node-exporter-rules  labels:  app.kubernetes.io/component: rules  app.kubernetes.io/name: node-exporter-rules  app.kubernetes.io/part-of: google-cloud-managed-prometheus spec:  groups:  - name: node-exporter  interval: 30s  rules:  - alert: NodeFilesystemSpaceFillingUp  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available space left and is filling  up.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemspacefillingup  summary: Filesystem is predicted to run out of space within the next 24 hours.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 15  and  predict_linear(node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""}[6h], 24 * 60 * 60) < 0  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFilesystemSpaceFillingUp  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available space left and is filling  up fast.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemspacefillingup  summary: Filesystem is predicted to run out of space within the next 4 hours.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 10  and  predict_linear(node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""}[6h], 4*60*60) < 0  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: critical  - alert: NodeFilesystemAlmostOutOfSpace  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available space left.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemalmostoutofspace  summary: Filesystem has less than 5% space left.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 5  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 30m  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFilesystemAlmostOutOfSpace  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available space left.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemalmostoutofspace  summary: Filesystem has less than 3% space left.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_avail_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 3  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 30m  labels:  severity: critical  - alert: NodeFilesystemFilesFillingUp  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available inodes left and is filling  up.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemfilesfillingup  summary: Filesystem is predicted to run out of inodes within the next 24 hours.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_files{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 40  and  predict_linear(node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""}[6h], 24*60*60) < 0  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFilesystemFilesFillingUp  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available inodes left and is filling  up fast.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemfilesfillingup  summary: Filesystem is predicted to run out of inodes within the next 4 hours.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_files{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 20  and  predict_linear(node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""}[6h], 4*60*60) < 0  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: critical  - alert: NodeFilesystemAlmostOutOfFiles  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available inodes left.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemalmostoutoffiles  summary: Filesystem has less than 5% inodes left.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_files{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 5  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFilesystemAlmostOutOfFiles  annotations:  description: Filesystem on {{ $labels.device }} at {{ $labels.instance }}  has only {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}% available inodes left.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefilesystemalmostoutoffiles  summary: Filesystem has less than 3% inodes left.  expr: |  (  node_filesystem_files_free{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} / node_filesystem_files{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} * 100 < 3  and  node_filesystem_readonly{job="node-exporter",fstype!=""} == 0  )  for: 1h  labels:  severity: critical  - alert: NodeNetworkReceiveErrs  annotations:  description: '{{ $labels.instance }} interface {{ $labels.device }} has encountered  {{ printf "%.0f" $value }} receive errors in the last two minutes.'  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodenetworkreceiveerrs  summary: Network interface is reporting many receive errors.  expr: |  rate(node_network_receive_errs_total[2m]) / rate(node_network_receive_packets_total[2m]) > 0.01  for: 1h  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeNetworkTransmitErrs  annotations:  description: '{{ $labels.instance }} interface {{ $labels.device }} has encountered  {{ printf "%.0f" $value }} transmit errors in the last two minutes.'  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodenetworktransmiterrs  summary: Network interface is reporting many transmit errors.  expr: |  rate(node_network_transmit_errs_total[2m]) / rate(node_network_transmit_packets_total[2m]) > 0.01  for: 1h  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeHighNumberConntrackEntriesUsed  annotations:  description: '{{ $value | humanizePercentage }} of conntrack entries are used.'  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodehighnumberconntrackentriesused  summary: Number of conntrack are getting close to the limit.  expr: |  (node_nf_conntrack_entries / node_nf_conntrack_entries_limit) > 0.75  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeTextFileCollectorScrapeError  annotations:  description: Node Exporter text file collector failed to scrape.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodetextfilecollectorscrapeerror  summary: Node Exporter text file collector failed to scrape.  expr: |  node_textfile_scrape_error{job="node-exporter"} == 1  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeClockSkewDetected  annotations:  description: Clock on {{ $labels.instance }} is out of sync by more than 300s.  Ensure NTP is configured correctly on this host.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodeclockskewdetected  summary: Clock skew detected.  expr: |  (  node_timex_offset_seconds{job="node-exporter"} > 0.05  and  deriv(node_timex_offset_seconds{job="node-exporter"}[5m]) >= 0  )  or  (  node_timex_offset_seconds{job="node-exporter"} < -0.05  and  deriv(node_timex_offset_seconds{job="node-exporter"}[5m]) <= 0  )  for: 10m  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeClockNotSynchronising  annotations:  description: Clock on {{ $labels.instance }} is not synchronising. Ensure  NTP is configured on this host.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodeclocknotsynchronising  summary: Clock not synchronising.  expr: |  min_over_time(node_timex_sync_status{job="node-exporter"}[5m]) == 0  and  node_timex_maxerror_seconds{job="node-exporter"} >= 16  for: 10m  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeRAIDDegraded  annotations:  description: RAID array '{{ $labels.device }}' on {{ $labels.instance }} is  in degraded state due to one or more disks failures. Number of spare drives  is insufficient to fix issue automatically.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/noderaiddegraded  summary: RAID Array is degraded  expr: |  node_md_disks_required{job="node-exporter",device=~"(/dev/)?(mmcblk.p.+|nvme.+|rbd.+|sd.+|vd.+|xvd.+|dm-.+|dasd.+)"} - ignoring (state) (node_md_disks{state="active",job="node-exporter",device=~"(/dev/)?(mmcblk.p.+|nvme.+|rbd.+|sd.+|vd.+|xvd.+|dm-.+|dasd.+)"}) > 0  for: 15m  labels:  severity: critical  - alert: NodeRAIDDiskFailure  annotations:  description: At least one device in RAID array on {{ $labels.instance }} failed.  Array '{{ $labels.device }}' needs attention and possibly a disk swap.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/noderaiddiskfailure  summary: Failed device in RAID array  expr: |  node_md_disks{state="failed",job="node-exporter",device=~"(/dev/)?(mmcblk.p.+|nvme.+|rbd.+|sd.+|vd.+|xvd.+|dm-.+|dasd.+)"} > 0  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFileDescriptorLimit  annotations:  description: File descriptors limit at {{ $labels.instance }} is currently  at {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}%.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefiledescriptorlimit  summary: Kernel is predicted to exhaust file descriptors limit soon.  expr: |  (  node_filefd_allocated{job="node-exporter"} * 100 / node_filefd_maximum{job="node-exporter"} > 70  )  for: 15m  labels:  severity: warning  - alert: NodeFileDescriptorLimit  annotations:  description: File descriptors limit at {{ $labels.instance }} is currently  at {{ printf "%.2f" $value }}%.  runbook_url: https://runbooks.prometheus-operator.dev/runbooks/node/nodefiledescriptorlimit  summary: Kernel is predicted to exhaust file descriptors limit soon.  expr: |  (  node_filefd_allocated{job="node-exporter"} * 100 / node_filefd_maximum{job="node-exporter"} > 90  )  for: 15m  labels:  severity: critical  - name: node-exporter.rules  interval: 30s  rules:  - expr: |  count without (cpu, mode) (  node_cpu_seconds_total{job="node-exporter",mode="idle"}  )  record: instance:node_num_cpu:sum  - expr: |  1 - avg without (cpu) (  sum without (mode) (rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{job="node-exporter", mode=~"idle|iowait|steal"}[5m]))  )  record: instance:node_cpu_utilisation:rate5m  - expr: |  (  node_load1{job="node-exporter"}  /  instance:node_num_cpu:sum{job="node-exporter"}  )  record: instance:node_load1_per_cpu:ratio  - expr: |  1 - (  (  node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  or  (  node_memory_Buffers_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  +  node_memory_Cached_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  +  node_memory_MemFree_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  +  node_memory_Slab_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  )  )  /  node_memory_MemTotal_bytes{job="node-exporter"}  )  record: instance:node_memory_utilisation:ratio  - expr: |  rate(node_vmstat_pgmajfault{job="node-exporter"}[5m])  record: instance:node_vmstat_pgmajfault:rate5m  - expr: |  rate(node_disk_io_time_seconds_total{job="node-exporter", device=~"(/dev/)?(mmcblk.p.+|nvme.+|rbd.+|sd.+|vd.+|xvd.+|dm-.+|dasd.+)"}[5m])  record: instance_device:node_disk_io_time_seconds:rate5m  - expr: |  rate(node_disk_io_time_weighted_seconds_total{job="node-exporter", device=~"(/dev/)?(mmcblk.p.+|nvme.+|rbd.+|sd.+|vd.+|xvd.+|dm-.+|dasd.+)"}[5m])  record: instance_device:node_disk_io_time_weighted_seconds:rate5m  - expr: |  sum without (device) (  rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total{job="node-exporter", device!="lo"}[5m])  )  record: instance:node_network_receive_bytes_excluding_lo:rate5m  - expr: |  sum without (device) (  rate(node_network_transmit_bytes_total{job="node-exporter", device!="lo"}[5m])  )  record: instance:node_network_transmit_bytes_excluding_lo:rate5m  - expr: |  sum without (device) (  rate(node_network_receive_drop_total{job="node-exporter", device!="lo"}[5m])  )  record: instance:node_network_receive_drop_excluding_lo:rate5m  - expr: |  sum without (device) (  rate(node_network_transmit_drop_total{job="node-exporter", device!="lo"}[5m])  )  record: instance:node_network_transmit_drop_excluding_lo:rate5m

To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command: 

 kubectl apply -f FILE_NAME

You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.

For more information about applying rules to your cluster, see Managed rule evaluation and alerting.

This Rules configuration was adapted from the rules and alerts contributed to the kube-prometheus repository.

Verify the configuration

You can use Metrics Explorer to verify that you correctly configured Node Exporter. It might take one or two minutes for Cloud Monitoring to ingest your metrics.

To verify the metrics are ingested, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the  Metrics explorer page:

    Go to Metrics explorer

    If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.

  2. In the toolbar of the query-builder pane, select the button whose name is either  MQL or  PromQL.
  3. Verify that PromQL is selected in the Language toggle. The language toggle is in the same toolbar that lets you format your query.
  4. Enter and run the following query:
     up{job="node-exporter", cluster="CLUSTER_NAME", namespace="gmp-public"}

Install dashboards

Cloud Monitoring provides a library of sample dashboards for integrations. The sample library includes "Prometheus" dashboards, which you can install to view your data in the Google Cloud console.

Note that the Kubernetes Cluster Prometheus Overview dashboard requires Kube State Metrics to be installed. The Kubernetes Pod Prometheus Overview dashboard requires Kube State Metrics and Kubelet/cAdvisor to be installed.

To install a dashboard from the sample library, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the  Dashboards page:

    Go to Dashboards

    If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.

  2. Select the Sample Library tab.
  3. Choose the Other category.
  4. (Optional) To view a static preview of a dashboard without installing it, click Preview.
  5. Select the dashboards you want to install, then click  Import.

For more information about installing dashboards, see Installing sample dashboards.

Troubleshooting

For information about troubleshooting metric ingestion problems, see Problems with collection from exporters in Troubleshooting ingestion-side problems.