In this article, we’re going to look at how to Monitor a Linux System with Grafana and Telegraf. Telegraf metrics will be stored on InfluxDB, then we can visualize them on Grafana using a system dashboard.
A prerequisite for this setup is a Linux system and InfluxDB server. You can check our previous guides on:
How to Install InfluxDB on CentOS 7
Install InfluxDB on Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian 9
How to Install InfluxDB on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8
On the same guide, we defined what telegraf and InfluxDB are before demonstrating the installation steps.
Installing Telegraf on CentOS 7
Influxdata provides the repository for installing telegraf on CentOS 7. To add the repository to your system, use the commands:
sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/influxdb.repo
Add the following content:
[influxdb]
name = InfluxDB Repository - RHEL \$releasever
baseurl = https://repos.influxdata.com/rhel/\$releasever/\$basearch/stable
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey = https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdb.keyUpdate cache to confirm that the repository is working fine:
sudo yum makecache fast
Then install telegraf:
sudo yum -y install telegraf
Installing Telegraf on Ubuntu 18.04 / Debian 9
For a Debian 9 and Ubuntu 18.04, install telegraf using:
How to Install and Configure Telegraf on Ubuntu 18.04 / Debian 9
Install and Configure Telegraf on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8
Configure telegraf on Linux
A basic telegraf configuration with InfluxDB output and basic inputs to collect system metrics can look like below:
[global_tags]
# Configuration for telegraf agent
[agent]
interval = "10s"
debug = false
hostname = "server-hostname"
round_interval = true
flush_interval = "10s"
flush_jitter = "0s"
collection_jitter = "0s"
metric_batch_size = 1000
metric_buffer_limit = 10000
quiet = false
logfile = ""
omit_hostname = false
###############################################################################
# OUTPUTS #
###############################################################################
[[outputs.influxdb]]
urls = ["http://influxdb-ip:8086"]
database = "database-name"
timeout = "0s"
username = "auth-username"
password = "auth-password"
retention_policy = ""
###############################################################################
# INPUTS #
###############################################################################
[[inputs.cpu]]
percpu = true
totalcpu = true
collect_cpu_time = false
report_active = false
[[inputs.disk]]
ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs", "devfs"]
[[inputs.io]]
[[inputs.mem]]
[[inputs.net]]
[[inputs.system]]
[[inputs.swap]]
[[inputs.netstat]]
[[inputs.processes]]
[[inputs.kernel]]For a comprehensive list of inputs supported by Telegraf, visit Telegraf inputs Github page.
Replace:
server-hostname with your valid hostname.
http://influxdb-ip:8086 with your valid InfluxDB URL, IP address, and port.
database-name with InfluxDB database name for this host
auth-username with InfluxDB http authentication username.
auth-password with InfluxDB http authentication password.
Once all changes have been made, you can then start and enable the telegraf service:
sudo systemctl start telegraf && systemctl enable telegraf
This will automatically create the InfluxDB database if it doesn’t exist.
Add an InfluxDB data source to Grafana
You need to have Grafana installed, you can follow:
How to Install Grafana on CentOS 7
How to Install Grafana on Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian 9
How to Install Grafana on RHEL 8
Before you can add a dashboard to Grafana for Telegraf system metrics, you need to first import the data source. Login to your Grafana and go to Configuration > Data Sources > Add data source
Provide the following details:
- Name – Any valid name
- Type: InfluxDB
- HTTP URL: InfluxDB URL address e.g http://localhost:8086 for local db server
Under InfluxDB Details, provide:
- Database name as defined on telegraf configuration file
- HTTP authentication username and password as configured on telegraf.
Importing Grafana Dashboard
Once the data source has been added, the next thing is to import the dashboard. I customized one of the dashboards initially created by a user on the community and uploaded it.
Download the dashboard from https://grafana.com/dashboards/5955, it is in JSON format. The head over to Grafana > Import
Select Upload .json and upload downloaded file. Alternatively, you can use Grafana dashboard URL or ID – 5955. Under Options section, give it a unique name and select data source added earlier from the drop-down menu and click the import button.
You should see Metrics being visualized immediately.
Also, see:
Ctop – Top command for container metrics
How to Optimize Linux System with Stacer
Monitoring Ceph Cluster with Prometheus and Grafana
How to Monitor Redis Server with Prometheus and Grafana in 5 minutes
How to Monitor Linux Server Performance with Prometheus and Grafana in 5 minutes
How to Monitor BIND DNS server with Prometheus and Grafana
Monitoring MySQL / MariaDB with Prometheus in five minutes
