Below, you can find instructions for configuring an apache server to:
Make sure your apache has mod_proxy
and mod_proxy_http
installed and enabled.
On Debian/Ubuntu systems, install apache, which already includes the two modules, using:
sudo apt-get install apache2
Enable them:
sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http
Also, enable the rewrite module:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
On any existing and already working apache virtual host, you can redirect requests for URL /netdata/
to one or more Netdata servers.
Add the following on top of any existing virtual host. It will allow you to access Netdata as http://virtual.host/netdata/
.
<VirtualHost *:80>
RewriteEngine On
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
<Proxy *>
Require all granted
</Proxy>
# Local Netdata server accessed with '/netdata/', at localhost:19999
ProxyPass "/netdata/" "http://localhost:19999/" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
ProxyPassReverse "/netdata/" "http://localhost:19999/"
# if the user did not give the trailing /, add it
# for HTTP (if the virtualhost is HTTP, use this)
RewriteRule ^/netdata$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}/netdata/ [L,R=301]
# for HTTPS (if the virtualhost is HTTPS, use this)
#RewriteRule ^/netdata$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/netdata/ [L,R=301]
# rest of virtual host config here
</VirtualHost>
Add the following on top of any existing virtual host. It will allow you to access multiple Netdata as http://virtual.host/netdata/HOSTNAME/
, where HOSTNAME
is the hostname of any other Netdata server you have (to access the localhost
Netdata, use http://virtual.host/netdata/localhost/
).
<VirtualHost *:80>
RewriteEngine On
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
<Proxy *>
Require all granted
</Proxy>
# proxy any host, on port 19999
ProxyPassMatch "^/netdata/([A-Za-z0-9\._-]+)/(.*)" "http://$1:19999/$2" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
# make sure the user did not forget to add a trailing /
# for HTTP (if the virtualhost is HTTP, use this)
RewriteRule "^/netdata/([A-Za-z0-9\._-]+)$" http://%{HTTP_HOST}/netdata/$1/ [L,R=301]
# for HTTPS (if the virtualhost is HTTPS, use this)
RewriteRule "^/netdata/([A-Za-z0-9\._-]+)$" https://%{HTTP_HOST}/netdata/$1/ [L,R=301]
# rest of virtual host config here
</VirtualHost>
IMPORTANT
The above config allows your apache users to connect to port 19999 on any server on your network.
If you want to control the servers your users can connect to, replace the ProxyPassMatch
line with the following. This allows only server1
, server2
, server3
and server4
.
ProxyPassMatch "^/netdata/(server1|server2|server3|server4)/(.*)" "http://$1:19999/$2" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
You can proxy Netdata through apache, using a dedicated apache virtual host.
Create a new apache site:
nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/netdata.conf
with this content:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ServerName netdata.domain.tld
<Proxy *>
Require all granted
</Proxy>
ProxyPass "/" "http://localhost:19999/" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
ProxyPassReverse "/" "http://localhost:19999/"
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/netdata-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/netdata-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Enable the VirtualHost:
sudo a2ensite netdata.conf && service apache2 reload
Assuming the main goal is to make Netdata running in HTTPS.
Go to "Apache & nginx Settings", and in the following section, add:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://localhost:19999/$1 [P,L]
Optional: If your server is remote, then replace "localhost" with your actual hostname or IP, it just works.
Repeat the operation for as many servers as you need.
If you wish to add an authentication (user/password) to access your Netdata, do these:
Install the package apache2-utils
. On Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
.
Then, generate password for user netdata
, using htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd netdata
Apache 2.2 Example:\ Modify the virtual host with these:
# replace the <Proxy *> section
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
# add a <Location /netdata/> section
<Location /netdata/>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Protected site"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Location>
Specify Location /
if Netdata is running on dedicated virtual host.
Apache 2.4 (dedicated virtual host) Example:
<VirtualHost *:80>
RewriteEngine On
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ServerName netdata.domain.tld
<Proxy *>
AllowOverride None
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Protected site"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Proxy>
ProxyPass "/" "http://localhost:19999/" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
ProxyPassReverse "/" "http://localhost:19999/"
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/netdata-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/netdata-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Note: Changes are applied by reloading or restarting Apache.
If you want to enable CSP within your Apache, you should consider some special requirements for the headers. Modify your configuration like that:
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src http: 'unsafe-inline' 'self' 'unsafe-eval'; script-src http: 'unsafe-inline' 'self' 'unsafe-eval'; style-src http: 'self' 'unsafe-inline'"
Note: Changes are applied by reloading or restarting Apache.
mod_evasive
moduleThe mod_evasive
Apache module helps system administrators protect their web server from brute force and distributed
denial-of-service attack (DDoS) attacks.
Because Netdata sends a request to the web server for every chart update, it's normal to create 20–30 requests per
second, per client. If you're using mod_evasive
on your Apache web server, this volume of requests will trigger the
module's protection, and your dashboard will become unresponsive. You may even begin to see 403 errors.
To mitigate this issue, you will need to change the value of the DOSPageCount
option in your mod_evasive.conf
file,
which can typically be found at /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_evasive.conf
or /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/evasive.conf
.
The DOSPageCount
option sets the limit of the number of requests from a single IP address for the same page per page
interval, which is usually 1 second. The default value is 2
requests per second. Netdata's typical usage will
exceed that threshold, and mod_evasive
will add your IP address to a blocklist.
Our users have found success by setting DOSPageCount
to 30
. Try this and raise the value if you continue to see 403
errors while accessing the dashboard.
DOSPageCount 30
Restart Apache with sudo systemctl restart apache2
, or the appropriate method to restart services on your system, to
reload its configuration with your new values.
To adjust the DOSPageCount
for a specific virtual host, open your virtual host config, which can be found at
/etc/httpd/conf/sites-available/my-domain.conf
or /etc/apache2/sites-available/my-domain.conf
and add the
following:
<VirtualHost *:80>
...
# Increase the DOSPageCount to prevent 403 errors and IP addresses being blocked.
<IfModule mod_evasive20.c>
DOSPageCount 30
</IfModule>
</VirtualHost>
See issues #2011 and #7658 for more information.
You might edit /etc/netdata/netdata.conf
to optimize your setup a bit. For applying these changes, you need to restart Netdata.
If you plan to use Netdata exclusively via apache, you can gain some performance by preventing double compression of its output (Netdata compresses its response, apache re-compresses it) by editing /etc/netdata/netdata.conf
and setting:
[web]
enable gzip compression = no
Once you disable compression at Netdata (and restart it), please verify you receive compressed responses from apache (it is important to receive compressed responses - the charts will be more snappy).
You would also need to instruct Netdata to listen only on localhost
, 127.0.0.1
or ::1
.
[web]
bind to = localhost
or
[web]
bind to = 127.0.0.1
or
[web]
bind to = ::1
You can also use a unix domain socket. This will also provide a faster route between apache and Netdata:
[web]
bind to = unix:/tmp/netdata.sock
Apache 2.4.24+ can’t read from /tmp
so create your socket in /var/run/netdata
[web]
bind to = unix:/var/run/netdata/netdata.sock
At the apache side, prepend the second argument to ProxyPass
with unix:/tmp/netdata.sock|
, like this:
ProxyPass "/netdata/" "unix:/tmp/netdata.sock|http://localhost:19999/" connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30 keepalive=on
If your apache server is not on localhost, you can set:
[web]
bind to = *
allow connections from = IP_OF_APACHE_SERVER
allow connections from
accepts Netdata simple patterns to match against the connection IP address.
Apache logs accesses and Netdata logs them too. You can prevent Netdata from generating its access log, by setting this in /etc/netdata/netdata.conf
:
[logs]
access = off
Make sure the requests reach Netdata, by examining /var/log/netdata/access.log
.