How to Use NGINX Prometheus Exporter

NGINX Prometheus Exporter is a powerful tool that allows you to monitor NGINX web server metrics using Prometheus. With this exporter, you can gain valuable insights into your NGINX server's performance, track resource usage, and troubleshoot potential issues efficiently. In this article, we will guide you through the process of setting up and using the NGINX Prometheus Exporter to enhance your server monitoring capabilities.

Step 1: Install Prometheus and NGINX Prometheus Exporter

Before diving into the setup, ensure you have Prometheus installed on your system. You can download it from the official Prometheus website (https://prometheus.io/download/) and follow the installation instructions.

Next, download the NGINX Prometheus Exporter binary from its GitHub repository (https://github.com/nginxinc/nginx-prometheus-exporter/releases). Extract the archive and move the binary to a location of your choice.

tar -zxvf nginx-prometheus-exporter-<version>.tar.gz
mv nginx-prometheus-exporter-<version>/nginx-prometheus-exporter /usr/local/bin/

Step 2: Configure NGINX for Prometheus Exporter

To enable NGINX Prometheus Exporter, you need to make some modifications to your NGINX configuration file. Open the NGINX configuration file (usually located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf) and add the following lines inside the server block:

server {
    listen 9113; # Set the port as per your preference
    location /metrics {
        stub_status on;
    }
}

Save the changes and restart NGINX for the configuration to take effect.

sudo service nginx restart

Step 3: Run NGINX Prometheus Exporter

Now that you have configured NGINX, it's time to run the Prometheus Exporter. Execute the following command in your terminal:

nginx-prometheus-exporter -nginx.scrape-uri=http://localhost:9113/metrics

This command starts the exporter and configures it to scrape NGINX metrics from the specified URI.

Step 4: Configure Prometheus to Scrape NGINX Metrics

Open your Prometheus configuration file (usually located at /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml) and add the following job configuration:

- job_name: 'nginx'
  static_configs:
    - targets: ['localhost:9113']

Save the changes and restart Prometheus to apply the new configuration.

sudo service prometheus restart

Step 5: Access NGINX Metrics in Prometheus

Visit the Prometheus web UI (usually http://localhost:9090) and enter the NGINX metrics query in the query box. For example, you can use nginx_http_requests_total to get the total number of HTTP requests.

Explore the vast array of NGINX metrics provided by the exporter to monitor various aspects of your web server.

Additional Tips:

• Security Considerations: Ensure that the chosen port for the NGINX Prometheus Exporter is not publicly accessible to maintain the security of your server.
• Customize Metrics Collection: Modify the NGINX configuration and exporter flags to collect specific metrics based on your monitoring requirements.