Get started with Netdata Cloud

Ready to get real-time visibility into your entire infrastructure with Netdata Cloud? This guide will walk you through the onboarding process, such as setting up your Space and War Room and connecting your first nodes.

Before you start

Before you get started with Netdata Cloud, you should have the open-source Netdata monitoring agent installed. See our installation guide for details.

If you already have the Netdata agent running on your node(s), make sure to update it to v1.32 or higher. Read the updating documentation for information on how to update based on the method you used to install Netdata on that node.

Begin the onboarding process

Get started by signing in to Netdata. Read the sign in doc for details on the authentication methods we use.

Once signed in with your preferred method, a General War Room and a Space named for your login email are automatically created. You can configure more Spaces and War Rooms to help you you organize your team and the many systems that make up your infrastructure. For example, you can put product and infrastructure SRE teams in separate Spaces, and then use War Rooms to group nodes by their service (nginx), purpose (webservers), or physical location (IAD).

Don't worry! You can always add more Spaces and War Rooms later if you decide to reorganize how you use Netdata Cloud.

Connect your nodes

From within the created War Rooms, Netdata Cloud prompts you to connect your nodes to Netdata Cloud. Non-admin users can users can select from existing nodes already connected to the space or select an admin from a provided list to connect node. You can connect any node running Netdata, whether it's a physical or virtual machine, a Docker container, IoT device, and more.

The connection process securely connects any node to Netdata Cloud using the Agent-Cloud link. By connecting a node, you prove you have write and administrative access to that node. Connecting to Cloud also prevents any third party from connecting a node that you control. Keep in mind:

• You can only connect any given node in a single Space. You can, however, add that connected node to multiple War Rooms within that one Space.
• You must repeat the connection process on every node you want to add to Netdata Cloud.

Netdata Cloud ensures your data privacy by not storing metrics data from your nodes. See our statement on Netdata Cloud data privacy for details on the data that's streamed from your nodes and the connecting to cloud doc for details about why we implemented the connection process and the encryption methods we use to secure your data in transit.

To connect a node, select which War Rooms you want to add this node to with the dropdown, then copy the script given by Netdata Cloud into your node's terminal.

Hit Enter. The script should return Agent was successfully claimed.. If the claiming script returns errors, or if you don't see the node in your Space after 60 seconds, see the troubleshooting information.

Repeat this process with every node you want to add to Netdata Cloud during onboarding. You can also add more nodes once you've finished onboarding by clicking the Connect Nodes button in the Space management area.

Alternatives and other operating systems

Docker: You can execute the claiming script Netdata running as a Docker container, or attach the claiming script when creating the container for the first time, such as when you're spinning up ephemeral containers. See the connect an agent running in Docker documentation for details.

Without root privileges: If you want to connect an agent without using root privileges, see our connect documentation.

With a proxy: If your node uses a proxy to connect to the internet, you need to configure the node's proxy settings. See our connect through a proxy doc for details.

Add bookmarks to essential resources

When an anomaly or outage strikes, your team needs to access other essential resources quickly. You can use Netdata Cloud's bookmarks to put these tools in one accessible place. Bookmarks are shared between all War Rooms in a Space, so any users in your Space will be able to see and use them.

Bookmarks can link to both internal and external resources. You can bookmark your app's status page for quick updates during an outage, a messaging system on your organization's intranet, or other tools your team uses to respond to changes in your infrastructure.

To add a new bookmark, click on the Add bookmark link. In the panel, name the bookmark, include its URL, and write a short description for your team's reference.

What's next?

You finish onboarding by inviting members of your team to your Space. You can also invite them later. At this point, you're ready to use Cloud.

Next, learn about the organization and interfaces behind Spaces and War Rooms.

If you're ready to explore, check out how to use the Overview dashboard, which is the default view for each new War Room you create.