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Start, stop, or restart the Netdata Agent

When you install the Netdata Agent, the daemon is configured to start at boot and stop and restart/shutdown.

You will most often need to restart the Agent to load new or editing configuration files. Health configuration files are the only exception, as they can be reloaded without restarting the entire Agent.

Stopping or restarting the Netdata Agent will cause gaps in stored metrics until the netdata process initiates collectors and the database engine.

Using systemctl, service, or init.d​

This is the recommended way to start, stop, or restart the Netdata daemon.

  • To start Netdata, run sudo systemctl start netdata.
  • To stop Netdata, run sudo systemctl stop netdata.
  • To restart Netdata, run sudo systemctl restart netdata.

If the above commands fail, or you know that you're using a non-systemd system, try using the service command:

  • service: sudo service netdata start, sudo service netdata stop, sudo service netdata restart

Using netdata​

Use the netdata command, typically located at /usr/sbin/netdata, to start the Netdata daemon. 

sudo netdata

If you start the daemon this way, close it with sudo killall netdata.

Using netdatacli​

The Netdata Agent also comes with a CLI tool capable of performing shutdowns. Start the Agent back up using your preferred method listed above.

sudo netdatacli shutdown-agent

Reload health configuration​

You do not need to restart the Netdata Agent between changes to health configuration files, such as specific health entities. Instead, use netdatacli and the reload-health option to prevent gaps in metrics collection.

sudo netdatacli reload-health

If netdatacli doesn't work on your system, send a SIGUSR2 signal to the daemon, which reloads health configuration without restarting the entire process.

killall -USR2 netdata

Force stop stalled or unresponsive netdata processes​

In rare cases, the Netdata Agent may stall or not properly close sockets, preventing a new process from starting. In these cases, try the following three commands:

sudo systemctl stop netdata
sudo killall netdata
ps aux| grep netdata

The output of ps aux should show no netdata or associated processes running. You can now start the Netdata Agent again with service netdata start, or the appropriate method for your system.

What's next?​

Learn more about securing the Netdata Agent.

You can also use the restart/reload methods described above to enable new features:

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