Setup Node Exporter with Systemd

Updated: at 06:59 PM

Installing Node Exporter with Systemd

Node Exporter is a Prometheus exporter that collects hardware and OS metrics from your Linux systems. This guide explains how to install and configure Node Exporter as a systemd service on Ubuntu Linux VPS instances.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Create a System User for Node Exporter

For security reasons, it’s best to run Node Exporter as a dedicated non-privileged user:

sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false node_exporter

This creates a system user without a home directory and with a non-functional shell.

Step 2: Download and Install Node Exporter

Download the latest version of Node Exporter from the official GitHub repository:

# Set the version you want to install
NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION=1.9.0

# Download the binary
wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}/node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

# Extract the archive
tar xvf node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

# Copy the binary to /usr/local/bin
sudo cp node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/

# Set ownership to the node_exporter user
sudo chown node_exporter:node_exporter /usr/local/bin/node_exporter

# Clean up the downloaded files
rm -rf node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64 node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Step 3: Create a Systemd Service File

Create a systemd service file to manage Node Exporter:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service

Add the following content to the file:

[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=node_exporter
Group=node_exporter
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

# Optional: Add custom collectors or disable default collectors
# ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --collector.disable-defaults --collector.cpu --collector.meminfo

# Security enhancements
CapabilityBoundingSet=
NoNewPrivileges=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
ReadWritePaths=
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 4: Enable and Start the Node Exporter Service

Reload systemd to recognize the new service file, then enable and start Node Exporter:

# Reload systemd configuration
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Start Node Exporter
sudo systemctl start node_exporter

# Enable Node Exporter to start at boot
sudo systemctl enable node_exporter

Step 5: Verify the Installation

Check if Node Exporter is running correctly:

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status node_exporter

# Verify that Node Exporter is exposing metrics
curl http://localhost:9100/metrics

You should see a large output of metrics if Node Exporter is working correctly.

Step 6: Configure Firewall (Optional)

If you’re using UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall), you may want to allow access to Node Exporter only from your Prometheus server:

# Replace prometheus-server-ip with the actual IP of your Prometheus server
sudo ufw allow from prometheus-server-ip to any port 9100

Step 7: Test from Prometheus Server

From your Prometheus server, verify that it can scrape metrics from Node Exporter:

curl http://your-vps-ip:9100/metrics

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

  1. Check the service status:

    sudo systemctl status node_exporter

  2. View the logs:

    sudo journalctl -u node_exporter

  3. Verify the port is open:

    sudo ss -tulpn | grep 9100

  4. Check firewall rules:

    sudo ufw status

Customizing Node Exporter

Node Exporter provides many collectors that can be enabled or disabled. To see all available options:

/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --help

To customize which collectors are enabled, modify the ExecStart line in the systemd service file. For example, to disable all collectors by default and only enable specific ones:

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --collector.disable-defaults --collector.cpu --collector.meminfo --collector.filesystem --collector.netdev

After making changes to the service file, reload systemd and restart Node Exporter:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart node_exporter

All in One Script

If you prefer a one-liner script to install Node Exporter, you can use the following:

#!/bin/bash
# Node Exporter installation script

# Exit on any error
set -e

echo "=== Installing Node Exporter as a systemd service ==="

# Create system user
echo "Creating system user..."
sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false node_exporter || true

# Set version and download Node Exporter
NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION=1.9.0
echo "Downloading Node Exporter v${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}..."
wget -q https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}/node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

# Extract and install
echo "Extracting and installing Node Exporter..."
tar xvf node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz > /dev/null
sudo cp node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/
sudo chown node_exporter:node_exporter /usr/local/bin/node_exporter

# Create systemd service file
echo "Creating systemd service file..."
cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service > /dev/null
[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=node_exporter
Group=node_exporter
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

# Security enhancements
CapabilityBoundingSet=
NoNewPrivileges=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
ReadWritePaths=
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Enable and start service
echo "Enabling and starting Node Exporter service..."
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start node_exporter
sudo systemctl enable node_exporter

# Clean up downloaded files
echo "Cleaning up..."
rm -rf node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64 node_exporter-${NODE_EXPORTER_VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

# Verify installation
echo "Verifying installation..."
if systemctl is-active --quiet node_exporter; then
    echo "✅ Node Exporter is running successfully!"
    echo "✅ Metrics are available at: http://$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'):9100/metrics"
else
    echo "❌ Node Exporter installation failed. Check logs with: sudo journalctl -u node_exporter"
    exit 1
fi

# Print service status
echo -e "\nService status:"
sudo systemctl status node_exporter --no-pager

Conclusion

You now have Node Exporter installed and running as a systemd service on your Ubuntu VPS. This will expose system metrics that Prometheus can scrape, allowing you to monitor your server’s performance and health through Grafana dashboards.

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