Netdata gives you deep, real-time visibility into your server's CPU, memory, disk, network, and application metrics — with almost no configuration required. Here's how to get it running on your Gozunga Cloud VPS and connected to your Netdata Cloud account in under 10 minutes.

1. Overview
2. Create Your Gozunga Account - First, Sign Up to access your dashboard.
3. Launch an Instance - Any existing VPS works; or create a fresh one.
4. Install the Netdata Agent - One command installs everything.
5. (Optional) Configure Security Groups - Only needed for direct local access.
6. Connect to Netdata Cloud - Claim your node and view metrics in the cloud dashboard.
7. Next Steps and More Information

1. Overview

Netdata is an open-source, real-time monitoring platform that automatically discovers and monitors thousands of metrics across your entire stack — from system-level CPU and memory to application-level metrics for Nginx, MySQL, Redis, Docker, and hundreds more.

The setup has two parts: installing the lightweight Netdata agent on your VPS, and connecting it to your free Netdata Cloud account. Once connected, your metrics stream securely to the cloud dashboard — no inbound firewall rules required, no VPN, no complex setup.

💡 Pro Tip: Netdata Cloud's Community (free) tier supports up to 5 active connected nodes — plenty for most small setups. If you need more, the Business plan runs $4.50/node/month and adds unlimited dashboards, data retention, and enterprise integrations. See Netdata Cloud pricing for details.

2. Create your Gozunga Account

If you haven't yet done so, Create an Account. You can sign up for free and get $100 in credits to get started! This is enough to run multiple VPS instances for months while you explore the platform.

Why choose Gozunga Cloud for your infrastructure monitoring setup?

• High-performance infrastructure with 99.99% uptime SLA
• 24/7 expert support to help you every step of the way
• Flexible scaling - start small and grow as needed

3. Launch an Instance

Netdata's agent is lightweight and runs well alongside any existing workload. If you're adding monitoring to an existing server, skip to Step 4.

If you need a fresh VPS for monitoring purposes:

• Login to Gozunga's Cloud Management Portal, and create a Project for your monitoring infrastructure.
• From the Server pane, click Create a Cloud Server
• Select Ubuntu 24.04 and any instance size — even an st.small1 works for running Netdata
• Choose your network settings and SSH key, then click Create Server

Take note of the server's IP address once it's running.

4. Install the Netdata Agent

SSH into your server and run the Netdata kickstart script. This single command handles everything: dependency installation, service setup, and auto-discovery of your running services.

# Download and run the Netdata kickstart installer
wget -O /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh https://get.netdata.cloud/kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh

# The installer will:
# - Detect your OS and install the appropriate packages
# - Configure Netdata as a systemd service
# - Auto-discover running services (Nginx, MySQL, Docker, etc.)
# - Start the agent immediately on port 19999

The installation takes 1-3 minutes. Once complete, the agent starts automatically and begins collecting metrics.

Verify the agent is running

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status netdata

# Confirm the agent is collecting data
curl -s http://localhost:19999/api/v1/info | python3 -m json.tool | head -20

You should see "status": "ok" in the output confirming the agent is active.

5. (Optional) Configure Security Groups

By default, Netdata sends metrics outbound to Netdata Cloud — no inbound ports are required for normal operation. If you want direct local access to the Netdata agent's built-in web UI (e.g. from your own IP address), you can open port 19999 with a security group rule.

💡 Pro Tip: For most users, opening port 19999 publicly is unnecessary and inadvisable. Access your metrics through Netdata Cloud instead — it's more secure and works from anywhere.

If you do want direct local access:

• Choose Networking → Security Groups in the Cloud Management Portal
• Create or edit a security group and add the following rule:

Netdata Local Web UI - TCP/19999 (optional, your IP only)

• Apply the security group to your virtual machine instance via the Security Groups tab on the instance.

6. Connect to Netdata Cloud

This is where Netdata really shines. By claiming your node in Netdata Cloud, you get a centralized dashboard for all your servers with historical data, anomaly detection, and alert management.

Create a Netdata Cloud account

• Sign up for a free account at app.netdata.cloud if you don't already have one
• Create a Space (a workspace for grouping your nodes) and a War Room inside it (e.g. Gozunga Servers)

Claim your node

• From your War Room, click Add Nodes
• Netdata Cloud will display a claim command with your unique claim token, similar to:

# Run this on your VPS — copy the exact command from your Netdata Cloud dashboard
# It will contain your unique token and room IDs
sudo netdata-claim.sh -token=YOUR_CLAIM_TOKEN -rooms=YOUR_ROOM_ID -url=https://app.netdata.cloud

• Paste and run this command on your server
• Within a few seconds, your node will appear in your Netdata Cloud War Room

What you'll see in Netdata Cloud

Once claimed, you get immediate access to:

• Real-time dashboards — CPU, RAM, disk I/O, network throughput, system load
• Per-process metrics — see exactly which processes are consuming resources
• Application metrics — auto-discovered from Nginx, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, and 800+ more integrations
• Anomaly detection — ML-based alerting that learns your server's normal behavior
• Alert management — configure alert notifications via email, Slack, PagerDuty, or webhooks

💡 Pro Tip: If you're running multiple Gozunga Cloud servers, repeat the install and claim steps on each one. They'll all appear in the same War Room. Keep in mind the free Community tier covers up to 5 nodes — upgrade to Business if your fleet grows beyond that.

7. Next Steps and More Information

After setting up Netdata, you can:

• Monitor CPU, memory, disk, and network in real time across your entire fleet
• Receive intelligent alerts when something goes wrong — before your users notice
• Explore hundreds of auto-discovered application integrations
• Set up custom dashboards for your specific stack
• Use Netdata's built-in ML anomaly detection to catch unusual behavior early

For more information about Netdata features and capabilities, visit the official Netdata documentation.

Ready to deploy? Get $100 in free credits and start hosting your applications on Gozunga Cloud today!