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Node Exporter is the standard Prometheus exporter for collecting hardware- and OS-level metrics from Linux hosts. It exposes CPU, memory, disk, network, kernel, and many other system metrics on an HTTP endpoint that Prometheus can scrape. To install Node Exporter, download the appropriate binary for your OS/architecture from the Prometheus downloads page and run it on the host you want to monitor. Always choose the latest stable release compatible with your environment.
The image shows instructions for installing Node Exporter with a section of downloadable binaries for different operating systems and architectures. It includes a menu option for copying the URL.
Download the Node Exporter binary that matches your OS/architecture. Optionally verify the SHA256 checksum listed on the release page with sha256sum before extracting the archive.

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Quick install (Linux example)

  1. Copy the download URL for the Node Exporter release that matches your architecture.
  2. Download the tarball with wget (or curl).
  3. Extract and run the binary.
Example commands:
When Node Exporter starts successfully, it logs the enabled collectors and the listening address. By default it listens on port 9100. Example log output:
Verify the metrics endpoint is responding:
Example snippet of the metrics output:
The metrics endpoint includes many metrics collected by Node Exporter (CPU, memory, network, disk, kernel stats, etc.). Prometheus can scrape this endpoint to ingest those metrics. If you prefer to pick the artifact from the website UI, right-click the specific Node Exporter artifact on the Prometheus download page and copy its link address, then use wget with that URL.
The image shows a list of downloadable software packages for "node_exporter," "promlens," "pushgateway," and "statsd_exporter," including details such as version, OS, architecture, size, and SHA256 checksum.
Exposing the metrics endpoint publicly can leak system details. Restrict access with a firewall, network ACLs, or run Node Exporter behind a VPN. Consider removing or protecting sensitive metrics if necessary.

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Add Node Exporter to Prometheus scrape targets

After Node Exporter is running and reachable on port 9100, add the host as a scrape target in your prometheus.yml under scrape_configs. Example:
You can also view the metrics in a browser at http://<host>:9100/metrics for a human-readable listing.

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Useful commands and tips

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Running Node Exporter as a service (optional)

To run Node Exporter continuously, create a systemd unit (or equivalent init script) that starts the node_exporter binary at boot. Ensure the service runs with least privileges and that metrics access is restricted as needed.

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