nginx-stats.md

Basic stats for Nginx

This tutorial will show how to collect Nginx real-time connection metrics, like active, reading, writing, waiting. Including protection with simple auth_basic.

Do not forget to change the value in between < and > symbols to your own value!

First create .htpasswd file

# Go to nginx directory
cd /etc/nginx

# There are various online websites
# where you can easily generate 
# login / password pair
# if you don't trust them
# use htpasswd CLI as shown below
htpasswd .htpasswd <username>
# You will be asked to prompt a password for the user.

Nginx configuration

Let's assume you're editing /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

# Go to the sites-available directory
cd /etc/nginx/sites-available/
# Edit `default` file, we using nano in the example below, you're free to use your favorite editor
nano default

Configuration:

server {
  listen 80 default_server deferred;
  server_name example.com;

  location / {
    # Return empty response or do something else here
    return 204;
  }

  location ~ ^/ngstat/ {
    # Use auth_basic with .htpasswd created above
    auth_basic "Show your pass please";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;

    try_files $uri @stat;
  }

  location @stat {
    # Internal redirect
    rewrite ^(.*)$ /__$1 last;
  }

  # Return as JSON
  location /__/ngstat/json {
    # This block is accessible only
    # after successful authentication
    internal;
    default_type "application/json";
    return 200 "{\"active\":$connections_active, \"reading\":$connections_reading, \"writing\":$connections_writing, \"waiting\":$connections_waiting}";
  }

  # Return as XML
  location /__/ngstat/xml {
    # This block is accessible only
    # after successful authentication
    internal;
    default_type "text/xml";
    return 200 "<data><active>$connections_active</active><reading>$connections_reading</reading><writing>$connections_writing</writing><waiting>$connections_waiting</waiting></data>";
  }
}

Make sure configuration syntax is valid

service nginx configtest

Reload configuration to apply changes

service nginx reload

Test endpoints

Next URLs will ask for login and password and return Nginx stats upon successful authentication:

http://example.com/ngstat/json
http://example.com/ngstat/xml

Add endpoint at ostr.io:

1. Go to Monitoring
2. Click on "Add Endpoint"
3. To select server type-in its name
4. Select "HTTP" (or HTTPS) in "Protocol" drop-down list
5. Select desired "Check Frequency"
6. Click on "Add authentication"
7. Enter username provided to htpasswd command
8. Enter password provided to htpasswd command
9. Click on "Add" button
10. Done!