NetData

What is NetData?

NetData is a real-time performance monitoring tool that needs essentially no configuration: point it at a host and it starts charting CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, and per-process metrics immediately in a web dashboard. Laradock runs it from the official netdata/netdata image with access to the host's /proc, /sys, and the Docker socket, so it can monitor the machine Docker itself is running on, not just the container.

Start NetData

Laradock CLI

./laradock start netdata

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d netdata

Stop NetData

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop netdata

Docker Compose

docker compose stop netdata

To remove the container:

Laradock CLI

./laradock remove netdata

Docker Compose

docker compose rm -sf netdata

Configuration

All settings live in netdata/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
NETDATA_PORT	19999	Host-side port the NetData dashboard is published on (container port 19999).

View the dashboard

Open http://localhost:19999. Charts update live, no login or setup required, NetData ships wide open by default (no auth on the dashboard), so don't expose NETDATA_PORT beyond your local machine or a trusted network.

What it can see

netdata/compose.yml mounts the host's /proc and /sys read-only and adds the SYS_PTRACE capability, so NetData reports on the Docker host itself (all processes, all containers), not just its own container. It also mounts /var/run/docker.sock read-only to report per-container Docker stats.

Data retention (metrics are not persisted by default)

netdata/compose.yml doesn't mount a volume for NetData's own storage (/var/cache/netdata for its metrics database, /etc/netdata for config), so everything NetData collects and any dashboard settings live only inside the running container's writable layer:

• ./laradock stop netdata / docker compose stop netdata keeps the container intact, history is safe across a stop/start.
• ./laradock remove netdata / docker compose rm -sf netdata deletes the container, and with it all collected history. The next start boots a completely empty NetData with no charts before it, exactly as if freshly installed, there's nothing to explicitly "wipe" beyond removing the container.

If you want metrics and config to survive a remove/rebuild, add your own bind mounts to netdata/compose.yml before starting it for the first time:

volumes:
  - /proc:/host/proc:ro
  - /sys:/host/sys:ro
  - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
  - netdata-lib:/var/lib/netdata
  - netdata-cache:/var/cache/netdata
  - netdata-config:/etc/netdata

(declare netdata-lib, netdata-cache, and netdata-config under a top-level volumes: key). This isn't Laradock's default, since NetData is normally used for live/short-term monitoring rather than long-term retention, add it only if you specifically need history to outlive a container recreate.

Check status via the API

NetData exposes its own data over a REST API, useful for scripting or a quick health check without opening the dashboard:

curl http://localhost:19999/api/v1/info

Common issues

• Port already in use on your host. Change NETDATA_PORT in .env and restart: ./laradock restart netdata.
• Metrics look like they're for the whole machine, not just Laradock. That's expected, NetData mounts the host's /proc and /sys, so it reports on everything running on the Docker host, not a sandboxed view of just this project.
• Missing per-process detail. Some deeper process-level metrics need the SYS_PTRACE capability, already granted in netdata/compose.yml; if you're running a hardened Docker setup that strips capabilities globally, NetData's visibility will be reduced.
• All my charts disappeared. Expected if you ran ./laradock remove netdata (or rebuilt it): metrics aren't persisted by default, see Data retention above.

---

Want application logs instead of host metrics? See Graylog. Want metrics with PromQL and dashboards? See Prometheus and Grafana. New to Laradock? Start with Getting Started.