windows_exporter/docs/collector.net.md

net collector

The net collector exposes metrics about network interfaces

Metric name prefix	net
Data source	Performance counters (Network Interface), GetAdaptersAddresses
Enabled by default?	Yes

Flags

--collector.net.nic-include

If given, an interface name needs to match the include regular expression in order for the corresponding metrics to be reported

Default: .+

--collector.net.nic-exclude

If given, an interface name needs to not match the exclude regular expression in order for the corresponding metrics to be reported

--collector.net.enabled

Comma-separated list of collectors to use. Defaults to all, if not specified. Supported values are: metrics, nic_info.

Default: metrics,nic_info

Interface names

The nic label is the instance name of the adapter in the Network Interface performance counter object. It is the adapter description with ( and ) replaced by [ and ], and #, / and \ replaced by _, for example Intel[R] PRO_1000 MT Network Connection _2. The include and exclude expressions match this name.

The mac label of windows_net_nic_info is empty for adapters without a physical address, like the loopback adapter.

Metrics

Name	Description	Type	Labels
windows_net_bytes_received_total	Total bytes received by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_bytes_sent_total	Total bytes transmitted by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_bytes_total	Total bytes received and transmitted by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_output_queue_length_packets	Length of the output packet queue (in packets). If this is longer than 2, delays occur.	gauge	nic
windows_net_packets_outbound_discarded_total	Total outbound packets that were chosen to be discarded even though no errors had been detected to prevent transmission	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_outbound_errors_total	Total packets that could not be transmitted due to errors	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_received_discarded_total	Total inbound packets that were chosen to be discarded even though no errors had been detected to prevent delivery	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_received_errors_total	Total packets that could not be received due to errors	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_received_total	Total packets received by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_received_unknown_total	Total packets received by interface that were discarded because of an unknown or unsupported protocol	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_total	Total packets received and transmitted by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_packets_sent_total	Total packets transmitted by interface	counter	nic
windows_net_current_bandwidth_bytes	Estimate of the interface's current bandwidth in bytes per second	gauge	nic
windows_net_nic_address_info	A metric with a constant '1' value labeled with the network interface's address information.	gauge	nic, address, family
windows_net_nic_info	A metric with a constant '1' value labeled with the network interface's general information.	gauge	nic, friendly_name, mac
windows_net_nic_operation_status	The operational status for the interface as defined in RFC 2863 as IfOperStatus.	gauge	nic, status

Route information is not collected. The previously listed windows_net_route_info metric was never emitted and has been removed from the supported metric list.

Example metric

Query the rate of transmitted network traffic

rate(windows_net_bytes_sent_total{instance="localhost"}[2m])

Useful queries

Get total utilisation of network interface as a percentage

rate(windows_net_bytes_total{instance="localhost", nic="Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter _2"}[2m]) / windows_net_current_bandwidth_bytes{instance="localhost", nic="Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter _2"} * 100

Alerting examples

prometheus.rules

- alert: NetInterfaceUsage
  expr: rate(windows_net_bytes_total[2m]) / windows_net_current_bandwidth_bytes * 100 > 95
  for: 10m
  labels:
    severity: high
  annotations:
    summary: "Network Interface Usage (instance {{ $labels.instance }})"
    description: "Network traffic usage is greater than 95% for interface {{ $labels.nic }}\n  VALUE = {{ $value }}\n  LABELS: {{ $labels }}"