Service Control

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What You'll Learn

How to start, stop, restart, and reload the Netdata Agent across different operating systems and service management systems.

The Netdata Agent automatically starts at boot after installation.

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Important

In most cases, you need to restart the Netdata service to apply changes to configuration files. Health configuration files, which define alerts, are an exception. They can be reloaded without restarting.

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Service Restart Impact

Restarting the Netdata Agent will cause temporary gaps in your collected metrics. This occurs while the netdata process reinitializes its data collectors and database engine.

UNIX

Using systemctl, service, or init.d

Action	Systemd	Non-systemd
start	sudo systemctl start netdata	sudo service netdata start
stop	sudo systemctl stop netdata	sudo service netdata stop
restart	sudo systemctl restart netdata	sudo service netdata restart

Using netdata

Use the netdata command, typically located at /usr/sbin/netdata, to start the Netdata daemon.

sudo netdata

If you start the daemon this way, close it with sudo killall netdata.

Using netdatacli

The Netdata Agent also comes with a CLI tool capable of performing shutdowns. Start the Agent back up using your preferred method listed above.

sudo netdatacli shutdown-agent

Reload health

No need to restart the Netdata Agent after modifying health configuration files (alerts). Use netdatacli to avoid metric collection gaps.

sudo netdatacli reload-health

Windows

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Administrator Access Required

You will need to run PowerShell as administrator.

Using Windows Services GUI

Manage Through Task Manager

If you prefer to manage the Agent through the GUI, you can start-stop and restart the Netdata service from the "Services" tab of Task Manager.

Using PowerShell Commands

• To start Netdata, run Start-Service Netdata.
• To stop Netdata, run Stop-Service Netdata.
• To restart Netdata, run Restart-Service Netdata.

Quick Reference

UNIX Commands Summary

Task	Systemd	Non-systemd	Direct Command
Start	sudo systemctl start netdata	sudo service netdata start	sudo netdata
Stop	sudo systemctl stop netdata	sudo service netdata stop	sudo killall netdata
Restart	sudo systemctl restart netdata	sudo service netdata restart	Stop + Start
Reload Health	sudo netdatacli reload-health	sudo netdatacli reload-health	sudo netdatacli reload-health
Shutdown	sudo netdatacli shutdown-agent	sudo netdatacli shutdown-agent	sudo netdatacli shutdown-agent

Windows Commands Summary

Task	PowerShell Command	GUI Location
Start	Start-Service Netdata	Task Manager > Services > Netdata
Stop	Stop-Service Netdata	Task Manager > Services > Netdata
Restart	Restart-Service Netdata	Task Manager > Services > Netdata