Option 1: Install via Ubuntu 22.04 package repo (Jammy Jellyfish)
If you're running Ubuntu 22.04 or later, the easiest method is through the APT package manager:
root@data1:~# apt install prometheus-node-exporter
This will install and configure the Node Exporter as a service automatically.
Option 2: Manually install from binary (if not using APT)
If you need a custom setup or are on a system without package access, you can manually install the Node Exporter from a tarball.
Step 1: Download the latest release from GitHub
root@data1:~# wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v*/node_exporter-*.*-amd64.tar.gz
You can replace the asterisks with the actual version number, such as
v1.7.0.
Step 2: Extract the tarball
root@data1:~# tar xvfz node_exporter-*.*-amd64.tar.gz
Step 3: Navigate to the extracted folder
root@data1:~# cd node_exporter-*.*-amd64
Step 4: Start the Node Exporter
root@data1:~/node_exporter-*.*-amd64# ./node_exporter
You should now see logs similar to this, confirming that the exporter is up and running on port 9100:
INFO[0000] Starting node_exporter (version=0.16.0, branch=HEAD, revision=d42bd70...) source="node_exporter.go:82"
INFO[0000] Listening on :9100 source="node_exporter.go:111"
Verifying Node Exporter Metrics
To make sure the exporter is serving metrics correctly, open a new terminal tab or background the previous command and run:
root@data1:~# curl http://localhost:9100/metrics
If successful, you'll get a list of Prometheus metrics, like so:
# HELP go_gc_duration_seconds A summary of the GC invocation durations.
# TYPE go_gc_duration_seconds summary
go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0"} 3.8996e-05
...
To filter for system-specific metrics (prefixed with node_):
root@data1:~# curl http://localhost:9100/metrics | grep "node_"
Success! Node Exporter is now running and exposing system-level metrics that Prometheus can scrape on port 9100.
Let me know when you’re ready for the next article.