# Collectd Add Ons

* See the [collectd first steps](https://collectd.org/wiki/index.php/First_steps) for installation.
* Once installed, configure the [write\_graphite](https://collectd.org/documentation/manpages/collectd.conf.5.shtml#plugin_write_graphite) collectd plugin with the following settings:

```
Host "carbon.hostedgraphite.com"
Port "2003"
Prefix "<your-api-key>.collectd."
```

* Your API key can be found on the main page of your Hosted Graphite account.

Review the [write\_graphite](https://collectd.org/documentation/manpages/collectd.conf.5.shtml#plugin_write_graphite) plugin documentation for details of the other write\_graphite plugin settings.

### Downloadable Configuration:

You can download a configuration file for collectd, pre-filled with your Hosted Graphite account details, from our Agents page. These configurations are compatible with multiple versions of collectd but we provide v5.2 and v5.4 for the purpose of keeping the config file as close to the default one as possible.

<figure><img src="/files/ysYUP7nIWZ4XGdy3XtyG" alt=""><figcaption><p>Configure the collectd Agent</p></figcaption></figure>

By default, a number of [collectd plugins](https://collectd.org/wiki/index.php/Table_of_Plugins) are enabled including CPU, DF (file system usage), disk, entropy, interface, load, memory, processes, rrdtool, swap, users, and as previously mentioned write\_graphite. There are also many other configureable plugins for DNS, IP Tables, Kafka, Logstash, MQTT, nginx, Postgres, Redis, SNMP, and more!&#x20;

Once downloaded, you can place this file in `/etc/collectd/` (or where ever you’ve configured collectd to store its config file). Then restart the collectd daemon:

`sudo service collectd restart` or `sudo systemctl restart collectd`

Roughly 150 default metrics per machine will arrive within minutes, and will be prefixed with: `collectd.*`

### Collectd Dashboard:

There is a collectd dashboard (v5.4) which you can generate using our [Dashboard Library](/dashboard-and-graphs/dashboard-library.md).

<figure><img src="/files/jgP5R8gn1AeDyEqkkOAZ" alt=""><figcaption><p>Collectd Dashboard</p></figcaption></figure>

This dashboard aims to provide an overview of the default plugins provided by collectd, and can be further customized depending on which collectd plugins are enabled in your **collectd.conf** file.


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