Standalone NIC Monitoring Debian Package Install

Standalone NIC Monitoring Debian Package Install#

This guide explains how to install and manage the AMD NIC Metrics Exporter using the Debian package artifacts published with each release.

System Requirements#

Make sure the target node meets the following requirements:

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (amd64)

  • Privileges: Root access (or sudo privileges) to install packages and manage systemd services

  • Networking Tools: ethtool and iproute2 (automatically pulled in by the package dependencies)

Prepare the Host#

Update the package metadata and install any pending security fixes before adding the exporter:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Note: For air-gapped environments, ensure ethtool and iproute2 are available locally, or mirror them in your repository so .deb dependencies can be resolved.

Install the NIC Metrics Exporter#

1. Install via APT#

Install Prerequisites#

  1. Update the package list and install necessary tools, keyrings and keys:

    # Install necessary tools
sudo apt update
sudo apt install vim wget gpg

# Create the keyrings directory with the appropriate permissions:
sudo mkdir --parents --mode=0755 /etc/apt/keyrings

# Download the ROCm GPG key and add it to the keyrings:
wget https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/rocm.gpg.key -O - | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg > /dev/null

  2. Edit or create the sources list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdnic-exporter.list to add the Device Metrics Exporter repository:

    On Ubuntu 22.04:

    deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg]  https://repo.radeon.com/device-metrics-exporter/nic/apt/1.0.0 jammy main

    On Ubuntu 24.04:

    deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg]  https://repo.radeon.com/device-metrics-exporter/nic/apt/1.0.0 noble main

  3. Update Package List and Install NIC Metrics Exporter

    # Update packages list
sudo apt update

# Install NIC metrics exporter
sudo apt install amdnic-exporter

2. Install using a downloaded .deb file#

Replace the filename with the specific Ubuntu version you are targeting (for example, amdnic-exporter_24.04_amd64.deb for Ubuntu 24.04):

sudo apt install ./amdnic-exporter_<ubuntu-version>_amd64.deb

Using apt ensures the ethtool and iproute2 dependencies are pulled in automatically. If you prefer to use dpkg, run sudo dpkg -i ./amdnic-exporter_<ubuntu-version>_amd64.deb followed by sudo apt install -f to resolve dependencies.

3. Enable and Start the Service#

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now amd-nic-metrics-exporter.service

Verify that the service is running:

systemctl status amd-nic-metrics-exporter.service

Check logs if you need to troubleshoot startup:

journalctl -u amd-nic-metrics-exporter.service -f

4. Validate Metrics Collection#

  • Scrape the metrics endpoint locally:

    curl http://127.0.0.1:5001/metrics | head

Metrics Exporter Default Settings#

  • Metrics endpoint: http://localhost:5001/metrics

  • Configuration file: /etc/metrics/config-nic.json

  • Log file: /var/log/amd-nic-metrics-exporter.log

  • Server port: 5001

The Exporter HTTP port is configurable via the ServerPort field in the configuration file.

Metrics Exporter Custom Configuration#

Update the configuration#

Edit the NIC configuration file to adjust scrape settings (for example, to change the port or enable additional metrics):

sudo vi /etc/metrics/config-nic.json

The exporter watches this file and automatically reloads the new settings when it changes. For reference, see example/config-nic.json.

Change the log file path#

  1. Open the systemd unit:

sudo vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/amd-nic-metrics-exporter.service

  1. Update the --log-file-path flag on the ExecStart line.

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/amd-nic-metrics-exporter --monitor-nic=true --monitor-gpu=false \
    --amd-metrics-config=/etc/metrics/config-nic.json \
    --log-file-path=/var/log/amd-nic-metrics-exporter.log

  1. Reload systemd and restart the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart amd-nic-metrics-exporter.service

Uninstall the Package#

sudo apt remove amdnic-exporter