prometheus / prometheus/node_exporter
Feature Request: Add vm_sysctl collector to expose /proc/sys/vm/* tunables like vm.max_map_count
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Go
- Stars
- 13.8k
- Forks
- 2.7k
- Avg merge
- 1d 23h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 8
Description
I'd like to propose adding a new collector named vm_sysctl to the Node Exporter that exposes tunable values from /proc/sys/vm/, such as:
- vm.max_map_count
- vm.swappiness
- vm.dirty_ratio
These are important for monitoring system-level kernel memory limits and are especially critical for applications like Elasticsearch, which depend on specific vm.max_map_count values.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
The issue names no implementation files or tests; start by locating the Node Exporter collector registration and existing collectors that read /proc-backed values. Define the vm_sysctl scope and metric naming from the requested tunables, then verify that the collector exposes vm.max_map_count, vm.swappiness, and vm.dirty_ratio correctly.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go, linux, prometheus
- Domain
- observability, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100