Node Exporter Lite

Introduction

An ultra‑light Prometheus node_exporter replacement, written in Nim. It compiles into a single static binary with zero external dependencies. You do not need Nim or GCC installed on your machine; that will be handled by the containerized build.

A minimal, high‑performance implementation of the standard node_exporter metrics with extremely low memory and CPU usage. Ideal for resource‑constrained systems, embedded devices, and environments where a compact, easy‑to‑distribute exporter is required.

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Key Features

• Small Footprint: Container images and binaries are typically around 400 kB.
• Memory (RSS): Typically under 1MB under normal load.
• CPU Usage: Negligible (<0.1% on most modern systems).
• Zero Dependencies: Statically linked against musl; runs on any Linux distro.
• Modern Nim: Leverages ARC memory management and LTO (Link Time Optimization) for maximum speed.
• Lightweight Drop‑in Replacement: Compatible with Prometheus’ standard node_exporter metrics, making it a seamless, ultra‑small alternative for resource‑constrained systems.

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Official node_exporter vs lite version

Aspect	Node Exporter (official)	node_exporter-lite
Language	Go	Nim
Binary size	~22 MB	~500 kB
Footprint	~23 MB	< 1 MB
Collectors	Many (modular, configurable)	fixed
Configuration	Extensive flags	Little to none
Resource usage	Higher (depends on collectors)	Low and predictable
Platform	Many *nix systems	Linux only
Scope	Full system observability	Core system metrics only
Complexity	Higher	Very low
Use case	General-purpose monitoring	Lightweight

Equivalent configuration

node_exporter-lite roughly provides the same core metrics as running the official Node Exporter with a minimal collector set:

node_exporter \
  --collector.disable-defaults \
  --collector.cpu \
  --collector.diskstats \
  --collector.entropy \
  --collector.filefd \
  --collector.filesystem \
  --collector.loadavg \
  --collector.meminfo \
  --collector.netdev \
  --collector.pressure \
  --collector.stat \
  --collector.time \
  --collector.uname

Building

This project uses a multi-stage Containerfile to ensure a consistent build environment. You do not need Nim or GCC installed on your host machine.

Build as a Container Image

To build a runnable container image for Podman or Docker, run:

podman build -t node_exporter .

Once the image is built, start it with:

podman run \
  --detach \
  --name node_exporter \
  --publish 9100:9100 \
  -v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
  -v /sys:/host/sys:ro \
  node_exporter \
    --path.rootfs=/host

This setup mounts the host’s /proc and /sys into the container so that the exporter can read system metrics from the host instead of the container environment.

If you want the exporter to access host-level process information, you can add --pid=host.

Build a static binary for the host

To produce a fully self‑contained static binary you can run directly on the host, build the image with:

podman build --target binary -o ./bin .

This places the compiled binary in ./bin. Run it with:

./bin/node_exporter

Options

Flag	Description
--web.listen-address=[ADDR]:PORT	Address and port to listen on (default: 0.0.0.0:9100)
--path.rootfs=/host	Path to the real host root filesystem (default: /)
--help	Show this help message