The `windows_exporter` will expose all metrics from enabled collectors by default. This is the recommended way to collect metrics to avoid errors when comparing metrics of different families.
For advanced use the `windows_exporter` can be passed an optional list of collectors to filter metrics. The `collect[]` parameter may be used multiple times. In Prometheus configuration you can use this syntax under the [scrape config](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#<scrape_config>).
```
params:
collect[]:
- foo
- bar
```
This can be useful for having different Prometheus servers collect specific metrics from nodes.
windows_exporter accepts flags to configure certain behaviours. The ones configuring the global behaviour of the exporter are listed below, while collector-specific ones are documented in the respective collector documentation above.
| `--telemetry.max-requests` | Maximum number of concurrent requests. 0 to disable. | `5` |
| `--collectors.enabled` | Comma-separated list of collectors to use. Use `[defaults]` as a placeholder which gets expanded containing all the collectors enabled by default." | `[defaults]` |
| `--collectors.print` | If true, print available collectors and exit. | |
| `--scrape.timeout-margin` | Seconds to subtract from the timeout allowed by the client. Tune to allow for overhead or high loads. | `0.5` |
| `--web.config.file` | A [web config][web_config] for setting up TLS and Auth | None |
| `--config.file` | [Using a config file](#using-a-configuration-file) from path or URL | None |
| `--config.file.insecure-skip-verify` | Skip TLS when loading config file from URL | false |
| `--log.file` | Output file of log messages. One of [stdout, stderr, eventlog, \<path to log file>]<br>**NOTE:** The MSI installer will add a default argument to the installed service setting this to eventlog | stderr |
Each release provides a .msi installer. The installer will setup the windows_exporter as a Windows service, as well as create an exception in the Windows Firewall.
| `ENABLED_COLLECTORS` | As the `--collectors.enabled` flag, provide a comma-separated list of enabled collectors |
| `CONFIG_FILE` | Use the `--config.file` flag to specify a config file. If empty, no config file will be set. The special value `config.yaml` set the path to the config.yaml at install dir | |
| `LISTEN_ADDR` | The IP address to bind to. Defaults to an empty string. (any local address) |
| `LISTEN_PORT` | The port to bind to. Defaults to `9182`. |
| `METRICS_PATH` | The path at which to serve metrics. Defaults to `/metrics` |
| `TEXTFILE_DIRS` | Use the `--collector.textfile.directories` flag to specify one or more directories, separated by commas, where the collector should read text files containing metrics |
| `REMOTE_ADDR` | Allows setting comma separated remote IP addresses for the Windows Firewall exception (allow list). Defaults to an empty string (any remote address). |
| `EXTRA_FLAGS` | Allows passing full CLI flags. Defaults to an empty string. For `--collectors.enabled` and `--config.file`, use the specialized properties `ENABLED_COLLECTORS` and `CONFIG_FILE` |
| `ADDLOCAL` | Enables features within the windows_exporter installer. Supported values: `FirewallException` |
| `REMOVE` | Disables features within the windows_exporter installer. Supported values: `FirewallException` |
Parameters are sent to the installer via `msiexec`.
On PowerShell, the `--%` should be passed before defining properties.
PowerShell versions 7.3 and above require [PSNativeCommandArgumentPassing](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/learn/experimental-features?view=powershell-7.3) to be set to `Legacy` when using `--% EXTRA_FLAGS`:
The Docker image is tagged with the version of the exporter. The `latest` tag is also available and points to the latest release.
Additionally, a flavor `hostprocess` with `-hostprocess` as suffix is based on the https://github.com/microsoft/windows-host-process-containers-base-image
which is designed to run as a Windows host process container. The size of that images is smaller than the default one.
When there are multiple processes with the same name, WMI represents those after the first instance as `process-name#index`. So to get them all, rather than just the first one, the [regular expression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression) must use `.+`. See [process](docs/collector.process.md) for more information.
YAML configuration files can be specified with the `--config.file` flag. e.g. `.\windows_exporter.exe --config.file=config.yml`. If you are using the absolute path, make sure to quote the path, e.g. `.\windows_exporter.exe --config.file="C:\Program Files\windows_exporter\config.yml"`
If you need to skip TLS verification, you can use the `--config.file.insecure-skip-verify` flag. e.g. `.\windows_exporter.exe --config.file="https://example.com/config.yml" --config.file.insecure-skip-verify`
