ros-exporter

README

ros-exporter

Prometheus exporter for MikroTik RouterOS. It scrapes devices over the native API and exposes per-router metrics you can alert and graph on.

Use it when you already run Prometheus and need MikroTik CPU, memory, interfaces, and health (plus optional BGP, PPP, wireless, OSPF, or optics) without relying on SNMP.

Default listen address: :9483. Requires RouterOS v6.48+ and a read-only API user on each device.

Quick start

1. Download a release binary from Releases (verify checksums.txt if you pin installs).
2. Run it:

./ros-exporter -web.listen-address=:9483

1. Check liveness: curl -sS http://localhost:9483/-/healthy
2. Create the MikroTik API user (below), then point Prometheus at the exporter.

MikroTik API user

Create a dedicated read-only user and allow API only from the exporter host:

/user group add name=prometheus policy=read,api
/user add name=prometheus group=prometheus password=YOUR_STRONG_PASSWORD address=EXPORTER_IP_ADDRESS

Enable the API service (/ip service) for the exporter IP.

Prometheus scrape config

Multi-target pattern: Prometheus talks to the exporter; the exporter talks to each router.

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'mikrotik'
    scrape_interval: 1m
    scrape_timeout: 50s
    metrics_path: /metrics
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['192.168.88.1']
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__address__]
        target_label: __param_target
      - source_labels: [__param_target]
        target_label: instance
      - target_label: __address__
        replacement: localhost:9483
      - target_label: __param_password
        replacement: YOUR_STRONG_PASSWORD

Set Prometheus scrape_timeout greater than the exporter -scrape.timeout (default 10s).

Enable optional collectors with extra __param_collect_* labels (see below). Treat passwords in scrape config as secrets.

Endpoints

Path	Purpose
/metrics?target=HOST	Metrics for one RouterOS device
/-/metrics	Exporter process metrics
/-/healthy	Liveness
/-/ready	Readiness

Query parameters on /metrics: target (required), user, password, port, and the collect_* flags below.

Flags

Flag	Default	Meaning
-web.listen-address	:9483	Listen address
-web.telemetry-path	/metrics	Path for target scrapes
-scrape.timeout	10s	Budget for one full target scrape
-scrape.max-concurrent	25	Max concurrent RouterOS API connections
-version		Print version and exit

Optional collectors

Always collected: system (CPU, memory, uptime, storage, board), interfaces, and health (temperature, voltage, current, power, fan).

Turn these on per scrape (default off):

Parameter	Collects
collect_bgp=true	BGP peers (routing_instance label)
collect_ppp=true	PPP sessions and RX/TX bytes
collect_wireless=true	Wireless AP and station (legacy + wifiwave2)
collect_ospf=true	OSPF neighbors
collect_optics=true	Transceiver temperature and TX/RX power

Example relabel to enable wireless:

- target_label: __param_collect_wireless
  replacement: "true"

Is the scrape healthy?

mikrotik_up / mikrotik_connected only mean the API login worked. Use scrape success for completeness:

Metric	Meaning
mikrotik_up / mikrotik_connected	API login succeeded
mikrotik_scrape_success	No collector errors this scrape
mikrotik_last_scrape_error	1 if any collector failed
mikrotik_collector_error{collector=...}	Which collector failed
mikrotik_collector_supported{collector=...}	Collector enabled / available on the device
mikrotik_scrape_duration_seconds	How long the scrape took
mikrotik_build_info{version,commit}	Exporter build

Alert examples and upgrade notes: docs/ALERTS.md.

More

• Grafana dashboard
• systemd unit
• Alert contract
• MIT License

Build from source

Needs Go 1.25+:

go build -ldflags="-X main.version=dev -X main.commit=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" -o ros-exporter ./cmd/ros-exporter