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HardwareExporterWindows

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A Prometheus exporter for Windows hardware metrics using LibreHardwareMonitor.

Grafana Dashboard

Grafana Dashboard

A ready-to-use Grafana dashboard is included at docs/grafana-dashboard.json. Import it via Grafana UI (Dashboards > Import > Upload JSON file).

Dashboard sections: CPU Overview, CPU Temperature, CPU Power & Voltage, Fans, Memory, GPU (Temperature / Load / VRAM / Power / Clock / PCIe), Disk (Temperature / Space / Health / IO / Throughput), Network (Utilization / Throughput / Data Transferred).

Upcoming breaking change: legacy LHM metric names will be removed ≥ 2026-08-15

Until ee6b1c2 (2026-05-08), LHM-derived metrics were emitted as hardware_<type>_<sensor_type>_<name> carrying LHM's native units (GB for Data, MB for SmallData, B/s for Throughput). That naming was unit-implicit and the Data variant being GB-quantized integer made rate(hardware_storage_data_*[5m]) return 0 over short windows.

The exporter now emits Prometheus-conventional aliases in parallel with the legacy form: *_bytes_per_second for Throughput sensors and *_bytes for Data / SmallData sensors, with values normalized to base SI units. The legacy form will be removed in a release tagged on or after 2026-08-15. See CHANGELOG.md for the full mapping table.

To prepare:

  1. Re-import docs/grafana-dashboard.json — it was migrated to aliases on 2026-05-08.
  2. Audit custom dashboards / alert rules: 
    {__name__=~"hardware_(storage|memory|network|gpu)_(throughput|data)_.*"}
    Anything returned is on a name that will go away.
  3. Set HardwareMonitor:EmitLegacyMetricNames to false in appsettings.json to preview the post-removal /metrics output without actually removing anything yet.

Sensors without a unit (temperature, fan, voltage, power, clock, load, level, factor) are unaffected — their legacy form is the only form, and the EmitLegacyMetricNames flag does not silence them.

SMART (S.M.A.R.T. disk attributes)

LibreHardwareMonitor cannot read SMART data from disks attached behind SAS HBAs (LSI/Avago, Adaptec, etc.) because those disks appear as SCSI devices and require SAT (SCSI/ATA Translation) pass-through that the library does not implement. To cover that gap, this exporter bundles smartctl and emits a parallel set of metrics under the hardware_storage_smart_* prefix.

Bundled binaries live in <install-dir>\smartctl\ (≈1.4 MB total). They are invoked as a separate process; smartmontools is GPLv2+ and is included as a separate, unmodified executable. See smartctl\COPYING.txt and smartctl\README.txt for full attribution.

To use a different smartctl.exe (e.g. a newer version), set SmartMonitor:SmartctlPath in appsettings.json. To disable the SMART collector entirely, set SmartMonitor:Enable to false.

SMART metric examples

# Drive temperature, including SAS HBA-attached SATA disks
hardware_storage_smart_temperature_celsius{device="/dev/sda", model="WDC  WUH721816ALE6L4", serial="3HGHU16P", protocol="ata", firmware="PCGNW232"} 34

# Overall self-assessment (1 = passed, 0 = failed)
hardware_storage_smart_health_passed{device="/dev/sda", ...} 1

# ATA SMART attribute table (per-id)
hardware_storage_smart_ata_attribute_raw{device="/dev/sda", ..., id="5", name="Reallocated_Sector_Ct"} 0
hardware_storage_smart_ata_attribute_raw{device="/dev/sda", ..., id="9", name="Power_On_Hours"} 31120

# NVMe-specific
hardware_storage_smart_nvme_percentage_used{device="/dev/sdi", model="SAMSUNG MZWLL3T2HAJQ-00005", ...} 6
hardware_storage_smart_nvme_media_errors{device="/dev/sdi", ...} 0

SMART configuration

Option Type Default Description
SmartMonitor:Enable bool true Enable the SMART collector
SmartMonitor:SmartctlPath string "" Override smartctl.exe path (empty = bundled)
SmartMonitor:RefreshIntervalSeconds int 60 How often to re-poll smartctl. Refresh is asynchronous; /metrics always serves the most recent cached snapshot, so Prometheus scrape latency is unaffected. Note: reading SMART can wake idle HDDs, so don't set this too aggressively.
SmartMonitor:InvocationTimeoutSeconds int 15 Per-disk timeout for a single smartctl call
SmartMonitor:DeviceExcludePatterns string[] [] Glob patterns matched against /dev/sdN names; matching devices are skipped

Caching and refresh model

Both collectors run their own background refresh loop and serve /metrics from an in-memory cache. The Prometheus scrape never triggers a hardware read directly. There are two independent caches:

Cache Config option Default Lower bound
LibreHardwareMonitor (CPU / GPU / memory / motherboard / network / native SATA SMART / NVMe) HardwareMonitor:ScrapeIntervalSeconds 15s 1s
smartctl (full SMART table for every disk, incl. those behind SAS HBA) SmartMonitor:RefreshIntervalSeconds 60s 15s

Both fire one eager refresh at service start, so the first scrape after launch already has data — no warmup gap.

Why two different defaults

  • HardwareMonitor covers fast-changing telemetry (CPU temperature, GPU load, fan RPM). 15s matches the default Prometheus scrape interval, so client-visible staleness stays imperceptible.
  • SmartMonitor reads slow-changing health attributes (temperature drifts in minutes, reallocated-sectors in days). More importantly, every smartctl invocation against an idle HDD spins it back up — running it on the scrape path would prevent disks from ever sleeping. 60s is the floor where that's actually tolerable.

Effective staleness

What a Prometheus client sees is bounded by cache_interval + scrape_interval. With defaults:

  • LibreHardwareMonitor metrics: ≤ 30 s old
  • SMART metrics: ≤ 75 s old

When to retune

  • Want a 1Hz dashboard: set HardwareMonitor:ScrapeIntervalSeconds=1. Don't touch SmartMonitor — 15s is already the lower bound and it'd thrash idle drives.
  • Have AHCI-attached SATA HDDs you want to actually spin down: bump HardwareMonitor:ScrapeIntervalSeconds to ≥ 60s. LHM's Update() issues IOCTL_ATA_PASS_THROUGH SMART READ DATA to those disks, which counts as activity for ATA standby_timer. (SAS-HBA-attached disks are unaffected — LHM can't read SMART through SAT, only perfmon, which doesn't wake the disk.)
  • NVMe-only host with no power concerns: defaults are fine.

Why

windows_exporter's thermal zone data is not accurate

This exporter provides accurate hardware monitoring data by using LibreHardwareMonitor library directly.

Features

  • ✅ Accurate CPU, GPU, Memory, Motherboard, Network, and Storage metrics
  • ✅ GPU support for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel (including Arc discrete GPUs)
  • ✅ Runs as Windows Service
  • ✅ Configurable hardware monitoring (enable/disable specific components)
  • ✅ Prometheus-compatible metrics format
  • ✅ Low resource usage with singleton pattern
  • ✅ Structured logging

Installation

Prerequisites

  • Windows 10/11 or Windows Server 2016+
  • .NET 10.0 Runtime (or SDK for development)
  • Administrator privileges (required for hardware access)

PawnIO (kernel driver for low-level sensors)

LibreHardwareMonitor reads CPU MSRs (temperature, voltage) and the motherboard Super-I/O chip (fan speeds, board voltages) through a ring-0 kernel driver. Since LibreHardwareMonitor 0.9.5 that driver is PawnIO — a signed, HVCI/Memory-Integrity-compatible replacement for the old WinRing0 driver.

PawnIO is bundled with this exporter and installed automatically. The MSI installer (and install.ps1) runs HardwareExporterWindows.exe --install-pawnio, which creates the Root\PawnIO device and installs the driver package in <install-dir>\pawnio\ — headless, no extra tooling. The step is idempotent (skipped if PawnIO is already present) and non-fatal (a failure does not abort the install).

If PawnIO is not installed, the exporter still runs and still reports GPU, memory, network, storage and SMART metrics — but hardware_cpu_temperature_*, hardware_cpu_voltage_* and all hardware_motherboard_* sensors are absent. It degrades; it does not fail.

Running from source (dotnet run) does not install PawnIO. For development, install it once from https://pawnio.eu/, or run HardwareExporterWindows.exe --install-pawnio from an elevated prompt.

PawnIO is GPLv2 — bundled as a separate, unmodified, signed driver; see <install-dir>\pawnio\COPYING and pawnio\README.txt.

Quick Start

Option 1: MSI Installer (Recommended)

  1. Download HardwareExporterWindows-win-x64.msi from the latest release
  2. Double-click the MSI file to install
  3. The installer will automatically:
    • Copy files to C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter
    • Install and start the Windows Service
    • Configure firewall rules

Option 2: Manual Installation with PowerShell Script

  1. Download HardwareExporterWindows-win-x64.zip from the latest release
  2. Extract to C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter
  3. Run PowerShell as Administrator
  4. Execute the installation script:
cd "C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter"
.\install.ps1

The script will:

  • Copy files to the installation directory
  • Create a Windows Firewall rule
  • Register and start the Windows Service

Manual Installation

# Register as Windows Service
New-Service -Name "HardwareExporter" `
    -BinaryPathName "C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter\HardwareExporterWindows.exe" `
    -StartupType "Automatic" `
    -Description "Hardware Exporter Service"

# Start the service
Start-Service -Name "HardwareExporter"

Configuration

Edit appsettings.json to customize the exporter:

{
  "HardwareMonitor": {
    "EnableCpu": true,
    "EnableGpu": true,
    "EnableMemory": true,
    "EnableMotherboard": true,
    "EnableController": true,
    "EnableNetwork": true,
    "EnableStorage": true,
    "ScrapeIntervalSeconds": 15
  },
  "Urls": "http://0.0.0.0:9888"
}

Configuration Options

Option Type Default Description
EnableCpu bool true Monitor CPU metrics
EnableGpu bool true Monitor GPU metrics
EnableMemory bool true Monitor Memory metrics
EnableMotherboard bool true Monitor Motherboard metrics
EnableController bool true Monitor Controller metrics
EnableNetwork bool true Monitor Network metrics
EnableStorage bool true Monitor Storage metrics
ScrapeIntervalSeconds int 15 How often the background loop calls Update() on the hardware monitor. /metrics always serves the most recent cached snapshot, so this controls hardware-poll frequency, not Prometheus scrape latency. Lower = fresher data; higher = idle AHCI HDDs can actually spin down (each Update() issues ATA SMART pass-through to those disks).

Prometheus Configuration

Add this to your prometheus.yml:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'windows-hardware'
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - '192.168.1.100:9888'  # Your Windows machine IP
          - '192.168.1.101:9888'

HardwareExporterWeb (Optional Service Discovery)

HardwareExporterWeb is an optional companion service that provides automatic service discovery for Prometheus. It is not related to metrics collection - it only helps Prometheus automatically discover monitoring targets on your network.

📖 Full Documentation

What It Does

  • Automatically scans your local network to discover Windows machines running HardwareExporter
  • Provides Prometheus HTTP Service Discovery endpoints
  • Eliminates the need to manually configure each target in prometheus.yml

Installation

Download HardwareExporterWeb-win-x64.zip from the latest release and run it on any machine in your network (doesn't need to be on every monitored machine).

Configuration

Edit appsettings.json:

{
  "NetworkScan": {
    "SubnetFilter": "",           // Empty = scan all local subnets
    "SubnetMask": "255.255.255.0" // Subnet mask
  }
}

Prometheus Configuration with Service Discovery

Instead of static targets, use HTTP service discovery:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'windows-hardware-auto'
    http_sd_configs:
      - url: 'http://your-web-server/api/ServiceDiscovery/HardwareExporter'
        refresh_interval: 60s

API Endpoints

  • /api/ServiceDiscovery/HardwareExporter - Discover HardwareExporter instances
  • /api/ServiceDiscovery/WindowsExporter - Discover windows_exporter instances

Note: This is completely optional. You can use static configuration in prometheus.yml if you prefer.

Available Metrics

The exporter provides two types of metrics:

  1. Hardware Metrics - From LibreHardwareMonitor
  2. .NET Runtime Metrics - From prometheus-net (GC, threads, memory, etc.)

All metrics are available at the /metrics endpoint.

Hardware Metrics Format

LHM-derived metrics carry the LHM SensorType verbatim and use LHM's native units (see the "Metric Types" table below):

hardware_{type}_{sensor_type}_{sensor_name}{labels} value

In addition, for sensor types that carry a unit (Throughput, Data, SmallData), the exporter also emits a Prometheus-conventional alias with values normalized to base SI units. Prefer these for new dashboards — they need no per-panel unit fiddling and sidestep the GB-quantization that makes rate(hardware_storage_data_*[5m]) unreliable.

hardware_{type}_{sensor_name}_bytes_per_second{labels} value   # Throughput
hardware_{type}_{sensor_name}_bytes{labels} value              # Data, SmallData

Example Metrics

# CPU Temperature
hardware_cpu_temperature_core{name="AMD Ryzen 9 5900X", core="0"} 45.0

# GPU Usage
hardware_gpu_load_core{name="NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080", vendor="nvidia"} 75.5

# Memory Usage (legacy, GB)
hardware_memory_data_memory_used{name="Generic Memory"} 18.655
# Same value, conventional alias (bytes)
hardware_memory_used_bytes{name="Generic Memory"} 18655895233

# Fan Speed
hardware_motherboard_fan_fan{name="ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F", fan="1"} 1200

# Disk throughput (legacy, B/s — note: NOT MB/s, was a doc bug)
hardware_storage_throughput_write_rate{name="KIOXIA-EXCERIA SSD"} 153991
# Same value, conventional alias
hardware_storage_write_rate_bytes_per_second{name="KIOXIA-EXCERIA SSD"} 153991

# Lifetime data written (legacy, GB cumulative — NOT a rate)
hardware_storage_data_written{name="SAMSUNG MZWLL3T2HAJQ"} 4608505
# Same value, conventional alias (bytes cumulative; safe to use rate())
hardware_storage_data_written_bytes{name="SAMSUNG MZWLL3T2HAJQ"} 4608505000000000

Metric Types

LHM SensorType Legacy unit (in hardware_*_<sensor_type>_*) Conventional alias suffix Alias value
Temperature °C _ _
Load percent (0-100) _ _
Clock MHz _ _
Power W _ _
Fan RPM _ _
Voltage V _ _
Throughput B/s (not MB/s — earlier docs were wrong) _bytes_per_second same value (already B/s)
Data GB cumulative (not GB/s) _bytes legacy × 1e9
SmallData MB cumulative _bytes legacy × 1e6
Energy mWh _ _

Troubleshooting

Service won't start

  1. Check Windows Event Viewer for errors
  2. Ensure you have Administrator privileges
  3. Verify .NET 10.0 Runtime is installed
  4. Check if port 9888 is already in use

No metrics appearing

  1. Check if the service is running: Get-Service HardwareExporter
  2. Test the endpoint: curl http://localhost:9888/metrics
  3. Check logs in Event Viewer under "Application"

CPU temperature / motherboard sensors missing

If /metrics has GPU, memory, storage and network data but no hardware_cpu_temperature_*, hardware_cpu_voltage_* or hardware_motherboard_* series, the PawnIO kernel driver did not install. Re-run the install step from an elevated prompt and restart the service:

& "C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter\HardwareExporterWindows.exe" --install-pawnio
Restart-Service HardwareExporter
Get-Service PawnIO   # should be Running

Firewall issues

The installation script creates a firewall rule automatically. If needed, create it manually:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "HardwareExporter" `
    -Direction Inbound `
    -Program "C:\Program Files\HardwareExporter\HardwareExporterWindows.exe" `
    -Action Allow

Development

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/naughtyGitCat/HardwareExporterWindows.git
cd HardwareExporterWindows
dotnet build

Running in Development

cd src/HardwareExporterWindows
dotnet run

Access metrics at: http://localhost:9888/metrics

Running Tests

dotnet test

Credits

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

This project uses the following open source libraries:

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

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Releases 28

Release v2026.05.22.0914-298f5bc Latest
May 22, 2026
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