diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index 827e186501..daacb1992a 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -819,6 +819,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/clucene-pkgconfig.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/cmake-curl-certificates.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/coda-use-system-libs.patch		\
+  %D%/packages/patches/collectd-5.11.0-noinstallvar.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/combinatorial-blas-awpm.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/combinatorial-blas-io-fix.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/containerd-test-with-go1.13.patch		\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm b/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm
index 8da31d6a84..d88bbc3aa3 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 ;;; Copyright © 2018 Gábor Boskovits <boskovits@gmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2018, 2019 Oleg Pykhalov <go.wigust@gmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2020 Alex ter Weele <alex.ter.weele@gmail.com>
+;;; Copyright © 2020 Lars-Dominik Braun <ldb@leibniz-psychology.org>
 ;;;
 ;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
 ;;;
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ (define-module (gnu packages monitoring)
   #:use-module (guix build-system gnu)
   #:use-module (guix build-system go)
   #:use-module (guix utils)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages)
   #:use-module (gnu packages admin)
   #:use-module (gnu packages autotools)
   #:use-module (gnu packages base)
@@ -48,11 +50,14 @@ (define-module (gnu packages monitoring)
   #:use-module (gnu packages libevent)
   #:use-module (gnu packages pcre)
   #:use-module (gnu packages perl)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages pkg-config)
   #:use-module (gnu packages python)
   #:use-module (gnu packages python-web)
   #:use-module (gnu packages python-xyz)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages rrdtool)
   #:use-module (gnu packages time)
-  #:use-module (gnu packages tls))
+  #:use-module (gnu packages tls)
+  #:use-module (gnu packages web))
 
 (define-public nagios
   (package
@@ -445,3 +450,47 @@ (define-public fswatch
     (description "This package provides a file system monitor.")
     (home-page "https://github.com/emcrisostomo/fswatch")
     (license license:gpl3+)))
+
+(define-public collectd
+  (package
+    (name "collectd")
+    (version "5.11.0")
+    (source (origin
+              (method url-fetch)
+              (uri (string-append
+                    "https://storage.googleapis.com/collectd-tarballs/collectd-"
+                    version
+                    ".tar.bz2"))
+              (sha256
+               (base32
+                "1cjxksxdqcqdccz1nbnc2fp6yy84qq361ynaq5q8bailds00mc9p"))
+              (patches (search-patches "collectd-5.11.0-noinstallvar.patch"))))
+    (build-system gnu-build-system)
+    (arguments
+     `(#:configure-flags (list "--localstatedir=/var" "--sysconfdir=/etc")
+       #:phases (modify-phases %standard-phases
+                  (add-before 'configure 'autoreconf
+                    (lambda _
+                      ;; Required because of patched sources.
+                      (invoke "autoreconf" "-vfi"))))))
+    (inputs
+     `(("rrdtool" ,rrdtool)
+       ("curl" ,curl)
+       ("libyajl" ,libyajl)))
+    (native-inputs
+     `(("autoconf" ,autoconf)
+       ("automake" ,automake)
+       ("libtool" ,libtool)
+       ("pkg-config" ,pkg-config)))
+    (home-page "https://collectd.org/")
+    (synopsis "Collect system and application performance metrics periodically")
+    (description
+     "collectd gathers metrics from various sources such as the operating system,
+applications, log files and external devices, and stores this information or
+makes it available over the network.  Those statistics can be used to monitor
+systems, find performance bottlenecks (i.e., performance analysis) and predict
+future system load (i.e., capacity planning).")
+    ;; license:expat for the daemon in src/daemon/ and some plugins,
+    ;; license:gpl2 for other plugins
+    (license (list license:expat license:gpl2))))
+
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/collectd-5.11.0-noinstallvar.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/collectd-5.11.0-noinstallvar.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..39cd9c763e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/collectd-5.11.0-noinstallvar.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Disable creation of /var and /etc
+
+--- a/Makefile.am	2020-03-08 16:57:09.511535600 +0100
++++ b/Makefile.am	2020-04-21 11:36:49.827182272 +0200
+@@ -2376,16 +2376,6 @@
+ endif
+ 
+ install-exec-hook:
+-	$(mkinstalldirs) $(DESTDIR)$(localstatedir)/run
+-	$(mkinstalldirs) $(DESTDIR)$(localstatedir)/lib/$(PACKAGE_NAME)
+-	$(mkinstalldirs) $(DESTDIR)$(localstatedir)/log
+-	$(mkinstalldirs) $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)
+-	if test -e $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/collectd.conf; \
+-	then \
+-		$(INSTALL) -m 0640 $(builddir)/src/collectd.conf $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/collectd.conf.pkg-orig; \
+-	else \
+-		$(INSTALL) -m 0640 $(builddir)/src/collectd.conf $(DESTDIR)$(sysconfdir)/collectd.conf; \
+-	fi; \
+ 	$(mkinstalldirs) $(DESTDIR)$(cpkgdatadir)
+ 	$(INSTALL) -m 0644 $(srcdir)/src/types.db $(DESTDIR)$(cpkgdatadir)/types.db;
+ 	$(INSTALL) -m 0644 $(srcdir)/src/postgresql_default.conf \