diff --git a/pkg/server/status/BUILD.bazel b/pkg/server/status/BUILD.bazel
index 18181a395219..9f4f93cc7dad 100644
--- a/pkg/server/status/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/pkg/server/status/BUILD.bazel
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ go_library(
         "//pkg/server/status/statuspb",
         "//pkg/settings",
         "//pkg/settings/cluster",
+        "//pkg/sql/sem/catconstants",
         "//pkg/ts/tspb",
         "//pkg/ts/tsutil",
         "//pkg/util/cgroups",
diff --git a/pkg/server/status/recorder.go b/pkg/server/status/recorder.go
index 7874aef443b4..b20606c60e2a 100644
--- a/pkg/server/status/recorder.go
+++ b/pkg/server/status/recorder.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"runtime"
 	"strconv"
+	"sync"
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/server/status/statuspb"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/settings"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/settings/cluster"
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/sql/sem/catconstants"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/ts/tspb"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/ts/tsutil"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/util/cgroups"
@@ -60,8 +62,14 @@ const (
 	advertiseAddrLabelKey = "advertise-addr"
 	httpAddrLabelKey      = "http-addr"
 	sqlAddrLabelKey       = "sql-addr"
+
+	disableNodeAndTenantLabelsEnvVar = "COCKROACH_DISABLE_NODE_AND_TENANT_METRIC_LABELS"
 )
 
+// This option is provided as an escape hatch for customers who have
+// custom scrape logic that adds relevant labels already.
+var disableNodeAndTenantLabels = envutil.EnvOrDefaultBool(disableNodeAndTenantLabelsEnvVar, false)
+
 type quantile struct {
 	suffix   string
 	quantile float64
@@ -130,6 +138,7 @@ type MetricsRecorder struct {
 	// RLock on it.
 	mu struct {
 		syncutil.RWMutex
+		sync.Once
 		// nodeRegistry contains, as subregistries, the multiple component-specific
 		// registries which are recorded as "node level" metrics.
 		nodeRegistry *metric.Registry
@@ -187,6 +196,14 @@ func (mr *MetricsRecorder) AddTenantRegistry(tenantID roachpb.TenantID, rec *met
 	mr.mu.Lock()
 	defer mr.mu.Unlock()
 
+	if !disableNodeAndTenantLabels {
+		// If there are no in-process tenants running, we don't set the
+		// tenant label on the system tenant metrics until a seconary
+		// tenant is initialized.
+		mr.mu.Do(func() {
+			mr.mu.nodeRegistry.AddLabel("tenant", catconstants.SystemTenantName)
+		})
+	}
 	mr.mu.tenantRegistries[tenantID] = rec
 }
 
@@ -226,12 +243,20 @@ func (mr *MetricsRecorder) AddNode(
 	nodeIDGauge := metric.NewGauge(metadata)
 	nodeIDGauge.Update(int64(desc.NodeID))
 	reg.AddMetric(nodeIDGauge)
-	reg.AddLabel("tenant", mr.tenantNameContainer)
-	reg.AddLabel("node_id", strconv.Itoa(int(desc.NodeID)))
-	// We assume that all stores have been added to the registry
-	// prior to calling `AddNode`.
-	for _, s := range mr.mu.storeRegistries {
-		s.AddLabel("node_id", strconv.Itoa(int(desc.NodeID)))
+
+	if !disableNodeAndTenantLabels {
+		nodeIDInt := int(desc.NodeID)
+		if nodeIDInt != 0 {
+			reg.AddLabel("node_id", strconv.Itoa(int(desc.NodeID)))
+			// We assume that all stores have been added to the registry
+			// prior to calling `AddNode`.
+			for _, s := range mr.mu.storeRegistries {
+				s.AddLabel("node_id", strconv.Itoa(int(desc.NodeID)))
+			}
+		}
+		if mr.tenantNameContainer != nil && mr.tenantNameContainer.String() != catconstants.SystemTenantName {
+			reg.AddLabel("tenant", mr.tenantNameContainer)
+		}
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/server/status/recorder_test.go b/pkg/server/status/recorder_test.go
index af4b2bd10eb0..d5f36fe353df 100644
--- a/pkg/server/status/recorder_test.go
+++ b/pkg/server/status/recorder_test.go
@@ -154,15 +154,15 @@ func TestMetricsRecorderLabels(t *testing.T) {
 	err = recorder.PrintAsText(buf)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{tenant="system",node_id="7"} 123`)
-	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{tenant="application",node_id="7"} 456`)
+	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="system"} 123`)
+	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="application"} 456`)
 
 	bufTenant := bytes.NewBuffer([]byte{})
 	err = recorderTenant.PrintAsText(bufTenant)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	require.NotContains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{tenant="system",node_id="7"} 123`)
-	require.Contains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{tenant="application",node_id="7"} 456`)
+	require.NotContains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="system"} 123`)
+	require.Contains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="application"} 456`)
 
 	// Update app name in container and ensure
 	// output changes accordingly.
@@ -172,15 +172,15 @@ func TestMetricsRecorderLabels(t *testing.T) {
 	err = recorder.PrintAsText(buf)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{tenant="system",node_id="7"} 123`)
-	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{tenant="application2",node_id="7"} 456`)
+	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="system"} 123`)
+	require.Contains(t, buf.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="application2"} 456`)
 
 	bufTenant = bytes.NewBuffer([]byte{})
 	err = recorderTenant.PrintAsText(bufTenant)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	require.NotContains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{tenant="system",node_id="7"} 123`)
-	require.Contains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{tenant="application2",node_id="7"} 456`)
+	require.NotContains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="system"} 123`)
+	require.Contains(t, bufTenant.String(), `some_metric{node_id="7",tenant="application2"} 456`)
 
 	// ========================================
 	// Verify that the recorder processes tenant time series registries
diff --git a/pkg/server/status_test.go b/pkg/server/status_test.go
index 1ed158db2f17..e42e8f6e0bdd 100644
--- a/pkg/server/status_test.go
+++ b/pkg/server/status_test.go
@@ -1339,20 +1339,20 @@ func TestStatusVarsTxnMetrics(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
-	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_begin_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
-		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_begin_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
+	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_begin_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
+		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_begin_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
 	}
-	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_restart_savepoint_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
-		t.Errorf("expected `sql_restart_savepoint_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
+	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_restart_savepoint_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
+		t.Errorf("expected `sql_restart_savepoint_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
 	}
-	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_restart_savepoint_release_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
-		t.Errorf("expected `sql_restart_savepoint_release_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
+	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_restart_savepoint_release_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
+		t.Errorf("expected `sql_restart_savepoint_release_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
 	}
-	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_commit_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
-		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_commit_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
+	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_commit_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1")) {
+		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_commit_count{node_id=\"1\"} 1`, got: %s", body)
 	}
-	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_rollback_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 0")) {
-		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_rollback_count{tenant=\"system\",node_id=\"1\"} 0`, got: %s", body)
+	if !bytes.Contains(body, []byte("sql_txn_rollback_count{node_id=\"1\"} 0")) {
+		t.Errorf("expected `sql_txn_rollback_count{node_id=\"1\"} 0`, got: %s", body)
 	}
 }