Linux process performance monitoring agent

Question

Hi Stackoverflow community,

For our tool we're trying to build a agent to remotely monitor linux processes, the resources they use, i/o info and tcp/ip connectivity. This is to gather these metrics and send them over to the server using log4. We're doing this in windows use wmi and log4net and looking to do the same in linux.

In essence, doing what top, lsof -i and iostat do then sending it to the central server.

Have seen some initiatives at:

• lttng
• munin monitoring
• systemtap
• opennms
• godrb.com
• mcollective
• http://bitbucket.org/chrismiles/psi/wiki/Home

Looking at the source code of top, it directly queries /proc whereas lttng needs to install kernel modules. Bearing in mind, the end use is for enterprise systems, we would like to keep it as close to the kernel as possible without needing to add new modules.

Our goal is to monitor what each process on the box uses (cpu/mem/io etc), any process info (eg version) and where it connects tcp source and destination and send this to the server using log4. Happy for it to be in any language C/php/python/ruby etc

Do you have any suggestions?

Bill

Answer 1

"In essence, doing what top, lsof -i and iostat do then sending it to the central server"

Try SeaLion. Its exactly what you want. It will also give you the flexibility to add more commands as and when your monitoring requirements change or increase. You wouldn't have to look for other tools. It is lesser known but works very easily; simple setup and a great timeline to view the past data in.

Answer 2

For true enterprise monitoring, I would look at Megamon (http://www.megamon.com)