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diff --git a/docs/guides/monitor/process.md b/docs/guides/monitor/process.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..893e6b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/guides/monitor/process.md @@ -0,0 +1,299 @@ +<!-- +title: Monitor any process in real-time with Netdata +description: "Tap into Netdata's powerful collectors, with per-second utilization metrics for every process, to troubleshoot faster and make data-informed decisions." +image: /img/seo/guides/monitor/process.png +custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/guides/monitor/process.md +--> + +# Monitor any process in real-time with Netdata + +Netdata is more than a multitude of generic system-level metrics and visualizations. Instead of providing only a bird's +eye view of your system, leaving you to wonder exactly _what_ is taking up 99% CPU, Netdata also gives you visibility +into _every layer_ of your node. These additional layers give you context, and meaningful insights, into the true health +and performance of your infrastructure. + +One of these layers is the _process_. Every time a Linux system runs a program, it creates an independent process that +executes the program's instructions in parallel with anything else happening on the system. Linux systems track the +state and resource utilization of processes using the [`/proc` filesystem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procfs), and +Netdata is designed to hook into those metrics to create meaningful visualizations out of the box. + +While there are a lot of existing command-line tools for tracking processes on Linux systems, such as `ps` or `top`, +only Netdata provides dozens of real-time charts, at both per-second and event frequency, without you having to write +SQL queries or know a bunch of arbitrary command-line flags. + +With Netdata's process monitoring, you can: + +- Benchmark/optimize performance of standard applications, like web servers or databases +- Benchmark/optimize performance of custom applications +- Troubleshoot CPU/memory/disk utilization issues (why is my system's CPU spiking right now?) +- Perform granular capacity planning based on the specific needs of your infrastructure +- Search for leaking file descriptors +- Investigate zombie processes + +... and much more. Let's get started. + +## Prerequisites + +- One or more Linux nodes running the [Netdata Agent](/docs/get/README.md). If you need more time to understand + Netdata before following this guide, see the [infrastructure](/docs/quickstart/infrastructure.md) or + [single-node](/docs/quickstart/single-node.md) monitoring quickstarts. +- A general understanding of how to [configure the Netdata Agent](/docs/configure/nodes.md) using `edit-config`. +- A Netdata Cloud account. [Sign up](https://app.netdata.cloud) if you don't have one already. + +## How does Netdata do process monitoring? + +The Netdata Agent already knows to look for hundreds of [standard applications that we support via +collectors](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md), and groups them based on their purpose. Let's say you want to monitor a MySQL +database using its process. The Netdata Agent already knows to look for processes with the string `mysqld` in their +name, along with a few others, and puts them into the `sql` group. This `sql` group then becomes a dimension in all +process-specific charts. + +The process and groups settings are used by two unique and powerful collectors. + +[**`apps.plugin`**](/collectors/apps.plugin/README.md) looks at the Linux process tree every second, much like `top` or +`ps fax`, and collects resource utilization information on every running process. It then automatically adds a layer of +meaningful visualization on top of these metrics, and creates per-process/application charts. + +[**`ebpf.plugin`**](/collectors/ebpf.plugin/README.md): Netdata's extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) collector +monitors Linux kernel-level metrics for file descriptors, virtual filesystem IO, and process management, and then hands +process-specific metrics over to `apps.plugin` for visualization. The eBPF collector also collects and visualizes +metrics on an _event frequency_, which means it captures every kernel interaction, and not just the volume of +interaction at every second in time. That's even more precise than Netdata's standard per-second granularity. + +### Per-process metrics and charts in Netdata + +With these collectors working in parallel, Netdata visualizes the following per-second metrics for _any_ process on your +Linux systems: + +- CPU utilization (`apps.cpu`) + - Total CPU usage + - User/system CPU usage (`apps.cpu_user`/`apps.cpu_system`) +- Disk I/O + - Physical reads/writes (`apps.preads`/`apps.pwrites`) + - Logical reads/writes (`apps.lreads`/`apps.lwrites`) + - Open unique files (if a file is found open multiple times, it is counted just once, `apps.files`) +- Memory + - Real Memory Used (non-shared, `apps.mem`) + - Virtual Memory Allocated (`apps.vmem`) + - Minor page faults (i.e. memory activity, `apps.minor_faults`) +- Processes + - Threads running (`apps.threads`) + - Processes running (`apps.processes`) + - Carried over uptime (since the last Netdata Agent restart, `apps.uptime`) + - Minimum uptime (`apps.uptime_min`) + - Average uptime (`apps.uptime_average`) + - Maximum uptime (`apps.uptime_max`) + - Pipes open (`apps.pipes`) +- Swap memory + - Swap memory used (`apps.swap`) + - Major page faults (i.e. swap activity, `apps.major_faults`) +- Network + - Sockets open (`apps.sockets`) +- eBPF file + - Number of calls to open files. (`apps.file_open`) + - Number of files closed. (`apps.file_closed`) + - Number of calls to open files that returned errors. + - Number of calls to close files that returned errors. +- eBPF syscall + - Number of calls to delete files. (`apps.file_deleted`) + - Number of calls to `vfs_write`. (`apps.vfs_write_call`) + - Number of calls to `vfs_read`. (`apps.vfs_read_call`) + - Number of bytes written with `vfs_write`. (`apps.vfs_write_bytes`) + - Number of bytes read with `vfs_read`. (`apps.vfs_read_bytes`) + - Number of calls to write a file that returned errors. + - Number of calls to read a file that returned errors. +- eBPF process + - Number of process created with `do_fork`. (`apps.process_create`) + - Number of threads created with `do_fork` or `__x86_64_sys_clone`, depending on your system's kernel version. (`apps.thread_create`) + - Number of times that a process called `do_exit`. (`apps.task_close`) +- eBPF net + - Number of bytes sent. (`apps.bandwidth_sent`) + - Number of bytes received. (`apps.bandwidth_recv`) + +As an example, here's the per-process CPU utilization chart, including a `sql` group/dimension. + + + +## Configure the Netdata Agent to recognize a specific process + +To monitor any process, you need to make sure the Netdata Agent is aware of it. As mentioned above, the Agent is already +aware of hundreds of processes, and collects metrics from them automatically. + +But, if you want to change the grouping behavior, add an application that isn't yet supported in the Netdata Agent, or +monitor a custom application, you need to edit the `apps_groups.conf` configuration file. + +Navigate to your [Netdata config directory](/docs/configure/nodes.md) and use `edit-config` to edit the file. + +```bash +cd /etc/netdata # Replace this with your Netdata config directory if not at /etc/netdata. +sudo ./edit-config apps_groups.conf +``` + +Inside the file are lists of process names, oftentimes using wildcards (`*`), that the Netdata Agent looks for and +groups together. For example, the Netdata Agent looks for processes starting with `mysqld`, `mariad`, `postgres`, and +others, and groups them into `sql`. That makes sense, since all these processes are for SQL databases. + +```conf +sql: mysqld* mariad* postgres* postmaster* oracle_* ora_* sqlservr +``` + +These groups are then reflected as [dimensions](/web/README.md#dimensions) within Netdata's charts. + + + +See the following two sections for details based on your needs. If you don't need to configure `apps_groups.conf`, jump +down to [visualizing process metrics](#visualize-process-metrics). + +### Standard applications (web servers, databases, containers, and more) + +As explained above, the Netdata Agent is already aware of most standard applications you run on Linux nodes, and you +shouldn't need to configure it to discover them. + +However, if you're using multiple applications that the Netdata Agent groups together you may want to separate them for +more precise monitoring. If you're not running any other types of SQL databases on that node, you don't need to change +the grouping, since you know that any MySQL is the only process contributing to the `sql` group. + +Let's say you're using both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases on a single node, and want to monitor their processes +independently. Open the `apps_groups.conf` file as explained in the [section +above](#configure-the-netdata-agent-to-recognize-a-specific-process) and scroll down until you find the `database +servers` section. Create new groups for MySQL and PostgreSQL, and move their process queries into the unique groups. + +```conf +# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +# database servers + +mysql: mysqld* +postgres: postgres* +sql: mariad* postmaster* oracle_* ora_* sqlservr +``` + +Restart Netdata with `service netdata restart`, or the appropriate method for your system, to start collecting +utilization metrics from your application. Time to [visualize your process metrics](#visualize-process-metrics). + +### Custom applications + +Let's assume you have an application that runs on the process `custom-app`. To monitor eBPF metrics for that application +separate from any others, you need to create a new group in `apps_groups.conf` and associate that process name with it. + +Open the `apps_groups.conf` file as explained in the [section +above](#configure-the-netdata-agent-to-recognize-a-specific-process). Scroll down to `# NETDATA processes accounting`. +Above that, paste in the following text, which creates a new `custom-app` group with the `custom-app` process. Replace +`custom-app` with the name of your application's Linux process. `apps_groups.conf` should now look like this: + +```conf +... +# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +# Custom applications to monitor with apps.plugin and ebpf.plugin + +custom-app: custom-app + +# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +# NETDATA processes accounting +... +``` + +Restart Netdata with `service netdata restart`, or the appropriate method for your system, to start collecting +utilization metrics from your application. + +## Visualize process metrics + +Now that you're collecting metrics for your process, you'll want to visualize them using Netdata's real-time, +interactive charts. Find these visualizations in the same section regardless of whether you use [Netdata +Cloud](https://app.netdata.cloud) for infrastructure monitoring, or single-node monitoring with the local Agent's +dashboard at `http://localhost:19999`. + +If you need a refresher on all the available per-process charts, see the [above +list](#per-process-metrics-and-charts-in-netdata). + +### Using Netdata's application collector (`apps.plugin`) + +`apps.plugin` puts all of its charts under the **Applications** section of any Netdata dashboard. + + + +Let's continue with the MySQL example. We can create a [test +database](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-measure-mysql-query-performance-with-mysqlslap) in +MySQL to generate load on the `mysql` process. + +`apps.plugin` immediately collects and visualizes this activity `apps.cpu` chart, which shows an increase in CPU +utilization from the `sql` group. There is a parallel increase in `apps.pwrites`, which visualizes writes to disk. + + + + + +Next, the `mysqlslap` utility queries the database to provide some benchmarking load on the MySQL database. It won't +look exactly like a production database executing lots of user queries, but it gives you an idea into the possibility of +these visualizations. + +```bash +sudo mysqlslap --user=sysadmin --password --host=localhost --concurrency=50 --iterations=10 --create-schema=employees --query="SELECT * FROM dept_emp;" --verbose +``` + +The following per-process disk utilization charts show spikes under the `sql` group at the same time `mysqlslap` was run +numerous times, with slightly different concurrency and query options. + + + +> 💡 Click on any dimension below a chart in Netdata Cloud (or to the right of a chart on a local Agent dashboard), to +> visualize only that dimension. This can be particularly useful in process monitoring to separate one process' +> utilization from the rest of the system. + +### Using Netdata's eBPF collector (`ebpf.plugin`) + +Netdata's eBPF collector puts its charts in two places. Of most importance to process monitoring are the **ebpf file**, +**ebpf syscall**, **ebpf process**, and **ebpf net** sub-sections under **Applications**, shown in the above screenshot. + +For example, running the above workload shows the entire "story" how MySQL interacts with the Linux kernel to open +processes/threads to handle a large number of SQL queries, then subsequently close the tasks as each query returns the +relevant data. + + + +`ebpf.plugin` visualizes additional eBPF metrics, which are system-wide and not per-process, under the **eBPF** section. + +## What's next? + +Now that you have `apps_groups.conf` configured correctly, and know where to find per-process visualizations throughout +Netdata's ecosystem, you can precisely monitor the health and performance of any process on your node using per-second +metrics. + +For even more in-depth troubleshooting, see our guide on [monitoring and debugging applications with +eBPF](/docs/guides/troubleshoot/monitor-debug-applications-ebpf.md). + +If the process you're monitoring also has a [supported collector](/collectors/COLLECTORS.md), now is a great time to set +that up if it wasn't autodetected. With both process utilization and application-specific metrics, you should have every +piece of data needed to discover the root cause of an incident. See our [collector +setup](/docs/collect/enable-configure.md) doc for details. + +[Create new dashboards](/docs/visualize/create-dashboards.md) in Netdata Cloud using charts from `apps.plugin`, +`ebpf.plugin`, and application-specific collectors to build targeted dashboards for monitoring key processes across your +infrastructure. + +Try running [Metric Correlations](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/insights/metric-correlations) on a node that's +running the process(es) you're monitoring. Even if nothing is going wrong at the moment, Netdata Cloud's embedded +intelligence helps you better understand how a MySQL database, for example, might influence a system's volume of memory +page faults. And when an incident is afoot, use Metric Correlations to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and +cognitive load. + +If you want more specific metrics from your custom application, check out Netdata's [statsd +support](/collectors/statsd.plugin/README.md). With statd, you can send detailed metrics from your application to +Netdata and visualize them with per-second granularity. Netdata's statsd collector works with dozens of [statsd server +implementations](https://github.com/etsy/statsd/wiki#client-implementations), which work with most application +frameworks. + +### Related reference documentation + +- [Netdata Agent · `apps.plugin`](/collectors/apps.plugin/README.md) +- [Netdata Agent · `ebpf.plugin`](/collectors/ebpf.plugin/README.md) +- [Netdata Agent · Dashboards](/web/README.md#dimensions) +- [Netdata Agent · MySQL collector](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/collectors/go.d.plugin/modules/mysql) + +[](<>) |