Anuket Project
Monitoring Agents Comparative Study
- Former user (Deleted)
- Sridhar Rao
The tables and lists of questions have been created by Sridhar Rao <Sridhar.Rao@spirent.com>
There are numerous opensource monitoring solutions available, with varying approaches and architectures. In this study, we compare only the 'agent' component of the monitoring solution, and will not consider the server-side component(s). Because, there can be multiple implementation options of the 'server' - for example, with collectd, it could be simple collectd-web or a timeseries database such as Influxdb, telemetry system based on Apache Kafka, etc. - and considering all the options would be extremely difficult. Typically the server side components could include some or all of the following (a) Metric collection infrastructure - raw-metric receiver, message-queues, etc. (b) Metric Modifier - add contexts, perform-aggregation, filter, etc. (c) Storage solution (d) Alarm/Alerting System (e) Visualization/Graphing - dashboards. (f) Publishing.
Terminology Definition
| Term | What we mean by that? |
| Metric | A Measurement of a particular characteristic. Ex: %ge of CPU used, Amount of Bandwidth used, etc. Complete definition can be found here |
| Event | A record of something that has happened - A simple immutable fact. Example: Link has gone down. A packet from a flow is dropped, etc. Complete definition can be found here |
| Agent | Software that runs on a node/system that needs to be monitored. |
| Client Node | A node that is monitored (Node on which agent runs) |
| Server Node | A node that collects metrics and events from the client node. |
| Sampling Interval | How frequently the metrics are sent. |
| Push Mode | Fetching of events by subscribing |
| Poll Mode | Fetching of events via polling. |
| Writing of Metrics/events | sending/outputting of metrics or events. |
| Reading of Metrics/events | receiving/reading of measurements |
| Logging of Metrics/events | Logging of monitored/received metric or event |
| Metric Types (data source types) | Guage: Value stored as-is |
Parameter Table
Parameters\Tools | Collectd | Ceilometer Polling agent. | Monasca | SNAP | node-exporter and other exporters | sensu client: metric collection plugins | munin | telegraf | NRPE + Plugins (NSClient++, ICINGA, OpenNMS) | diamond | Reimann | Elastic Beats | Note: 1. For some parameters the answer could be just YES/NO, 2. Whereas, for some we may have to provide a description/details 3. For some we may have to choose from the list [], whereas for some we may append a value to the list. 4. For some parameters, please provide the number of 'actual metrics' provided under that category. For example, collectd would provide 12 metrics for Processes-category Use NA - If Not applicable. Use NK - If it is Not Known | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU metrics | idle, system, wait, stolen, user (% & time), util, vcpus | idle, system, wait, stolen, user (% & time), util, vcpus | idle, system, wait, stolen, user (% & time) | idle, system, wait, stolen, user, guest, irq, nice (% & jiffies) | idle, system, wait, stolen, user (% & time), util, vcpus | idle, system, wait, stolen, user (% & time), util, vcpus | Freq, usage - idle, system, wait, user, util and vcpus. | Same as ceilometer or monasca | user, system, iowait, idle in (% and time). average-load | idle, system, wait, user, nice. | idle, system, wait, user, nice, stolen, irq | idle, system, wait, user, nice, stolen, irq | ||
| Disk IO metrics | Read and write (bytes, rate, time, sectors) disk-free | read and write (bytes, rate, req) | read and write (bytes, rate, req) | read and write (ops, octets, merged, time) disk-free | read and write (bytes, rate, req) | Read and write (bytes, rate, time, sectors) | read and write (bytes, rate, req) | Same as ceilometer or monasca | read and write (ops, octets, merged, time) disk-free | read and write (bytes, rate, req) | read and write (merged, sector, time, req) io- reqs, time, weighted | read and write (count, time and bytes) | ||
| Memory metrics | free, swap, total, used (bytes and percetages) | usage, bandwidth | free, swap, total, used | free, available, total, used. | free, swap, total, used | free, swap, total, used (Mb and percentages) | free, swap, total, used, slab. | Same as ceilometer or monasca | free, available, total, used. (bytes, %ges) | free, total, swap, active, dirty, inactive, buffers. | free, used, (bytes and %ges) actual-used. | free, used, (bytes and %ges) actual-used. | ||
| Process metrics | I/O, memory, CPU-Usage, read-write (bytes and count) | NO | NO | I/O, memory, CPU-Usage, (bytes and count). | Same as collectd. | status, thread-count, uptime. IO, memory, cpu-usage. connections. | Cpu and memory, read-write (bytes, count), and various other fields | Cpu and memory, read-write (bytes, count) | CPU, memory, uptime, | btime, ctxt, processes, blocked, running | I/O, memory, CPU-Usage, read-write (bytes and count) | I/O, memory, CPU-Usage, read-write (bytes and count) | ||
| Network Interface Metrics | Interface plugin: Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). Netlink plugin: uses netlink sockets and covers others | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). | sent and recv : bytes, compressed, drops, errors, fifo, frame, multicast, packets | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). Also includes, fifo, compressed, and frame stats. | rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). | Same as ceilometer or monasca | rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). SNMP (3) | Rx and Tx. MBs | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped) | Standard 4 fields of rx/tx (octets, packets, errors, dropped). | ||
| Libvirt Metrics | YES - | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO | NO | ||
Container resource usage Monitoring (memory, restarts, status, uptime, etc) | YES | NO | NO | Docker | Docker | Docker | NO | Docker | YES (Docker, LXC) | Docker | YES (Docker) | YES (4) | ||
| Databases Monitoring : [Influxdb, MongoDb, MySql, PostgreSql, Carbon(graphite), Prometheus, RRDCache,Redis, TSDB] | YES for all | MySql, PostgreSql, MongoDb | Influxdb, Vertica, MySql, PostgreSql, Cassandra | Influxdb, mysql, mongodb, Cassandra | ALL (4) | All | NO | All. | YES for all | MongoDb, mysql, postgresql, and Redis | YES for all | YES for all (4) | ||
| Publish metrics to databases - (influxdb, mysql, TSDB, Postgresql, MongoDb, Carbon, Elasticsearch) | YES for all | NO | NO | YES for all. | NO | NO (1) | NO | Yes for all | NO | Yes for All | YES for all. | YES (4) | ||
| Encryption Support | YES | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Language (written) | C | Python | Python | Go | Go | Ruby | Perl | Go | perl, shell, c, (varies) | Python | Varies - ruby, c, c++, etc. | Go | ||
| Extensibility - multilanguage support [Python, Java, Golang, C/C++, Lua] | YES for all | Java | Java | Python C++ | Java, Python, Ruby | Go, Python. | Python, Ruby | None. | Perl, shell, C. | None | Multiple | NO? | ||
| Interoperability [with other monitoring solutions] | Sensu, statsd, telegraf? | Nagios zabbix | ceilometer | Ceilometer, Facter, Reimann, Prometheus | Collectd | Nagios, Zabbix. | NO | Reimann | NSClient, Icinga. | Nagios | Collectd | Collectd? | ||
| Write to Message Queues and protocols (AMQP, Kafka, MQTT, NSQ) | YES for ALL | AMQP | Kafka | AMQP, Kafka. | NO | AMQP | NO | kafka, MQTT, NSQ | NO | Yes for ALL | YES for all | YES for all (4) | ||
Metrics Pub/sub Mode Support (Metrics push/pull mode support ?) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Metrics Req/Resp Mode Support | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
| Support for Events (polling, Pushing) | Yes | NO (1) | NO (1) | NO | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
| Notification Support | YES | NO (1) | NO (1) | NO | NO (1) | YES | NO | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
| Logging Support | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Hypervisor metrics | YES | NO | NO | YES (KVM) | YES | YES (XenTop) | NO | NO | YES | XEN, KVM. | NO | NO | ||
| Log-File Analysis | YES | NO | NO | YES | YES (mtail) | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
| Other Writing (output) Support: [CSV, HTTP, RRD, UnixSocket, Multicast] | ALL that are listed. | NO | NO | NO | HTTP | NO | RRD | Socket, | NO | HTTP | NO | YES? | ||
| Transport Protocol | Depends on the end point it's communicating with. | TCP* | TCP* | TCP | TCP, UDP. (5) | TCP | TCP | TCP, UDP | TCP | TCP | TCP, UDP | TCP, UDP | ||
| Data-Format [XML, JSON, etc] | JSON, Custom, XML | JSON XML | JSON | JSON | JSON ? | JSON | Custom | Custom | Custom | JSON | Custom | Custom, JSON | ||
| Data-model | Custom | KVP | KVP | KVP | KVP | KVP | Custom | Custom | Custom | KVP | KVP | KVP | ||
| Hardware: IPMI, Battery, Sensors, | YES for all | IPMI | IPMI | IMPI | YES for all | YES - IPMI | YES (3) | IPMI sensors | YES | NO | NO? | YES for all | ||
| Metric Types: Guage, Derive, Counter, absolute | YES for all | Gauge cumulative delta | Gauge, rate, counter. | gauge, derive, counter. | Gauge, Counter, Histogram, summary | Gauge, Counter, derive. | Gauge, Counter, derive. | Gauge, Counter. | Gauge, Derivative, delta | Gauge, sum, counter, derive | Gauge, sum, counter, derive | |||
| Last-Updated | 2017 | 2017 | 2017 | Varies(5) | Varies (5) | Varies (5) | Varies (5) | 2017 | varies(5) | Varies (5) | Varies(5) | Varies(5) | ||
| Commercial Versions? | NO | NO | ? | NO | NO | YES | NO | No | YES | YES? | YES? | YES? | ||
| Run-Time Analysis [^] | CPU: 14.8% | CPU:17.5% | ||||||||||||
| License | MIT/GPL v2 or later | Apache License, Version 2.0 | Apache License, Version 2.0 | Apache License, Version 2.0 | Multiple (5) | MIT | GPL V2. | MIT | GPL V3 | MIT | MIT | Apache License, Version 2.0 | ||
| Webserver monitoring [Nginix, Apache] | YES for all | Apache | Apache | YES for all. | Nginix, Apache, Passenger varnish | Apache, Nginix, Unicorn. | NO | Yes for all | YES for all | NO | YES for all. | Yes for all | ||
Platforms - OS? Linux (unix'es), Windows. | Supports windows, linux, freebsd, etc. | Linux | Linux | Linux, MAC, Windows (soon) | Linux Windows(3) | Linux, Windows, | Linux, Windows | Linux | ALL | Linux | ALL | ALL | ||
| Configuration Tool support [Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt] | YES for all | Puppet Chef | Puppet, Chef, Ansible, | Yes for all. | Yes for all. | YES for all | NO | Yes for All. | Yes for all | Puppet | ALL | ALL | ||
| Deployments: servers, VMs, containers, | ALL | ALL | ALL | ALL | ALL | ALL. | ALL | All | ALL | ALL | ALL | ALL | ||
| Openstack Modules | NO (2) | NO | ALL. | CEPH, Cinder, Glance, Keystone, Neutron, Nova | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES (All) | NO | NO | NO | ||
| Intel PCM and SSDs SMART metrics | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | ||
Cluster Mgmt. (Kubernetes, Mesos, Swarm) | NO | NO | NO | Kubernetes and Mesos | Kubernetes and mesos | Kubernetes and mesos | NO | Kubernetes and Mesos | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
Modifiers - (filtering, threshold, tags, contexts)
| Filtering and threshold - yes. Tags - YES. Contexts - No. (1) | NO | YES | YES for all. | Tags, Filtering and threshold. | NO(1) | NO | Tagging | YES | Tags | YES | YES | ||
| Dynamic Loading of plugins. | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES. | YES? | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | ||
Intervals:
| LSI: can go down to a nano second resolution NTI: Cannot be specified - depends on size of the buffer and reading interval | PI: Configurable default: 60s | CF: Configurable Further controlled by per-plugin "collect_period"
| Based on Task Configuration. Interval: Can go down to ns resolution. | Configurable scrape interval. | Command specific check-interval.
| ||||||||
Other Services monitoring: (DHCP, DNS, FTP, NTP, HAProxy, Consul) | HAProxy, DNS, NTP | NO | HAProxy, NTP. | HAProxy | DHCP, HAproxy, NTP, Consul. | YES for all. | NO | HAproxy, NTP, Consul, DNS, | YES | NO | YES (4) | YES(4) | ||
Legends
(1) This aspect is realized either as a server-side component or by a 'customized' agent.
(2) Custom solution exist, and may not be part of main distribution.
(3) Support with strong dependency on additional tool/library.
(4) Supports more-options than the ones provided in column-1
(5) A single value cannot be entered due development of logically-independent modules by different community groups.
[^]: Runtime analysis process and considerations:
- Isolate the CPUs on the monitoring node. [ Add isolcpus option in the grub. CPU0]
- Run the agent on the isolated CPU (CPU0). [ Use taskset command to run agent-processes with appropriate CPU-mask: 0x01]
- Plugins: Configure agent to monitor following metrics - CPU, Memory, Disk, Interface, IPMI, processes, libvirt, Caches, OVS, hugepages.
- Output: Make agent to send metrics over network (Ex: influxdb running on separate node)
- Workload: stress-ng + iperf.
- Monitoring duration: 5 minutes.
- Frequency: 1sec.
- Collect Metrics (using any other tool) to analyze agent's runtime performance [ Ex: Used Snap to collect ‘collectd-process’ metrics and CPU and memory data]
- Note the iperf performance ( to study any effect on it due to collectd]
#: Interval Definitions:
Lowest Sampling Interval (LSI) - How frequently the plugins can read values from source(s) of truth.
Network Transmit Interval (NTI) - Interval at which the metrics are sent over the network.
Polling Interval: Freqency at which metrics are read.
Check Frequency(CF): frequency at which all plugins are run. This may map to LSI and NTI.
Inference Questions
| The Questions | The Answer |
| Lowest Interval: Which agent supports the lowest sampling interval, and what is the value? | |
| Interoperability: Which agent is 'most interoperable'? (Work with maximum of 'servers' (collection node) | |
| Large-scale deployment: Which agent is ideal for large-scale monitoring (Provide description in a separate page, if needed) | |
| Low-footprint: Which agent has the lowest footprint (memory and CPU)? | |
| Metrics: Which agent supports maximum number of metrics? | |
| Gaps: Are there any metrics that are not supported by any of the agent and that are relavant to NFV? | |
| Which agent is ideal for realtime analytics?- [Support for maximum scalable datastores, visualization tools and Analytics engines?] | |
| Is any of the agents been used in large-scale real-world deployments? If so, please provide the details on the performance. | |
| Which agent has the least/maximum dependency - Libraries, OS/Kernel versions, etc.? | |
| Which agent provides maximum 'freedom' w.r.t. Licenses (core agent + plugins)? | |
| Which agent is best for the following datastores: Influxdb, Graphite, ElasticSearch? | |
| Which agent support dynamic configuration? | |