Monitoring the Raspberry Pi regularly is important to maintain performance and catch issues early. There are several great open source monitoring tools that work well with Raspberry Pi‘s Linux-based operating system. In this guide, I will share my top 5 recommendation for Pi monitoring software.
1. Netdata
Netdata is a real-time performance monitoring tool optimized for systems like Raspberry Pi. It visualizes metrics like CPU usage, memory, disk activity, and network utilization in real-time dashboards.
Some key features:
- Minimal memory footprint – uses less than 10MB of RAM
- Preconfigured plugins for system, application, and IoT monitoring
- Interactive dashboards with drill-down capabilities
- Alert notifications via email, Slack, Telegram etc.
Netdata is easy to install from standard repositories and offers deep insights into Pi system performance. The default dashboards provide everything you need for most monitoring use cases.
2. Glances
Glances is a great CLI-based monitoring tool for Raspberry Pi. It shows key system metrics in a terminal-based dashboard that refreshes automatically.
Some key features:
- Low memory footprint – uses less than 1% of available RAM
- Easy to install and configure
- Customizable dashboard views
- Client/Server mode for remote monitoring
If you want quick access to Pi monitoring data from the terminal, Glances is a perfect fit. It‘s especially useful for headless Pi setups where a GUI may not be available.
3. Grafana
Grafana is a general-purpose visualization tool that excels at infrastructure monitoring. It can connect to multiple data sources and build custom dashboards to visualize performance metrics.
Some key features:
- Interactive & customizable dashboards
- Supports major databases and monitoring tools as data sources
- Annotations, alert notifications & controls
- OAuth authentication & granular access controls
Pairing Grafana with a monitoring backend like Prometheus or InfluxDB allows for very powerful and flexible monitoring implementations. It does have a higher resource overhead, but works great on Pi models with 1GB+ RAM.
4. Checkmk Raw Edition
Checkmk is a popular system monitoring platform with a specialized Raspberry Pi edition called Checkmk Raw. It is designed specifically for resource constrained systems.
Some key features:
- Minimal resource usage – under 50MB RAM generally
- 300+ system & application checks for Linux & Pi
- Automatic discovery of network components
- Alerting & reporting capabilities
Checkmk Raw brings enterprise-grade monitoring to Raspberry Pi with minimal overhead. It can scale up to monitor large environments while remaining lightweight and efficient.
5. Telegraf
Telegraf is a plugin-driven metrics collection agent that can feed monitoring platforms like InfluxDB, Prometheus and more.
Some key features:
- 150+ data collection plugins
- Minimal resource usage – typically under 10MB RAM
- Flexible configuration for custom metrics
- Available as a standalone agent or docker container
Telegraf makes an excellent foundation for building custom monitoring pipelines. It‘s a versatile tool that pairs nicely with visualization stacks like Grafana to create specialized monitoring implementations.
Conclusion
Monitoring Raspberry Pi systems helps ensure availability, catch problems early, and inform future upgrades. The tools highlighted here represent flexible open source options to fit various monitoring needs – from resource-constrained setups to more advanced pipelines. By instrumenting Pi systems with these monitoring platforms, you can maximize performance and get the most out of your Pi deployment.