cAdvisor: Monitor Container Resource Usage and Performance

Overview

cAdvisor is a daemon for observing running containers. It gathers and processes resource usage, performance, isolation, and network data, then exposes those statistics by container and for the host machine. This helps operators see how containers consume resources over time rather than relying only on host-level metrics.

It is aimed at people operating containerized workloads, including Kubernetes users who want to run it as a DaemonSet. Consider it when you need container-level visibility and a web UI, REST API, or storage-plugin export path for the collected data.

Key Features

• Collects historical resource usage and network statistics for running containers.
• Tracks resource isolation parameters and usage histograms.
• Presents statistics at both container and machine-wide levels.
• Includes native Docker support and an abstraction intended to accommodate other container types.
• Exposes a web UI and a versioned remote REST API.
• Supports exporting statistics to storage plugins.
• Provides deployment paths for Docker, standalone operation, and Kubernetes DaemonSets.

Use Cases

• Platform operators can inspect which containers are consuming host resources when investigating capacity or performance issues.
• Kubernetes administrators can deploy a DaemonSet to collect container visibility across nodes.
• Developers can examine resource and network behavior while testing containerized services.
• Monitoring teams can export cAdvisor statistics to supported storage plugins for analysis alongside other operational data.

Project Facts

• Language: Go
• License: NOASSERTION
• Stars: 19.5k
• Forks: 2.5k
• Topics: none listed
• Archived: no

Getting Started

Run the published Docker image, replacing the version with a release from the releases page:

VERSION=0.55.1
sudo docker run --volume=/:/rootfs:ro --volume=/var/run:/var/run:ro --volume=/sys:/sys:ro --volume=/var/lib/docker/:/var/lib/docker:ro --volume=/dev/disk/:/dev/disk:ro --publish=8080:8080 --detach=true --name=cadvisor --privileged --device=/dev/kmsg ghcr.io/google/cadvisor:$VERSION

The UI is available at http://localhost:8080. See the README and running instructions for standalone, platform-specific, and Kubernetes setup details.

Considerations

• The Docker quick start requires elevated privileges and read-only access to host paths and devices so cAdvisor can observe container and machine state.
• The supplied Docker command is oriented toward Docker-managed containers. Other runtime and host configurations may need different setup; consult the running instructions.
• The README describes collection and export of statistics, not automatic performance tuning or resource recommendations. Those appear as roadmap goals rather than current capabilities.
• The repository reports its license as NOASSERTION, so verify licensing terms before adopting it.