Computermonitoring

Computermonitoring is the continuous collection and analysis of data from computer systems to assess their health, performance, and security. It covers host devices, servers, networks, applications, and cloud resources, with the aim of ensuring availability, reliability, and efficient operation.

Common data includes hardware metrics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, disk I/O and temperatures; software metrics such as service status, process counts, error rates; network metrics such as latency, bandwidth, packet loss; and logs and events from operating systems and applications. Collected data is stored in time-series databases, processed by analysis engines, and presented on dashboards. Alerts are triggered when measured values breach predefined thresholds or exhibit anomalies.

Monitoring typically uses agents installed on hosts or agentless approaches that query via APIs or protocols like SNMP. A central monitoring server or cloud service aggregates data, applies rules, and performs visualization and alerting. Modern systems employ baselines and anomaly detection to identify unusual behavior, and may integrate with incident management workflows and automation.

Uses include uptime assurance, capacity planning, performance optimization, security monitoring, and compliance reporting. Privacy and governance concerns arise when monitoring user activity; organizations balance visibility with data protection, implement access controls, retention policies, and data minimization.

Popular tools range from open-source suites to enterprise platforms, such as Prometheus and Grafana for time-series collection and visualization, and Nagios, Zabbix, PRTG, or SolarWinds for broader monitoring capabilities.