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Mainstream Linux distributions have moved to
systemd to manage daemons (e.g. httpd, sshd, etc.). The diagram illustrates how systemd runs each daemon within its own container so that it can maintain tight control of the daemon's resources.
This article describes how to use the open source
Host sFlow agent to gather telemetry from daemons running under systemd.
Host sFlow systemd monitoring exports a standard set of metrics for each systemd service - the
sFlow Host Structures extension defines metrics for Virtual Nodes (virtual machines, containers, etc.) that are used to export Xen, KVM, Docker, and Java resource usage. Exporting the standard metrics for systemd services provides interoperability with sFlow analyzers, allowing them to report on Linux services using existing virtual node monitoring capabilities.
While running daemons within containers helps systemd maintain control of the resources, it also provides a very useful abstraction for monitoring. For example, a single service (like the Apache web server) may consist of dozens of processes. Reporting on container level metrics abstracts away the per-process details and gives a view of the total resources consumed by the service. In addition, service metadata (like the service name) provides a useful way of identifying and grouping
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