Does cAdvisor keep a history of container metrics?
Not beyond a short window. It holds the latest data in memory, two minutes by default, and serves everything else at /metrics for Prometheus or one of its storage drivers to keep.
cAdvisor: Container Resource Monitor
Track CPU, memory, disk and network use for every container on one host, from a small daemon with its own web page. The same numbers are served as Prometheus metrics, ready for Grafana dashboards and alert rules.
Compare with similar apps
How cAdvisor stacks up against other monitoring apps. Add or remove apps to change the comparison.
| Requirement | cAdvisor | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Web UI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Architecture | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM |
| Containers | 1The app alone | 2Plus beszel-agent | 1The app alone | 1The app alone |
| Database | none | SQLite | Built-in time series | None |
| Runtime | Go | Go | C / Go | Python |
| Docker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux package | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | – | – | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | – | – | Yes | Yes |
| Podman | – | Yes | – | – |
| iOS | – | – | Yes | – |
| Android | – | – | Yes | – |
| macOS | – | – | Yes | – |
| Windows | – | – | Yes | – |
| Linux | – | – | Yes | – |
| Full comparison | This app | Beszel vs cAdvisor | – | – |
Common questions
What access does cAdvisor need on the host?
It reads the host's cgroups and the Docker socket, which is why the project's docker run example mounts those paths read-only and gives the container privileged mode plus the /dev/kmsg device.
Can one cAdvisor monitor several servers?
No. Each daemon watches the machine it runs on, so run one per host and add a Prometheus scrape job for each.
Similar apps to cAdvisor
More apps in Monitoring.
Glances
Watch system stats from the terminal or a web browser with a cross-platform system monitor that also has a REST API.
Freex86 + ARMPython
Grafana
Build dashboards and alerts for metrics from your home server, network and services.
Freex86 + ARMGo
Netdata
Monitor servers, containers and homelab hardware every second, with ready-made dashboards and anomaly detection. It discovers what to watch automatically.
Freex86 + ARMC / Go
Prometheus
Collect and query metrics from services and devices on a home network, then define rules that trigger alerts.
Freex86 + ARMGo
SpeedKetchup
Run an internet speed test against speedtest.net every few minutes and keep every result in a CSV file. One small binary, web page and charts included, with no database to run.
Freex86 + ARMRust
Speedtest Tracker
Automatically test internet speed on a schedule and save every result to track connection reliability.
Freex86 + ARMPHP
Beszel
Monitor CPU, memory and disk use across your machines from one dashboard. A small agent runs on each system and reports to a hub you host, which adds container stats, alerts and disk health.
Freex86 + ARMGo
Better Status Page
Better Status Page is a self-hosted status page and uptime monitor that fits on one small server. It checks HTTPS, ping, DNS, database and Docker targets and alerts you through Discord, Slack, ntfy and more.
Freex86 + ARMNode.js
Updated