TL;DR — Quick Summary

Deploy Glances as a self-hosted system monitoring dashboard. Track CPU, RAM, disk, network, Docker containers, and processes via web UI, terminal, or REST API.

Why Glances?

htop shows processes. Glances shows everything:

  • CPU, RAM, swap — Real-time usage and history.
  • Disk I/O — Per-disk read/write speeds.
  • Network — Per-interface bandwidth.
  • Docker containers — CPU/RAM per container.
  • Processes — Sorted by resource usage.
  • Sensors — Temperature, fan speed, battery.
  • Web UI + API — Monitor remotely.

Prerequisites

  • Docker on any Linux/macOS server.
  • At least 128 MB RAM.

Step 1: Deploy with Docker

docker run -d \
  --name glances \
  --restart=always \
  --pid host \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
  -p 61208:61208 \
  -e GLANCES_OPT="-w" \
  nicolargo/glances:latest-full

Access at http://your-server:61208.

Step 2: Monitoring Capabilities

Metric What it Shows Alert Threshold
CPU Usage per core, load average, steal >70% warning, >90% critical
Memory Used/available, buffers, cache >70% warning, >90% critical
Swap Usage and I/O >50% warning
Disk I/O Read/write per disk (MB/s) Configurable
Network RX/TX per interface (Mbps) Configurable
Docker CPU/RAM/Net per container Configurable
Processes Top processes by CPU/RAM Per-process limits
Sensors Temperature, fan RPM >80°C warning
File systems Usage per mount point >80% warning

Step 3: REST API

# CPU stats
curl http://localhost:61208/api/4/cpu

# Memory stats
curl http://localhost:61208/api/4/mem

# Docker container list
curl http://localhost:61208/api/4/containers

# All available endpoints
curl http://localhost:61208/api/4/pluginslist

Glances vs Alternatives

Feature Glances htop btop Netdata
Web UI Yes No No Yes
REST API Yes No No Yes
Docker monitoring Yes No No Yes
Prometheus export Yes No No Yes
Resource usage ~50 MB RAM ~5 MB ~10 MB ~200 MB
Setup One command Installed Package Agent install
Best for Quick overview + API Terminal power users Beautiful terminal Full monitoring stack

Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Docker containers not showing Mount Docker socket: -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
High CPU usage by Glances Increase refresh interval: GLANCES_OPT="-w --time 5" (5 seconds)
Sensors not detected Use latest-full image tag which includes sensor libraries
API returns 403 Set --disable-webui if only using API; check bind address

Summary

  • One-screen overview of CPU, RAM, disk, network, Docker, and processes.
  • Web UI + REST API for remote monitoring and automation.
  • Prometheus export for integration with existing monitoring stacks.
  • Lightweight — ~50 MB RAM vs Netdata’s ~200 MB.