What is a container? Applications, like any other system, require certain basic components in order to function properly. It is often difficult to take software and find a way to use it on a platform other than the one that it is originally designed for. Containers exist for just this reason. They enable software developers to create programs that can circumvent challenges that exist in running cross-platform programs. In essence, containers are a type of software that contain all the elements necessary to running applications across multiple environments. Programmers who take this approach, and avoid unwittingly holding back their applications, create versatile systems. When properly utilized, this option becomes an invaluable tool to those who create systems that may be required to cross over into other environments.
Containers are monitored by software solutions that utilize metric capture, analytics, transaction tracing and visualization tools. Container monitoring is accomplished by applying a number of techniques that improve visibility into a container system’s architecture.
Below is a list of container monitoring best practices:
A container management platform’s dashboard shows resource utilization metrics of all applications in the container and on the container’s host machine.
Container metrics allow administrators to evaluate at a high level whether a containerized system is performing as expected and to set up alerts when necessary. There are hundreds of metrics for each container, including memory status, network activity, and CPU. These metrics are used to gauge user experience. For example, knowledge of the percentage of requests that were successfully processed within a specific amount of time gives information on the reliability and speed of a service. metrics such as the number of container and network crashes can be useful for debugging.
Containerized environments are very dynamic and require close monitoring to maintain proper application health. Container observability and monitoring are essential for maintaining a smoothly running container environment and for optimizing container resource usage and costs.
Container monitoring tools allow users to easily build visualizations, allowing visibility into container infrastructure and applications. Container observability integrates tools for monitoring metrics, log query and collection, alerting, and notification.
Because each container image can have many running instances, and due to the rapid pace at which new images and versions are introduced, issues can easily spread through containers, their applications, and the entire container architecture. This makes it crucial to isolate the root cause of a problem as soon as it appears.
In large-scale containerized environments, container observability must be automated and is only possible using container monitoring tools.
Containers need management in order to enable the applications hosted on them to work more efficiently. In addition, containers need a management system when the number of containers on the system becomes too large for a single IT team to operate. With efficient container management, IT admins can easily keep their environments secure, enabling developers to enjoy the flexibility and ease of containers and allowing them to easily develop and deploy new apps and services.
A container management system automates the process of creating, deploying, and scaling of containers. Using a container management system simplifies the addition, removal, and management of containers on a large scale.
Container monitoring systems collect metrics to ensure that all the applications running on containers are performing as they should. Metrics are tracked and analyzed in real time to determine whether applications are fulfilling their expected requirements.
Container monitoring tools simplify container monitoring and provide an out-of-the-box, end-to-end comprehensive monitoring solution and offer a single pane of glass perspective of all monitored containers and application code. These modernized solutions allow for seamless application monitoring that helps pinpoint the root cause of performance issues while also improving application performance and user experience.
This is achieved by consolidating a containerized environment’s data into actionable insights. Container monitoring tools offer real-time streaming logs and visibility, allowing users to perform basic metrics - such as memory consumption - as well as container memory usage and limit.
When choosing a container monitoring tool, here are some features to look out for:
Some of the benefits of using container monitoring tools include:
