What is metricsd?

metricsd is a lightweight tool that runs on a Linux server and collects performance data like CPU usage, memory consumption, disk space, and load averages. Think of it as a health monitor for your server that regularly checks vital signs and sends them off to a dashboard or data store of your choice. It was built as a simpler alternative to an older tool called Diamond, which had become hard to maintain over the years. The tool works in two main parts: collectors and shippers. Collectors gather specific metrics from your system, there are built-in ones for CPU, memory, diskspace, and other system stats, plus some for services like Redis and Elasticsearch. Shippers then send those metrics wherever you want them to go. It supports sending data to Graphite (a popular metrics dashboard), Elasticsearch, Redis, or simply printing it out to your terminal for testing. You control everything through a simple configuration file where you flip on the collectors and shippers you want and set how often they should run. This would appeal to anyone running Linux servers who wants to keep an eye on performance, a startup founder managing a few boxes, a PM tracking whether infrastructure is healthy, or a hobbyist setting up home server monitoring. For example, if you run a web app and want to know when your server's memory is getting low, you could point this at Graphite and watch a chart of memory usage over time. One thing worth noting is that because it is written in Go, the entire tool ships as a single binary file. That means no complex dependencies to install or manage, you just download it, write a short configuration file, and run it. The project also follows the metrics 2.0 standard, which is a convention for naming metrics in a consistent, machine-readable way. The README doesn't go into deep detail on how to build custom collectors, but it does say that adding new ones is designed to be straightforward.