Ganglia

Spec sheet

Purpose

Ganglia is a scalable distributed monitoring system for high-performance computing systems such as clusters and Grids.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Audience

The web frontend documentation describes it as serving system administrators and computer users viewing cluster data.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Integrations

The documentation describes integration with RRDtool for metric storage and graphs, Apache and PHP for the web frontend, and GD for pie charts.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Security

A 2013 Ganglia Web release notice says version 3.5.6 included fixes for cross-site scripting issues and advised public-site users to upgrade promptly.Read 11 Oct 2026 · ganglia.github.io

Support

The project profile points users to its wiki, IRC channel, and public mailing lists for community help.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

License

The monitor-core repository lists the BSD-3-Clause license.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Founded

2000Read 28 Sep 2026 · ganglia.github.io

Additional dependency

Gmetad relies on RRDtool and is not compiled unless explicitly requested with the --with-gmetad flag.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Aggregation

Gmetad polls cluster data sources, aggregates their state, stores numeric volatile metrics in round-robin databases, and exports aggregated XML.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Architecture

Its hierarchical design is intended for federations of clusters.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Cluster aggregation

The gmetad daemon polls data sources, stores numeric volatile metrics in round-robin databases, and exports aggregated XML to clients.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Components

The system includes the gmond monitoring daemon, gmetad aggregation daemon, and a PHP-based web frontend.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Custom metrics

The gmetric utility lets users monitor arbitrary host metrics beyond the core metrics collected by gmond.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Deployment requirements

The web frontend depends on gmetad, and its documentation recommends a fairly powerful dedicated machine when displaying a large amount of data.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Metric extensions

Gmond supports pluggable metric modules written in C or Python.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Metrics

Gmond monitors host state and can be extended with pluggable C or Python metric modules.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Node monitoring

The multithreaded gmond daemon runs on each cluster node and monitors host state.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Notable setup requirement

Gmetad is not built by default and requires the RRDtool library and headers when enabled.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Scale

The project profile says Ganglia has been used across thousands of clusters and can scale to clusters with 2,000 nodes.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Supported platforms

The documentation lists Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, MacOS X, Solaris, AIX, IRIX, Tru64, HPUX, and Windows NT/XP/2000/2003/2008.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Transport and storage

Ganglia uses XML for data representation, XDR for data transport, and RRDtool for data storage and visualization.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Visualization

The web frontend displays dynamic pages and historical graphs for metrics such as CPU, memory, disk, and network use.Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com

Web frontend

The PHP web frontend displays live monitoring data and historical graphs for metrics such as CPU, memory, disk, and network usage.Read 10 Oct 2026 · github.com

Plans and prices

Every Ganglia plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Network Monitoring#9 of 558.7