Building a Visual Monitoring Center for Docker Containers with InfluxDB, cAdvisor, and Grafana

In a single host you can run multiple containerized applications, and to manage them you need to monitor CPU usage, memory consumption, network status, and disk space—collectively time‑series data. This article demonstrates how to build a visual monitoring center that gathers and displays these metrics.

Preparation : three Docker images are required— adviser (collects metrics), influxdb (stores time‑series data), and grafana (visualizes data).

Deploy InfluxDB as a time‑series database:

docker run -d -p 8086:8086 \
  -v ~/influxdb:/var/lib/influxdb \
  --name influxdb tutum/influxdb

Enter the container and create a database and a root user:

docker exec -it influxdb influx

CREATE DATABASE "test"

CREATE USER "root" WITH PASSWORD 'root' WITH ALL PRIVILEGES

Deploy cAdvisor to collect container metrics and send them to InfluxDB:

docker run -d \
  -v /:/rootfs -v /var/run:/var/run -v /sys:/sys \
  -v /var/lib/docker:/var/lib/docker \
  --link=influxdb:influxdb --name cadvisor google/cadvisor:v0.27.3 \
  --storage_driver=influxdb \
  --storage_driver_host=influxdb:8086 \
  --storage_driver_db=test \
  --storage_driver_user=root \
  --storage_driver_password=root

For CentOS/RHEL you may need to add --privileged=true and --volume=/cgroup:/cgroup:ro to give the container proper permissions.

Deploy Grafana for visualization:

docker run -d -p 5000:3000 \
  -v ~/grafana:/var/lib/grafana \
  --link=influxdb:influxdb \
  --name grafana grafana/grafana

All three containers are now running. Access Grafana at http://localhost:5000 (default login: admin / admin). After logging in, add InfluxDB as a data source, then create a dashboard.

In the dashboard, add a panel, edit it, and select the desired metric (e.g., memory usage) and the target container (Grafana, InfluxDB, or cAdvisor). Multiple queries can be added to monitor several containers simultaneously.

The resulting graph shows memory usage for the three containers, demonstrating a clear, real‑time view of container performance. Additional customizations such as axis settings, display options, and alert rules are also possible.

Feel free to experiment and build your own monitoring setup.