Native Linux Microcontainers

Joblet is a micro-container runtime for running Linux jobs with: Process and filesystem isolation (PID namespace, chroot) Fine-grained CPU, memory, and IO throttling (cgroups v2) Secure job execution with mTLS and RBAC Built-in scheduler, SSE log streaming, and multi-core pinning Ideal for: Agentic AI Workloads (Untrusted code)

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Remote System Monitoring Guide

Comprehensive guide to monitoring remote joblet server resources and performance using RNX’s client-side monitoring capabilities.

Overview
Client-Server Architecture
Quick Start
Monitoring Commands
Metrics Types
JSON Integration
Dashboard Integration
Troubleshooting
Best Practices

Overview

RNX provides comprehensive remote monitoring capabilities from your client machine/workstation that track joblet server resources:

Remote Server Resources: CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization on the joblet server
Joblet Volumes: Volume usage and availability across all server volume types
Server Process Information: Running processes, resource consumption, and states on the joblet host
Cloud Environment: Automatic detection of joblet server’s cloud provider and instance details
Performance Metrics: Real-time throughput, I/O operations, and load averages from the server

Key Features

✅ Remote Monitoring: Monitor joblet server resources from your local workstation
✅ Client-Server Architecture: Secure gRPC communication with mTLS authentication
✅ Volume Tracking: Automatic detection and monitoring of server-side joblet volumes
✅ Cloud Detection: Support for AWS, GCP, Azure, KVM, and bare metal server detection
✅ JSON Output: UI-compatible format for dashboards and monitoring tools
✅ Resource Filtering: Monitor specific server resources (CPU, memory, disk, network)
✅ Process Analysis: Top consumers by CPU and memory usage on the server

Client-Server Architecture

How Remote Monitoring Works

┌─────────────────────┐    gRPC/mTLS     ┌─────────────────────┐
│   Client Machine    │ ◄──────────────► │   Joblet Server     │
│                     │                  │                     │
│  ┌───────────────┐  │                  │  ┌───────────────┐  │
│  │ rnx monitor   │  │   Monitor Req    │  │ Monitoring    │  │
│  │ (from laptop/ │  │ ──────────────►  │  │ Service       │  │
│  │ workstation)  │  │                  │  │               │  │
│  │               │  │   Metrics Data   │  │ Collects:     │  │
│  │ Displays:     │  │ ◄──────────────  │  │ - CPU/Memory  │  │
│  │ - Server CPU  │  │                  │  │ - Disk Usage  │  │
│  │ - Server Mem  │  │                  │  │ - Volumes     │  │
│  │ - Server Disk │  │                  │  │ - Processes   │  │
│  │ - Volumes     │  │                  │  │ - Network     │  │
│  └───────────────┘  │                  │  └───────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────┘                  └─────────────────────┘

Configuration Requirements

Client Side (Your Workstation):

RNX CLI installed with proper configuration file
Network connectivity to joblet server
Valid mTLS certificates for authentication

Server Side (Joblet Host):

Joblet server running with monitoring service enabled
gRPC port accessible (default: 50051)
Monitoring collectors gathering system metrics

Multi-Node Monitoring

Monitor different joblet servers from a single client:

# Monitor production server
rnx --node=production monitor status

# Monitor staging server  
rnx --node=staging monitor status

# Monitor development server
rnx --node=dev monitor watch --interval=5

Quick Start

Basic Remote Server Status

# Get comprehensive overview of joblet server resources
rnx monitor status

# JSON output for dashboards/APIs (server metrics)
rnx monitor status --json

# Monitor specific joblet server node
rnx --node=production monitor status

Real-time Server Monitoring

# Watch all server metrics from your workstation (5s refresh)
rnx monitor watch

# Faster refresh rate for real-time server monitoring
rnx monitor watch --interval=2

# Monitor specific server resources remotely
rnx monitor watch --filter=cpu,memory,disk

Current Server Metrics

# Show current server metrics with top processes
rnx monitor top

# Filter by server resource type
rnx monitor top --filter=disk,network

# JSON output for monitoring tools (server data)
rnx monitor top --json

Monitoring Commands

`rnx monitor status`

Displays comprehensive remote server status including all server resources and joblet volumes.

Features:

Complete remote server overview with version information
Joblet server version - Full version, git tag, commit hash, build date
Host information - Hostname, OS, kernel, uptime, node ID
Network interfaces - IP addresses, MAC addresses, traffic statistics per interface
Server cloud environment detection - AWS, GCP, Azure, KVM support
Server-side volume usage statistics - All joblet volumes tracked
Server process state breakdown - Running, sleeping, zombie processes
Resource utilization - CPU, memory, disk, I/O metrics

Enhanced Display (v4.7.2+):

The status command now includes:

Joblet Server Version Information - Shows version, git tag, commit, build date, Go version
Network Interface Details - Each interface displays:
- IP address (intelligently mapped to interfaces)
- MAC address (hardware address)
- RX/TX statistics with real-time rates
- Packet counts and error tracking

Usage:

rnx monitor status                    # Server status with version info
rnx monitor status --json            # JSON format (server data)
rnx --node=production monitor status # Specific server node

Example Output:

System Status - 2025-10-08T18:45:14Z
Available: true

Host Information:
  Hostname:     joblet-server
  OS:           Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
  Kernel:       5.15.0-153-generic
  Architecture: amd64
  Uptime:       33d 4h 58m
  Node ID:      8eb41e22-2940-4f83-9066-7d739d057ad2
  Server IPs:   192.168.1.161, 172.20.0.1
  MAC Addresses: 5e:9f:b0:c0:61:22, 1e:45:87:fe:bc:53

Joblet Server:
  Version:      v4.7.2
  Git Tag:      v4.7.2
  Git Commit:   00df3a5ee3d6ae7e25078d610e05b977cd8a1812
  Build Date:   2025-10-08T18:44:40Z
  Go Version:   go1.24.0
  Platform:     linux/amd64

Network Interfaces:
  ens18:
    IP:   192.168.1.161
    MAC:  5e:9f:b0:c0:61:22
    RX:   16.1 GB (10264780 packets, 0 errors)
    TX:   986.9 MB (3558641 packets, 0 errors)
    Rate: RX 167 B/s TX 699 B/s
  joblet0:
    IP:   172.20.0.1
    MAC:  1e:45:87:fe:bc:53
    RX:   5.7 MB (73297 packets, 0 errors)
    TX:   6.7 MB (73490 packets, 0 errors)
    Rate: RX 0 B/s TX 0 B/s

`rnx monitor top`

Shows current remote server metrics in a condensed format with top resource consumers.

Features:

Top server processes by CPU and memory
Server resource utilization summary
Server network throughput rates
Server disk I/O statistics

Usage:

rnx monitor top                          # All server metrics
rnx monitor top --filter=cpu,memory      # Specific server metrics only
rnx monitor top --json                   # JSON output (server data)

`rnx monitor watch`

Real-time remote server monitoring with configurable refresh intervals.

Features:

Live server metric updates from your workstation
Configurable refresh rate for server monitoring
Server resource filtering
JSON streaming support for server data
Compact display mode for server metrics

Usage:

rnx monitor watch                            # Default 5s server monitoring
rnx monitor watch --interval=1               # 1s server refresh
rnx monitor watch --filter=disk,network      # Specific server resources
rnx monitor watch --compact                  # Compact server format
rnx monitor watch --json --interval=10       # JSON server streaming

Metrics Types

CPU Metrics

Usage Percentage: Overall CPU utilization
Load Averages: 1, 5, and 15-minute load averages
Per-Core Usage: Individual core utilization
Time Breakdowns: User, system, idle, I/O wait, steal time

Memory Metrics

Total/Used/Available: Memory allocation details
Cache and Buffers: System memory optimization
Swap Usage: Virtual memory utilization
Usage Percentage: Memory utilization rate

Disk Metrics

Mount Points: All filesystem mount points
Joblet Volumes: Volume usage and availability
Space Usage: Total, used, available, percentage
I/O Statistics: Read/write operations and throughput
Inode Usage: Filesystem metadata utilization

Network Metrics

Interface Statistics: All network interfaces with IP and MAC addresses
IP Addresses: Per-interface IP address assignment (IPv4 and IPv6)
MAC Addresses: Hardware addresses for physical network interfaces
Traffic Throughput: Real-time RX/TX rates (bytes per second)
Packet Counts: Received/transmitted packets with error tracking
Error Statistics: Network errors and drops per interface
Rate Calculation: Automatic throughput rate computation

NetworkCollector Implementation: The monitoring system uses a dedicated NetworkCollector that:

Reads interface statistics from /proc/net/dev for bandwidth metrics
Retrieves actual IP addresses and MAC addresses directly from each interface using Go’s net package
Calculates real-time throughput metrics
Filters virtual interfaces (veth, bridges, loopback)
Tracks cumulative and rate-based metrics
Supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing
No heuristics or guessing - all interface data comes directly from the system

Location: /internal/joblet/monitoring/collectors/network.go

Process Metrics

Process States: Running, sleeping, stopped, zombie counts
Top Consumers: Processes by CPU and memory usage
Thread Information: Total thread counts
Resource Usage: Per-process CPU and memory consumption

Volume Metrics

Volume Detection: Automatic discovery of joblet volumes
Usage Statistics: Space utilization per volume
Volume Types: Filesystem and memory volume support
Mount Information: Volume mount points and paths

JSON Integration

Output Structure

The --json flag produces structured output optimized for dashboard integration:

{
  "hostInfo": {
    "hostname": "joblet-server",
    "platform": "Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS", 
    "arch": "amd64",
    "uptime": 152070,
    "cloudProvider": "AWS",
    "instanceType": "t3.medium",
    "region": "us-east-1"
  },
  "cpuInfo": {
    "cores": 8,
    "usage": 0.15,
    "loadAverage": [0.5, 0.3, 0.2],
    "perCoreUsage": [0.1, 0.2, 0.05, 0.3, 0.18, 0.07, 0.12, 0.09]
  },
  "memoryInfo": {
    "total": 4100255744,
    "used": 378679296,
    "available": 3556278272,
    "percent": 9.23,
    "cached": 1835712512,
    "swap": {
      "total": 2147479552,
      "used": 0,
      "percent": 0
    }
  },
  "disksInfo": {
    "disks": [
      {
        "name": "/dev/sda1",
        "mountpoint": "/",
        "filesystem": "ext4", 
        "size": 19896352768,
        "used": 11143790592,
        "available": 8752562176,
        "percent": 56.01
      },
      {
        "name": "analytics-data",
        "mountpoint": "/opt/joblet/volumes/analytics-data",
        "filesystem": "joblet-volume",
        "size": 1073741824,
        "used": 52428800,
        "available": 1021313024,
        "percent": 4.88
      }
    ],
    "totalSpace": 21936726016,
    "usedSpace": 11196219392
  },
  "networkInfo": {
    "interfaces": [
      {
        "name": "eth0",
        "type": "ethernet",
        "status": "up",
        "rxBytes": 1234567890,
        "txBytes": 987654321,
        "rxPackets": 123456,
        "txPackets": 98765
      }
    ],
    "totalRxBytes": 1234567890,
    "totalTxBytes": 987654321
  },
  "processesInfo": {
    "processes": [
      {
        "pid": 1234,
        "name": "joblet",
        "command": "/opt/joblet/joblet",
        "cpu": 2.5,
        "memory": 1.2,
        "memoryBytes": 49152000,
        "status": "sleeping"
      }
    ],
    "totalProcesses": 149
  }
}

Streaming JSON

For real-time monitoring integrations:

# Stream JSON objects every 10 seconds
rnx monitor watch --json --interval=10

# Process with monitoring tools
rnx monitor watch --json | jq '.cpuInfo.usage'

# Forward to monitoring systems
rnx monitor watch --json --interval=30 | logger -t joblet-metrics

Dashboard Integration

Grafana Integration

Create a data source using the JSON output:

#!/bin/bash
# grafana-collector.sh
while true; do
  rnx monitor status --json > /var/lib/grafana/joblet-metrics.json
  sleep 60
done

Prometheus Integration

Export metrics in Prometheus format:

#!/bin/bash
# prometheus-exporter.sh
METRICS=$(rnx monitor status --json)
CPU_USAGE=$(echo "$METRICS" | jq -r '.cpuInfo.usage')
MEMORY_PERCENT=$(echo "$METRICS" | jq -r '.memoryInfo.percent')

echo "joblet_cpu_usage $CPU_USAGE"  
echo "joblet_memory_percent $MEMORY_PERCENT"

Custom Dashboards

Use the JSON API to build custom monitoring dashboards:

// JavaScript example
async function getJobletMetrics() {
  const { exec } = require('child_process');
  
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    exec('rnx monitor status --json', (error, stdout) => {
      if (error) reject(error);
      else resolve(JSON.parse(stdout));
    });
  });
}

// Usage
const metrics = await getJobletMetrics();
console.log(`CPU Usage: ${metrics.cpuInfo.usage * 100}%`);
console.log(`Memory Usage: ${metrics.memoryInfo.percent}%`);

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

No Volume Statistics Showing

# Check if volumes exist
rnx volume list

# Create test volume
rnx volume create test-monitoring --size=100MB

# Verify monitoring detects it
rnx monitor status --json | grep "joblet-volume"

High Resource Usage

# Identify resource-heavy processes
rnx monitor top --filter=process

# Monitor specific resources
rnx monitor watch --filter=cpu,memory --interval=1

# Check for resource-intensive jobs
rnx job list --json | jq '.[] | select(.status=="running")'

Network Monitoring Issues

# Check active interfaces
rnx monitor status | grep -A 10 "Network Interfaces"

# Monitor network activity
rnx monitor watch --filter=network --interval=2

Performance Optimization

Reduce Monitoring Overhead

# Use longer intervals for production
rnx monitor watch --interval=30

# Filter to essential metrics only
rnx monitor watch --filter=cpu,memory

# Use compact format for less output
rnx monitor watch --compact

Efficient JSON Processing

# Extract specific metrics only
rnx monitor status --json | jq '.cpuInfo'

# Monitor specific volumes
rnx monitor status --json | jq '.disksInfo.disks[] | select(.filesystem=="joblet-volume")'

Best Practices

1. Regular Monitoring

# Set up automated monitoring
*/5 * * * * rnx monitor status --json > /var/log/joblet/metrics-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).json

2. Resource Thresholds

# Create alerting scripts
#!/bin/bash
CPU_USAGE=$(rnx monitor status --json | jq -r '.cpuInfo.usage')
if (( $(echo "$CPU_USAGE > 0.8" | bc -l) )); then
  echo "ALERT: High CPU usage: $(echo "$CPU_USAGE * 100" | bc)%"
fi

3. Volume Management

# Monitor volume usage regularly
rnx monitor status --json | jq '.disksInfo.disks[] | select(.filesystem=="joblet-volume") | {name, percent}'

# Clean up unused volumes
rnx volume list | grep -v "in-use"

4. Performance Monitoring

# Monitor job performance impact
rnx monitor watch --filter=cpu,memory &
rnx job run --max-cpu=50 heavy-computation.py

5. Historical Tracking

# Log metrics for trend analysis  
rnx monitor status --json | jq '{timestamp: now, cpu: .cpuInfo.usage, memory: .memoryInfo.percent}' >> metrics.jsonl

6. Integration Testing

# Test monitoring integration
rnx monitor status --json | jq . > /dev/null && echo "JSON valid" || echo "JSON invalid"

# Verify all metrics present
REQUIRED_FIELDS="hostInfo cpuInfo memoryInfo disksInfo networkInfo processesInfo"
for field in $REQUIRED_FIELDS; do
  rnx monitor status --json | jq ".$field" > /dev/null || echo "Missing: $field"
done

7. Persist Service Monitoring

The persist service handles historical log and metric storage. Monitor its health and performance:

# Check persist service status (on server)
ssh server "systemctl status persist"

# View persist service logs
ssh server "journalctl -u persist -n 100 -f"

# Check IPC socket connectivity
ssh server "ls -la /opt/joblet/run/persist.sock"

# Monitor storage usage for logs and metrics
ssh server "du -sh /opt/joblet/logs /opt/joblet/metrics"

# Check for persist service errors
ssh server "journalctl -u persist --since '1 hour ago' | grep -i error"

Persist Service Metrics:

The persist service exposes its own metrics for monitoring:

# Persist service health (if gRPC endpoint is enabled)
curl http://server:9093/health

# Prometheus metrics (if enabled)
curl http://server:9092/metrics | grep persist_

Key Metrics to Monitor:

IPC Write Latency: Average time to write logs/metrics via Unix socket
Storage Usage: Disk space consumed by /opt/joblet/logs and /opt/joblet/metrics
Compression Ratio: Efficiency of gzip compression (typically ~80%)
Query Latency: Time to retrieve historical logs/metrics
Error Rate: Failed writes or storage errors

Storage Management:

# Check current storage usage
ssh server "df -h /opt/joblet"

# Find largest log directories
ssh server "du -sh /opt/joblet/logs/* | sort -hr | head -10"

# Check metric storage
ssh server "du -sh /opt/joblet/metrics/* | sort -hr | head -10"

# Monitor storage growth rate
ssh server "watch -n 60 'du -sh /opt/joblet/logs /opt/joblet/metrics'"

Automated Monitoring:

# Log persist metrics to JSONL for analysis
while true; do
  ssh server "du -sk /opt/joblet/logs /opt/joblet/metrics" | \
    awk '{print "{\"timestamp\":" systime() ",\"path\":\"" $2 "\",\"size_kb\":" $1 "}"}' >> persist-metrics.jsonl
  sleep 300  # Every 5 minutes
done

# Alert on high storage usage
THRESHOLD=80  # Alert at 80% usage
USAGE=$(ssh server "df /opt/joblet | tail -1 | awk '{print \$5}' | sed 's/%//'")
if [ "$USAGE" -gt "$THRESHOLD" ]; then
  echo "ALERT: Persist storage at ${USAGE}% (threshold: ${THRESHOLD}%)"
fi

Performance Tuning:

Monitor persist service performance and adjust configuration:

# In /opt/joblet/config/joblet-config.yml
persist:
  writer:
    flush_interval: "1s"      # Increase to reduce I/O, decrease for lower latency
    batch_size: 100           # Higher = better throughput, more memory

  query:
    cache:
      ttl: "5m"               # Cache query results to reduce disk I/O
    stream:
      buffer_size: 1024       # Buffer size for streaming queries

Troubleshooting Persist Service:

# Service not running
ssh server "sudo systemctl restart persist"

# Check if socket exists
ssh server "sudo ls -la /opt/joblet/run/persist.sock"

# Verify socket permissions (should be 600)
ssh server "sudo stat /opt/joblet/run/persist.sock"

# Test IPC connectivity from joblet service
ssh server "sudo lsof | grep persist.sock"

# Check for disk space issues
ssh server "df -h /opt/joblet && df -i /opt/joblet"

Best Practices:

Monitor Storage Growth: Set up alerts for storage thresholds
Regular Cleanup: Configure retention policies to auto-delete old data
Performance Baseline: Establish normal IPC latency and query times
Backup Strategy: Include /opt/joblet/logs and /opt/joblet/metrics in backups
Log Rotation: Ensure persist service logs don’t fill up disk

RNX CLI Reference - Complete CLI command reference
Volume Management - Managing persistent volumes
Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
Admin UI - Web-based monitoring interface
Persist Service Testing - E2E testing for persist service
Architecture - Persist service architecture and communication

For additional help, run rnx monitor --help or see the troubleshooting guide.

Native Linux Microcontainers

Remote System Monitoring Guide

Table of Contents

Overview

Key Features

Client-Server Architecture

How Remote Monitoring Works

Configuration Requirements

Multi-Node Monitoring

Quick Start

Basic Remote Server Status

Real-time Server Monitoring

Current Server Metrics

Monitoring Commands

rnx monitor status

rnx monitor top

rnx monitor watch

Metrics Types

CPU Metrics

Memory Metrics

Disk Metrics

Network Metrics

Process Metrics

Volume Metrics

JSON Integration

Output Structure

Streaming JSON

Dashboard Integration

Grafana Integration

Prometheus Integration

Custom Dashboards

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Performance Optimization

Best Practices

1. Regular Monitoring

2. Resource Thresholds

3. Volume Management

4. Performance Monitoring

5. Historical Tracking

6. Integration Testing

7. Persist Service Monitoring

Related Documentation

`rnx monitor status`

`rnx monitor top`

`rnx monitor watch`