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Build a system monitor

Welcome to the workshop on building a system monitor with Axum! In this session, we'll explore how to create a high-performance HTTP server that exposes real-time and on-demand metrics about the system it’s running on—perfect for monitoring resource usage, debugging, or integrating with observability tools.

What You’ll Build​

Your system monitor server will expose four key endpoints:

  1. GET /healthcheck: A simple endpoint to verify the server is running.
  2. GET /metrics: Retrieve a comprehensive summary of system metrics.
  3. GET /metrics/{kind}: Fetch specific metrics (e.g., system, process, memory, cpu, or disk) to drill down into performance data.
  4. GET /realtime: Stream live metric updates using Server-Sent Events (SSE), providing a real-time dashboard experience.

Why This Project?​

By building this server, you’ll gain practical experience with:

  • Rust’s async ecosystem: Using Axum and Tokio to handle concurrent HTTP requests.

  • System programming: Interacting with low-level OS APIs to collect metrics like CPU usage, memory allocation, and disk I/O.

  • Real-time communication: Implementing SSE to push updates to clients without polling.

  • API design: Structuring clean, maintainable endpoints for extensibility.

Whether you’re new to systems programming or looking to deepen your Rust expertise, this project bridges the gap between theory and real-world applications. Let’s dive in and build a tool that’s as educational as it is practical! 🚀

Skill Progression​

  1. Task 1: Organize the project structure and set up the /healthcheck
  2. Task 2: Implement the /metrics and /metrics/{kind} endpoints
  3. Task 3: Add the /realtime endpoint to server realtime metrics.