What is infrastructure monitoring? A comprehensive guide

In today’s dynamic and ever-evolving IT setups, keeping track of infrastructure health is more critical than ever. As businesses rely heavily on complex systems and networks, any downtime or performance issue in even a single component can lead to major disruptions. With infrastructure monitoring, IT teams can diagnose and resolve problems quickly to keep systems stable and efficient.

This guide walks you through everything you need to know about infrastructure monitoring: what it entails, why it’s important, how to implement it, and some best practices.

Infrastructure monitoring defined

Before digging deep into infrastructure monitoring, let’s take a step back to define infrastructure. Infrastructure encompasses all the basic components that keep our IT systems running as they should. This includes:

• Hardware: Servers, workstations, cloud virtual machines, storage devices, network devices (routers, switches, firewalls), and physical infrastructure (data centers, cabling).
• Software: Operating systems, database management systems, virtualization software, microservices, containerization tools, serverless environments, and application software.
• Networking: Local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), and internet connections.

Infrastructure monitoring is the act of actively tracking the status and performance of all these components. It involves collecting data from different parts of the infrastructure, analyzing it in real time, and generating insights to identify potential issues before they lead to system failures or slowdowns. The goal here is to keep the overall system running efficiently.

What are the benefits of infrastructure monitoring?

Here are some tangible benefits of infrastructure monitoring to get you interested:

Minimized downtime

Monitoring tools can detect issues early, which in turn allows IT teams to fix them before they lead to major outages. For example, an e-commerce site may experience increased server load during a flash sale. Without monitoring, the servers could crash, resulting in lost sales. With infrastructure monitoring, the team can identify the issue in real time and scale up resources to keep the site running without any degradations.

Improved performance and efficiency

Continuous monitoring helps users verify that all systems are working at their best. In a financial institution, for example, slow database performance could delay transactions and frustrate customers. By using infrastructure monitoring, IT teams can pinpoint bottlenecks in the database server and adjust resources to keep services running at peak performance.

Faster issue resolution

Infrastructure monitoring provides detailed insights into where and why an issue occurred. Imagine a company’s internal communication platform going down. With proper monitoring of the right metrics, IT staff can quickly identify that the root cause is a misconfigured network switch and fix the problem immediately.

Cost savings

By optimizing infrastructure and reducing downtime, businesses can save money on repairs and lost revenue. For example, a SaaS provider using infrastructure monitoring can proactively optimize resource utilization to manage server loads, preventing the need to invest in additional hardware until it’s truly necessary. This avoids overspending while still maintaining optimal performance.

Better capacity planning

Monitoring helps businesses track usage trends over time, making it easier to plan for future growth. A cloud-based service provider, for example, may notice a steady increase in traffic during certain times of the year. With infrastructure monitoring, they can forecast these trends and adjust their resources in advance to avoid performance issues.

What’s included in infrastructure monitoring?

Infrastructure monitoring encompasses several components that are fundamental to the smooth functioning of IT systems. Let’s cover them all below:

Server monitoring

Server monitoring involves tracking the health, performance, and availability of servers, whether physical or virtual. The goal is to make sure that servers are able to handle the demands placed on them.

Why it’s important:

• Detects potential errors in hardware and software before they can lead to downtime.
• Ensures optimal server performance during peak loads.
• Helps manage server capacity to avoid resource strain.

Key metrics to look out for:

• CPU usage: High CPU usage indicates server strain or inefficient network, services, or processes.
• Memory usage: High memory consumption can slow down server performance.
• Disk space: Running out of disk space can lead to crashes or slowdowns.
• Uptime: Ensures that the server is consistently available and operational.

Network monitoring

Network monitoring tracks the performance and availability of a company’s network infrastructure, including routers, switches, firewalls, and other devices that enable communication between systems.

Why it’s important:

• Detects network bottlenecks or failures that could disrupt communication.
• Ensures that data flows smoothly between systems and applications.
• Enhances security by spotting unusual traffic patterns that could indicate a breach.

Key metrics to look out for:

• Latency: Measures how long it takes for data to travel across the network.
• Bandwidth usage: High bandwidth usage can indicate network congestion.
• Packet loss: Losing data packets can affect the quality of communication.
• Network uptime: Ensures that network components are up and running.

Database monitoring

Database monitoring focuses on tracking the performance and availability of databases to guarantee that they can handle queries and transactions efficiently.

Why it’s important:

• Prevents slow query times, which could affect user experience.
• Helps maintain data integrity and availability.
• Detects performance bottlenecks and potential system overloads.

Key metrics to look out for:

• Query response time: Slow query times can frustrate users or delay processes.
• Connection count: The number of active connections to the database, which could signal potential overload.
• Disk I/O: High disk input/output activity can lead to performance bottlenecks.
• Deadlocks: When two or more queries are waiting on each other to release resources, it can stall the system.

Cloud infrastructure monitoring

Cloud infrastructure monitoring is all about tracking the health, performance, and availability of cloud-based resources like virtual machines, databases, storage, and applications hosted on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.).

Why it’s important:

• Ensures optimal performance in a dynamic, scalable cloud environment.
• Boosts availability and decreases chances of downtime.
• Helps manage costs by optimizing resource usage.
• Identifies potential security risks or misconfigurations.

Key metrics to look out for:

• CPU and memory utilization: High resource usage can indicate under-provisioned instances.
• Instance availability: Ensures that cloud services are up and running without interruptions.
• Storage utilization: Monitors how much cloud storage is being used and available.
• Network traffic: Helps track incoming and outgoing traffic to cloud instances.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM)

APM focuses on tracking the performance of applications running on your infrastructure, including response times, error rates, and user experience.

Why it’s important:

• Detects issues that affect application performance, such as slow load times or crashes.
• Helps maintain a positive user experience, especially for customer-facing applications.
• Provides insights into how applications are using infrastructure resources.

Key metrics to look out for:

• Response time: Measures how long it takes for the application to respond to user requests.
• Error rate: Tracks the frequency of application errors or failures.
• Throughput: Measures how many requests an application can handle per second.
• User satisfaction: Often measured using synthetic monitoring or user feedback tools to gauge the application’s perceived performance.

Storage monitoring

Storage monitoring involves tracking the performance and capacity of storage systems, including hard drives, SSDs, NAS (Network-Attached Storage), and cloud-based storage.

Why it’s important:

• Prevents data loss by alerting you when storage is nearing capacity.
• Ensures optimal performance of storage devices, which impacts the speed of data access.
• Helps in maintaining data availability and integrity for critical systems and applications.

Key metrics to look out for:

• Disk usage: Percentage of storage capacity being used.
• Read/write speeds: Calculates the pace at which data is written to and read from the storage layer.
• IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second): Indicates the number of read/write operations a storage device can handle per second.
• Disk latency: The time it takes for a storage device to process a data request.

Setting up infrastructure monitoring

Now that you know why infrastructure monitoring is important, and what it entails, let’s cover the steps you’d need to get started.

Define your monitoring goals

Before setting up any tools, it's important to identify what you want to achieve with infrastructure monitoring. This will help you select the right tools and metrics to track. Answer questions like:

• What are your critical systems? Identify the servers, databases, networks, or applications that are most important to your business operations.
• What metrics matter most? Decide which performance indicators (e.g., uptime, response times, memory usage) are crucial for each component.
• Which alerts do you need? Determine which events require immediate action (e.g., server down, high CPU usage) and when alerts should be triggered.
• Are you ready for capacity planning? Monitor usage trends over time to predict when resources (like storage or memory) may run out. This helps avoid future performance issues.
• What’s your plan for root cause analysis (RCA)? When an incident happens, make sure your monitoring setup helps you trace back to the root cause. Logs, metrics, and alert history all play a role here.
• Can you automate fixes? If a common issue happens, like say a service crashes. you can set up auto-remediation steps (e.g., restart the service or scale up resources) to reduce downtime without manual work.

Choose the right monitoring tools

The next key step is to choose the right tool. There are many infrastructure monitoring platforms available, from open-source options to enterprise-level solutions. Make sure the tool you choose integrates with your existing infrastructure and provides real-time reporting, customizable dashboards, and alerting systems.

One tool worth mentioning is the IT infrastructure monitoring tool by Site24x7. It’s an AI-powered monitoring platform that lets you manage and monitor all your components from a central dashboard.

Set up monitoring agents

Most monitoring tools require the installation of agents on your servers, cloud instances, or network devices. These agents collect data and send it to your monitoring dashboard for analysis. Follow the tool's guidelines (often available in the documentation) to install agents on all the systems you want to monitor. For cloud environments, you may have to deploy agents via scripts or templates.

Next, configure the agents to track specific metrics (e.g., CPU usage, network latency) and send the data to your monitoring platform.

Define thresholds and alerts

For each component (e.g., servers, databases), define acceptable performance ranges. For example, set a CPU usage threshold at 80% to indicate when a server is under high load.

At this stage, you should also configure alerts by choosing how and when to receive notifications. Alerts can be sent via email or SMS, or integrated into incident management systems. Be sure to configure alerts for critical incidents like system outages or high resource usage, and adjust alert levels to avoid unnecessary noise.

Build custom dashboards

Monitoring tools often come with the ability to create custom dashboards. These dashboards allow your IT team to get an overview of your entire infrastructure at a glance. Here are some tips in this regard:

• Display critical metrics like server uptime, CPU usage, memory consumption, and network traffic in one central location.
• Set up live dashboards to monitor systems in real time and quickly identify performance issues.
• Tailor dashboards for different teams (e.g., network admins, developers, cloud engineers) so they see the metrics that matter most to them.

Enable historical data and reporting

Monitoring isn’t just about real-time metrics. You’ll also want to collect and analyze historical data to spot trends and make informed decisions. Configure your monitoring system to store data for a certain period (e.g., weeks, months). This allows you to track long-term trends, such as increasing CPU usage or network traffic spikes.

Also, schedule regular performance reports to get an overview of how your infrastructure has performed over time. These reports can highlight issues like resource overuse or recurring bottlenecks.

Set up automated responses

For more advanced setups, you can configure automated actions to resolve common issues without human intervention. For example, you may install self-healing scripts to automate common fixes, such as restarting a crashed service or cleaning up disk space when needed. In a cloud environment, you could set up automated scaling rules that would allow the system to automatically launch additional instances to handle increased load.

Test your monitoring setup

Before fully relying on your monitoring setup, it’s important to test it thoroughly. Trigger test alerts by simulating common failures (e.g., shutting down a server, overloading a network). This helps you validate that alerts are triggered correctly and that the monitoring system responds as expected.

Additionally, check that the alerts you receive are timely, accurate, and not overwhelming. Fine-tune your alert thresholds and notification channels based on the test results.

Regularly update and optimize your monitoring system

Once your monitoring system is in place, ongoing maintenance and optimization are key to long-term success. Here’s what to remember:

• Check your dashboards and reports to see if your metrics still align with your goals. As your infrastructure evolves, you may need to adjust what you monitor.
• Keep your monitoring tools and agents updated with the latest features and security patches.
• Fine-tune alert thresholds and notification preferences based on your team’s feedback. If you’re getting too many false positives, you may need to lower the sensitivity of certain alerts.

Infrastructure monitoring best practices

Finally, here’s some best practices that you can follow to avoid the common pitfalls of infrastructure monitoring.

Monitor the right metrics

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of metrics you can track. Focus on the most critical metrics that directly impact your business and system performance, such as CPU usage, memory, disk space, response times, and error rates. Regularly review which metrics are necessary and eliminate irrelevant data to reduce noise.

Set proper alert thresholds

Alerts should act as a warning system, not an annoyance. Setting appropriate thresholds is key to avoiding alert fatigue. Define realistic thresholds for each metric. For example, don’t set CPU usage alerts at 50%, as normal operations may frequently reach this level.

You should also use multi-level alerts for different severities (e.g., warning, critical) to avoid being bombarded with unnecessary notifications.

Establish a baseline

Understanding what’s “normal” for your infrastructure is important for detecting anomalies. Measure system performance over time to create a baseline for normal behavior, including typical CPU usage, network latency, and memory consumption during different periods (e.g., peak hours). Use this baseline to better identify when systems deviate from normal patterns, as this would make it easier to detect potential problems early.

Automate whenever possible

Automation reduces the burden on your IT team and speeds up response times to incidents. For example, you can:

• Automate common remediation actions, such as restarting services, scaling resources, or cleaning up disk space.
• Set up auto-scaling in cloud environments so your systems can respond to increased load without manual intervention.
• Use automated reporting to track performance trends and detect issues before they become critical.

Integrate monitoring with incident management

To respond quickly to incidents, your monitoring system should be closely tied to your incident management tools. Integrate monitoring with tools like PagerDuty or Jira to create a streamlined incident response process.

Ensure security and compliance monitoring

Security is just as critical as performance when monitoring infrastructure. Make sure your setup includes tools for security monitoring and compliance. Use these tools to track unusual login attempts, unauthorized access, and data transfer activity to quickly identify potential breaches.

You may also leverage Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to integrate security alerts with your broader infrastructure monitoring system.

Train your team

Infrastructure monitoring tools are only as effective as the people using them. Provide ongoing training for your IT and DevOps teams so that they understand how to interpret monitoring data, respond to alerts, and use the tools effectively.

Moreover, foster a culture of proactive monitoring, where team members actively look for signs of potential issues rather than waiting for alerts.

Conclusion

Infrastructure monitoring enables you to track the health and performance of the fundamental components of your IT environment. Whether you have a small on-premise infrastructure, or a distributed, multi-cloud setup, implement infrastructure monitoring to optimize resource utilization, reduce costs, decrease your Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), and ensure high availability.

If you are looking for the quickest and easiest way to get started, check out the AI-powered, cloud-based infrastructure monitoring tool by Site24x7.