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Apache HertzBeat

Real-time agentless observability with custom monitoring and alerting

Apache HertzBeat is an agentless, real-time observability platform combining monitoring, alerting, and notifications with Prometheus compatibility and customizable YAML templates for any infrastructure.

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Overview

Overview

Apache HertzBeat is a comprehensive real-time observability system designed for teams seeking agentless monitoring across diverse infrastructure. By eliminating the need for agents, it simplifies deployment while delivering powerful monitoring, alerting, and notification capabilities in a single platform.

Capabilities

HertzBeat supports monitoring for web services, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB), caches (Redis, Memcached), operating systems (Linux, Windows), middleware (Tomcat, Kafka, RabbitMQ), cloud-native platforms (Kubernetes, Docker), and network devices. Its template-driven architecture uses configurable YAML files to define monitoring types, enabling rapid adaptation to new technologies without code changes. The platform is Prometheus-compatible, allowing seamless integration with existing Prometheus ecosystems.

Architecture & Deployment

Built for performance and scalability, HertzBeat supports horizontal expansion through multi-collector clusters and multi-isolated network monitoring with cloud-edge collaboration. Flexible alerting rules trigger notifications via Discord, Slack, Telegram, Email, WeChat, and more. The included status page builder enables transparent service communication with end users. Deployment options include Docker, package installation, and source code, with support for x86 and ARM64 architectures.

Highlights

Agentless monitoring with zero-installation overhead across 100+ integrations
YAML-based template system for custom monitoring types without coding
Prometheus-compatible with native ecosystem support and metric collection
High-performance collector clusters with horizontal scaling and cloud-edge collaboration

Pros

  • No agent installation required, reducing deployment complexity and maintenance
  • Unified platform for monitoring, alerting, and notifications across diverse infrastructure
  • Flexible YAML templates enable rapid customization for new monitoring types
  • Built-in status page builder for transparent service communication

Considerations

  • Requires Java 17 runtime, which may necessitate infrastructure updates
  • YAML template customization requires understanding of protocol specifications
  • Documentation primarily focuses on Docker deployment over enterprise orchestration
  • Community-driven template library may have varying quality and maintenance levels

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Fit guide

Great for

  • Teams needing agentless monitoring across heterogeneous infrastructure
  • Organizations seeking Prometheus compatibility with simplified web-based management
  • DevOps teams requiring customizable monitoring without agent deployment overhead
  • Companies building public status pages alongside internal observability

Not ideal when

  • Environments requiring deep application-level tracing beyond metrics collection
  • Teams seeking vendor-supported enterprise observability with SLAs
  • Organizations standardized on agent-based monitoring with existing investments
  • Use cases demanding sub-second metric resolution at massive scale

How teams use it

Multi-Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring

Monitor Kubernetes clusters, databases, and middleware across AWS, Azure, and on-premises without deploying agents, using collector clusters for isolated network segments.

SaaS Service Status Communication

Build public status pages showing real-time API, database, and service health while routing internal alerts to Slack and PagerDuty based on custom threshold rules.

Rapid Custom Monitoring Deployment

Create YAML templates for proprietary applications or IoT devices, enabling monitoring of custom HTTP APIs, SNMP devices, or JDBC-compatible databases within minutes.

Prometheus Migration Simplification

Leverage existing Prometheus exporters and queries through HertzBeat's web UI, reducing operational complexity while maintaining metric compatibility and adding alerting workflows.

Tech snapshot

Java66%
TypeScript11%
CSS10%
HTML7%
Less5%
Rust1%

Tags

logsmonitorstatusaizabbixmetricsobservabilitygrafanaself-hosteduptimellmalertingprometheusstatus-pageservermonitoringnotificationsagentdatabaselinux

Frequently asked questions

Does HertzBeat require installing agents on monitored systems?

No, HertzBeat is agentless. It collects metrics using standard protocols like HTTP, SNMP, JDBC, SSH, and JMX without requiring software installation on target systems.

How does HertzBeat integrate with Prometheus?

HertzBeat is Prometheus-compatible, supporting Prometheus exporters and query formats. You can monitor Prometheus-compatible targets through the web UI without managing Prometheus configuration files.

What databases does HertzBeat support for metric storage?

HertzBeat supports time-series databases including VictoriaMetrics, IoTDB, and TDengine, as well as relational databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL for configuration storage.

Can I create custom monitoring templates?

Yes, you can define custom monitoring types by creating YAML templates that specify protocols, metrics, and collection parameters. Templates can be imported through the web interface without code changes.

How do collector clusters work for distributed monitoring?

Deploy multiple collector instances across network segments or regions, each registering with the central HertzBeat manager. Collectors handle metric collection locally, supporting private cloud-edge and public cluster modes.

Project at a glance

Active
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Watchers
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Forks
1,254
LicenseApache-2.0
Repo age4 years old
Last commit18 hours ago
Self-hostingSupported
Primary languageJava

Last synced 3 hours ago