Question

How do you monitor resource usage for Docker containers on your Droplet?

Posted on April 2, 2025
Docker
Asked by e147d48c68a24e35969c067313a930

I’m hosting a few apps with Docker on a DigitalOcean Droplet and I’d like to keep an eye on CPU, memory, and disk usage per container. Do you use docker stats, something like Netdata, or a full monitoring stack like Prometheus + Grafana?

Submit an answer

This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• April 2, 2025

Accepted Answer

Hey there 👋

The easiest way to check your Docker container usage is by running:

docker stats

That gives you a live dashboard with CPU, memory, and network usage per container — super handy for quick checks.

If you want something with a bit more detail, you could install Netdata or Glances on your Droplet. Both are great lightweight tools for visualizing resource usage. For longer-term monitoring and alerting, Prometheus + Grafana is a solid combo, but takes a bit more setup:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/marketplace/catalog/prometheus/

Also, if you’re just getting into Docker or want a quick refresher, check out this free Docker eBook you might find useful: 👉 Introduction to Docker eBook

Let me know if you need help setting any of that up!

- Bobby

alexdo

Site Moderator

• April 3, 2025

Heya, @e147d48c68a24e35969c067313a930

docker stats is great to check real-time stats for resource usage. You should definitely give it a try.

Netdata and Prometheus + Grafana will give this data presented in dashboards and if you’re looking for core than just simple command-line checks they will be the best solution here.

Regards