Getting Started¶
TrueWatch provides a one-stop observability solution for cloud, cloud-native, applications, and business. Whether it's server status, application performance bottlenecks, or real user access experience, everything can be unified in one platform for collection, correlation analysis, and real-time insights. Combined with the TOBY AI Copilot and agent team, you can get AI-assisted decision-making from anomaly discovery to root cause localization, achieving a complete closed loop from observation to action.
TrueWatch offers Free Plan, Commercial Plan, and Deployment Plan three product versions:
Free Plan: For independent developers and small teams, supporting basic data collection and core feature experience.
Commercial Plan: For formal business environments, providing a complete feature stack and pay-as-you-go billing.
Deployment Plan: For private environments, requiring installation of the TrueWatch system software on local infrastructure.
This document is for SaaS Plan (Free Plan/Commercial Plan) users, guiding you to quickly complete the full cycle from installing the collector to seeing the first piece of monitoring data.
If you are using the Deployment Plan, please refer to the Private Deployment Documentation for installation and configuration.
Preparation: Register and Log In¶
If you do not yet have a TrueWatch account, please first register for a TrueWatch account. After registration, select the site where your account is located to enter the TrueWatch console workspace.
Step 1: Install DataKit¶
DataKit is the official open-source data collection client of TrueWatch, deployed on your servers, responsible for reporting host metrics, container status, application logs, and other data to TrueWatch in real-time. After installation, DataKit enables a set of basic collectors by default, and data collection can begin without additional configuration.
TrueWatch supports multiple installation methods. You can choose based on your actual environment:
- Host Installation: Suitable for operating systems like Linux, Windows, macOS
- Container Installation: Suitable for Docker environments
- Kubernetes Installation: Suitable for K8s clusters, supports Helm deployment
- Other Methods: Including AWS ECS Fargate, AWS EKS, offline installation, etc.
Enter the TrueWatch console, click the left navigation bar Integrations > DataKit, select your operating system type, copy the installation command provided on the page, and execute it on the target host. After successful installation, the terminal will prompt that the installation was successful.
For more installation details and advanced configuration, please refer to DataKit Installation.
Step 2: Confirm Data is Being Reported¶
After installation, DataKit has enabled a set of commonly used Linux host collectors by default, and basic metrics collection can begin without manual configuration. Data is automatically reported to the workspace according to the default frequency of each collector. Usually, you can see it in the console after a short wait.
To confirm whether collection is successful, go to the console > Infrastructure, and check in the Host list to see if your server appears. If the host name, IP address, and status are displayed normally, it means DataKit has been successfully connected and is working.
If the target machine does not appear in the host list, it is recommended to troubleshoot the following situations:
- Check the DataKit service status: Confirm on the host whether the DataKit process is running normally.
- Check network connectivity: Confirm that the server can access the public internet, as DataKit needs to report data to TrueWatch.
- Check the workspace: Confirm that the current workspace in the console corresponds to the token used when installing DataKit.
If the issue persists, please go to DataKit No Data Troubleshooting for a complete troubleshooting process.
Step 3: Explore Built-in Visualization Views¶
After data is reported, the system has built-in a series of visualization view templates covering common scenarios such as hosts, containers, and databases. You don't need to build dashboards from scratch; you can quickly view system running status by selecting and reusing these templates.
Go to Scenarios > Built-in Views > System Views, select view templates under the Host category, and click to view real-time charts of key metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, and network traffic. You can choose to directly create them as a New Dashboard or New User View, applying the templates to your own workspace.
TrueWatch provides system view templates covering infrastructure, middleware, application performance, cloud vendors, and many other fields, ready to use out of the box. System views cannot be edited directly; if modifications are needed, please clone them as user views first.
For more details, please refer to Built-in Views and Quickly Create Dashboards.
Step 4: Configure Monitoring and Alerts¶
After confirming normal data collection and visualization, it is recommended to configure alert rules for your key metrics so that you can receive notifications as soon as anomalies occur.
TrueWatch has built-in 700+ ready-to-use monitor templates covering common scenarios such as host resources, databases, network, and application performance. Go to Monitoring > Monitors > Create Monitor > Official Template Library, check "Host Detection Library" in the left detection library, select the required detection rules (e.g., high average host CPU load), and you can create a monitor with one click.
After creating a monitor, you need to configure alert strategies, notification targets, etc. TrueWatch supports sending alerts through various channels such as email, DingTalk, Lark, WeCom, SMS, Webhook, etc., ensuring that anomaly information reaches the responsible person in a timely manner.
For detailed instructions on monitor configuration and notification strategies, please refer to Getting Started with Monitors.
Step 5: Explore More Data Types¶
After completing the basic closed loop of host monitoring, you can gradually integrate more data types according to business needs to build full-stack observability capabilities:
| Data Type | Description | Recommended Scenarios |
|---|---|---|
| Logs | Collect application and system logs, supporting full-text search and pattern analysis | Fault troubleshooting, audit tracing |
| Application Performance Monitoring (APM) | Trace distributed application request links, locate performance bottlenecks | Microservices architecture, API performance optimization |
| Real User Monitoring (RUM) | Collect real user access experience data | Web/Mini Program performance optimization |
| Agent Monitoring | Trace Agent requests and correlate with the entire application link, measure the number of Tokens consumed for each generation task | AI applications, large model service governance |
| Security Monitoring | Integrate CSPM and SIEM capabilities to build an integrated security monitoring system covering assets, configuration, and behavior | Security event management, compliance auditing |
| Cloud Resource Integration | Synchronize resource data from cloud vendors such as Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Huawei Cloud, etc. | Hybrid cloud/Multi-cloud unified monitoring |
Enter the Integrations module to view all data sources supported by TrueWatch and corresponding access guidance documents. All data, after integration, can be correlated and analyzed in the same workspace without switching between multiple tools.
Advanced: Query and Analyze Data¶
When you are familiar with basic visualization and alerts, if you need more flexible data exploration, you can use the TrueWatch self-developed DQL (Data Query Language). DQL is specifically designed for time series data, logs, events, and other observable data, and can be used in multiple modules such as Explorer, Dashboards, Metric Analysis, and Query Tools.
For DQL syntax and usage examples, please refer to DQL Query Language.
After completing the above steps, you already have the ability to use TrueWatch for basic system monitoring. If you need to learn more about a specific feature module, you can consult the corresponding topic documentation through the left navigation bar, or get contextual guidance through the in-page help entry in the console.
Frequently Asked Questions¶
Does installing DataKit affect server performance?
DataKit enables resource protection mechanisms by default. When installed on a host, it limits CPU and memory usage through cgroup (Linux). Under low load, memory usage is about 100MB, and CPU consumption is low, having minimal impact on business systems. If the data collection volume is large, you can adjust the [resource_limit] configuration in datakit.conf. For container or Kubernetes deployments, resource limits need to be configured manually.
Is the Free Plan really permanently free? Are there any hidden charges?
The Free Plan does not require payment but is subject to usage quotas (such as number of users, number of hosts, number of monitors, data storage volume, etc.). After exceeding the quota, TrueWatch has the right to suspend or restrict service usage until you upgrade to the Commercial Plan or reduce usage. The Free Plan does not provide commercial-level technical support or invoicing services.
I don't want to monitor a certain host anymore. How do I remove it from the console?
After stopping or uninstalling DataKit on that host, the host will no longer report data. If no data is reported for more than 24 hours, the host will be automatically removed from the list. The host list only shows hosts that were online in the last 10 minutes by default. You can also click the "Show only online hosts" button to view currently active hosts.
The name displayed in the host list is an IP address. Can it be changed to a custom name?
Yes. When installing DataKit, set the host tag (e.g., host=my-server) through the environment variable DK_GLOBAL_HOST_TAGS, or modify the global tag configuration in datakit.conf after installation. After modification, the console will display the host name according to the tag you set.
Do I need to write code or complex query statements to configure monitors?
No. TrueWatch provides an official template library covering common scenarios such as hosts, databases, and network. You only need to select a template and adjust parameters such as thresholds and notification channels. For more flexible configuration, you can also customize detection rules through the visual interface without writing code.
Can I use TrueWatch to monitor my home computer, virtual machine, or Raspberry Pi?
Yes. DataKit supports various operating systems such as Linux, Windows, and macOS. As long as the device can access the public internet, DataKit can be installed and connected to TrueWatch. Environments such as virtual machines, cloud servers, physical machines, and personal computers are all applicable.
Where is my data stored? Is it safe?
Data for the SaaS Plan (Free Plan/Commercial Plan) is uploaded and stored in the TrueWatch cloud data center. TrueWatch provides data encryption for transmission and storage. If you have strict requirements for data sovereignty, you can choose the Deployment Plan to keep data entirely within your local infrastructure.
How long is data retained in the Free Plan?
The data retention period for the Free Plan is subject to the subscription agreement. The specific duration is subject to the console or official documentation. If you need a longer data retention period or larger storage capacity, you can upgrade to the Commercial Plan.