System Monitoring

The System Dashboard is your real-time telemetry center for monitoring server health. It provides live metrics, historical charts, hardware inventory, diagnostic tools, and automated alert rules — all in a wide-format layout designed for at-a-glance server awareness.

Admin only

The System Dashboard requires admin privileges (admin.system.dashboard permission). Navigate to it from the sidebar under Dashboard > System Dashboard.

Key features

📊 Live Metrics

Real-time CPU, memory, swap, disk, and network utilization updated via server-sent events

📈 Bandwidth History

Historical bandwidth charts powered by vnStat with configurable time ranges

🌡️ Health Scoring

Deep-dive health cards for CPU, memory, and storage with status indicators

⚡ Quick Actions

Common system operations — memory cleanup, CPU governor, and more — accessible in one click

🔔 Monitor Rules

Create automated alert rules for CPU, memory, and disk thresholds with configurable actions

🔧 Diagnostics

Generate a diagnostic bundle for troubleshooting or download system logs

Overview metric strip

At the top of the System Dashboard, a row of KPI tiles gives you an instant snapshot of server health:

Metric	What it shows
CPU	Current CPU utilization as a percentage
Memory	RAM usage relative to total capacity
Swap	Swap space usage — elevated values may indicate memory pressure
Disk	Storage consumption for your primary mount point
Network In	Current inbound network throughput
Network Out	Current outbound network throughput

These tiles update in real time. A status indicator in the page header shows whether telemetry streaming is active.

Bandwidth history

The bandwidth history section occupies the largest area of the System Dashboard. It displays time-series charts showing network throughput for your selected interface, powered by vnStat.

Key capabilities:

Time range selection — Choose from predefined ranges or use the timeseries player controls to scrub through historical data
Multiple interfaces — If your server has more than one network interface, select which one to chart from the command bar
Chart interaction — Hover over data points to see exact values. The chart updates in real time when viewing the current time window

The health sidebar next to the bandwidth chart shows a compact summary of CPU, memory, and storage health with status badges.

CPU and memory panels

Below the bandwidth chart, dedicated CPU and memory panels display:

Real-time utilization — Live-updating charts showing current CPU and memory usage
Historical data — Time-series charts with the same range controls as the bandwidth section
Per-core breakdown — CPU charts show individual core utilization when expanded
Thermal data — CPU temperature readings when hardware sensors are available

System inventory

The system inventory panel displays your server’s hardware and software details:

Hardware — CPU model, core/thread count, total memory, disk capacity
Operating system — Distribution, kernel version, hostname
Service uptime — How long the server has been running since last reboot
Mount points — Configured storage mount points with usage breakdown

System users

This section shows Linux user accounts currently connected to the server and their active sessions. Each entry displays the username, terminal, connection time, and source IP address.

Health cards

The health cards provide deeper analysis for three key resource areas:

CPU Health — Load averages, governor settings, per-core utilization, and thermal status
Memory Health — Detailed breakdown of used, cached, buffered, and available memory plus swap usage
Storage Health — Per-mount usage, inode consumption, and growth trends

Each card includes a status indicator (healthy, warning, or critical) based on current utilization thresholds.

Quick actions

The quick actions section provides one-click access to common system operations:

Action	What it does
Clean Memory Cache	Drops filesystem caches to free up memory. Equivalent to <code>qb clean memory</code>
CPU Governor	View or change the CPU frequency scaling governor for performance optimization
Database Health	Run integrity checks on the QuickBox Pro SQLite database

Monitor rules

Monitor rules let you set up automated alerts when server resources cross defined thresholds. You can create rules for:

CPU usage — Alert when CPU exceeds a percentage for a sustained period
Memory usage — Alert when RAM usage crosses a threshold
Disk usage — Alert when storage consumption reaches a warning level

Each rule can trigger configurable actions, such as sending a notification to admins.

APT runner

The APT Runner is a slide-out panel for managing operating system package updates:

Pending updates — View a list of available system package updates
Apply updates — Run package updates with live output streaming
Update history — Review previously applied updates

System packages

APT updates affect the underlying operating system packages, not QuickBox Pro applications. To update QuickBox-managed applications, use the Package Management panel on the App Dashboard or the qb update command.

Diagnostics

The diagnostics section allows you to generate a comprehensive diagnostic bundle that captures system state, logs, and configuration information. This bundle is useful when troubleshooting issues with the QuickBox support team.

Click Generate Diagnostics to create the bundle, which can then be downloaded as a file.

CLI alternative

You can also generate a diagnostic log from the command line with qb generate log.

CLI equivalents

Dashboard Action	CLI Command
Clean memory cache	`qb clean memory`
Generate diagnostics	`qb generate log`
Check for QuickBox updates	`qb update check`

Best practices

Do

Check the System Dashboard regularly to catch resource trends before they become problems
Set up monitor rules for disk usage to receive early warnings before storage fills up
Use the bandwidth history charts to identify unexpected traffic patterns
Generate a diagnostic bundle before contacting support — it helps the team resolve issues faster
Review memory health when applications are running slowly — high swap usage often indicates insufficient RAM

Don't

Don't ignore sustained high CPU or memory readings — investigate which application is consuming resources
Don't run memory cache cleanup constantly — the kernel manages caches efficiently under normal conditions
Don't apply APT updates during heavy server usage — schedule maintenance during off-peak hours
Don't confuse APT system updates with QuickBox application updates — they are separate operations

FAQ

The bandwidth history charts rely on vnStat for data collection. If vnStat is not installed or has not yet collected enough data, the charts will appear empty. VnStat needs time to accumulate statistics after initial setup. You can configure the network interface in Settings > General > Additional Dashboard Settings.

Green indicates healthy resource levels. Yellow indicates a warning — the resource is approaching capacity. Red indicates a critical state — immediate attention is recommended. These thresholds are based on standard utilization percentages.

Yes. Use the time range selector and player controls in the command bar above the bandwidth chart to navigate to any historical period for which vnStat has data.

The System Dashboard is restricted to admin users with the admin.system.dashboard permission. If you are an admin and still cannot see it, check your role's permissions in User Management.

Monitor rules send notifications through the dashboard's notification system. You will receive alerts based on the notification channels you have configured in your profile (in-app, email, Discord, or Signal).

App Management

Manage applications and view per-app system metrics

Settings

Configure network interfaces, mount points, and vnStat

System Logs

View audit events and application log files

Updates & Changelog

QuickBox and dashboard version management

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