CPU Hardware Counters

Explore CPU hardware counters and their integration with Prometheus monitoring in this conference talk from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Learn how to access and utilize CPU-level performance metrics such as cache hits, RAM accesses, and instruction processing counts that provide detailed insights into system performance. Discover the evolution of CPU counter accessibility on cloud servers, where hypervisors previously blocked access but recent developments from CPU manufacturers and cloud providers have created new interfaces to bridge this gap. Examine which types of CPU counters offer the most value for monitoring, understand when and how to access these counters on cloud infrastructure, and master the techniques for integrating CPU hardware counter data into Prometheus monitoring systems. The presentation focuses specifically on Linux operating systems and provides practical guidance for leveraging these low-level performance metrics to gain unprecedented visibility into system behavior and optimization opportunities.