- Home
- Server Monitoring
- Performance Co-Pilot
Performance Co-Pilot
What it is
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is a free, open-source toolkit for system performance monitoring and management. It gathers metrics from individual systems and combines information from multiple hosts and operating systems. Real-time and historical analysis lets users compare hosts or time periods to examine trends and unusual patterns. Agents collect data about CPU, disks, memory, networking, filesystems, databases, web servers, mail systems, and cluster infrastructure. Its APIs, libraries, and plugin framework allow applications and other sources to provide or use performance data. A client-server design supports several clients watching one host or one client watching multiple hosts for centralized monitoring. PCP supplies a Grafana plugin, Ansible roles, Java instrumentation, and a PDF graph converter. Recent release notes describe OpenTelemetry export and a REST API returning OpenTelemetry JSON or OpenMetrics text. Optional encrypted connections, authentication, and host, user, or group access rules are available. PCP is self-hosted across multiple operating systems.
For and against
For
- Free and open-source toolkit
- Real-time and historical performance analysis
- Collects metrics across many system areas
- Centralized multi-host monitoring architecture
- Grafana and Ansible integrations
Against
- Windows and Solaris require building from source
- Self-hosted deployment required
- No agentless monitoring
The verdict
Performance Co-Pilot combines broad metric collection with centralized, live, and historical analysis. Its self-hosted model and source-build requirement on Windows and Solaris matter when choosing deployment platforms.
Who it suits
PCP suits teams managing distributed systems, clusters, web-server farms, or large environments. It can also help investigate difficult performance issues on smaller systems.
Plans and prices
Performance Co-Pilot
Open-source toolkit; no paid plans or pricing stated on the pages reviewed
Read 9 Oct 2026 · pcp.io
On the record
- Analysis
- It supports real-time and historical performance analysis, including comparing hosts and time intervals to identify trends and abnormal patterns.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Architecture
- Its client-server architecture lets multiple clients monitor one host and one client monitor multiple hosts for centralized distributed monitoring.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Collection
- It collects performance metrics from systems and collates metrics from multiple hosts and operating systems.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Export
- The October 2026 release notes describe OpenTelemetry export and a REST API that can return OpenTelemetry JSON or OpenMetrics text.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- PCP provides APIs, libraries, and a plugin framework for collecting and using performance data from applications and other sources.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The project provides a Grafana plugin, Ansible roles, Java instrumentation, and a PDF graph converter.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The FAQ says PCP is particularly suited to centralized monitoring of distributed processing, clusters, web server farms, and large systems, while some features also help with difficult performance problems on smaller systems.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Licensing
- PCP libraries use GNU LGPL version 2.1 and the other components use GNU GPL version 2 or later.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Linux support
- The download page says PCP is included in popular distributions including RHEL, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- macOS support
- The download page offers a macOS DMG installer.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Metrics
- Its agents collect data across areas including CPU, disk, memory, networking, filesystems, databases, web servers, mail systems, and cluster infrastructure.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Platform limits
- The download page says Windows and Solaris have no downloads and require building from source.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- PCP is a system performance analysis toolkit and framework for system-level performance monitoring and management.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Security
- Recent releases support optional encrypted secure connections with user authentication and access restrictions based on hosts, users, or groups.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to GitHub issue trackers, mailing lists, Slack, and the #pcp Libera Chat IRC channel for community help.pcp.io · read 9 Oct 2026
