Monitoring Agent

The SecureCheap agent is a single lightweight binary that runs as a system service.

Requirements

	Minimum
OS	Linux (Ubuntu 18.04+, CentOS 7+, Debian 9+, RHEL 7+)
CPU	< 0.5% avg (1% peak)
RAM	~25 MB RSS
Disk	~10 MB
Network	~500 KB/day outbound
Outbound port	443 (HTTPS to api.securecheap.com)

No inbound ports are required. The agent is pull-free — it pushes data outbound only.

What the agent collects

Every 15 seconds:

CPU utilisation (total, per-core, user/system/iowait/steal)
Memory (used, free, buffers, cache, swap)
Disk I/O and usage per mount point
Network throughput per interface (bytes/packets/errors)
System load averages (1m, 5m, 15m)
Top 20 processes by CPU and memory

Every 60 seconds:

Full process list (name, PID, user, status)
TCP connection count
Running service status (systemd units)

Every 5 minutes:

Filesystem inode usage
Temperature sensors (if available)
SMART disk health (if available)

Security model

The agent runs as an unprivileged user (securecheap-agent)
It reads from /proc and /sys — no root privileges needed for metrics
All outbound communication is TLS 1.3 only with certificate pinning
The agent binary is signed — verify with: sc-agent verify
The agent token (used for authentication) is stored at /etc/securecheap/agent.conf with mode 600

⚠️

The agent requires read access to /proc and /sys. On systems with AppArmor or SELinux, you may need to add a policy rule. See Installation for details.

Configuration

Config file: /etc/securecheap/agent.conf

[agent]
token = sc_agent_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
workspace_id = ws_01HXZ3M...
server_name = prod-web-01
 
[collection]
interval_seconds = 15
process_top_n = 20
 
[advanced]
# Optional: disable specific collectors
collectors_disabled =
 
# Optional: custom tags applied to all metrics
tags = env:production,region:eu-central

Upgrading

sudo apt update && sudo apt install securecheap-agent

The service restarts automatically after upgrade. No data gap occurs — metrics resume within 30 seconds.

Data & Privacy Security Practices