Monitoring Home Assistant with the Glances Add-on and Integration

Tracking system performance is crucial when running Home Assistant. This is especially true if you rely on it for automation, security, dashboards, and daily routines. A simple method to monitor CPU usage and memory consumption is by using Glances. It also helps track disk space, temperatures, and network statistics.

In this post, we’ll explore:

• What the Glances add-on and integration are
• How to install and configure both
• Important note about the required port change
• What information you can get
• Example dashboard setups in Home Assistant

---

What Is Glances?

Glances is a lightweight, cross-platform monitoring tool that provides real-time system information. The Home Assistant community add-on wraps the Glances server and exposes its metrics over an API. Pairing the add-on with the built-in Glances integration lets you pull system metrics directly into Home Assistant.

This makes it ideal for:

• Monitoring Home Assistant OS or supervised systems
• Keeping track of system health over time
• Creating dashboards or automations for alerts
• Detecting performance issues before they affect your smart home

---

Installing the Glances Add-on

1. Go to Settings → Add-ons in Home Assistant.
2. Search for Glances in the “Home Assistant Community Add-ons” repository.
3. Click Install.
4. After installation, open the Configuration tab.

Most default settings work fine. However, you may optionally:

• Enable or set a password for access
• Adjust refresh intervals

Once ready, click Start.

After starting the add-on, Glances exposes its API on a specific port.

---

Important: Glances Integration Uses a New Default Port

When adding the Home Assistant Glances integration, all settings can remain at their defaults except the port.

🔧 Use Port 61209 (Required)

The add-on listens on this port for the integration to work correctly.

If you forget to change this value, the integration will fail to connect.

---

Adding the Glances Integration

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration.
2. Search for Glances.
3. Enter the IP address of your Home Assistant instance.
4. Change the port to 61209.
5. Submit the configuration.

Home Assistant will begin importing metrics and creating sensors.

---

What Information You Can Get

The Glances integration provides a rich set of system metrics, including:

CPU Metrics

• Overall CPU load
• Per-core load
• CPU temperature

Memory & Swap

• RAM usage
• Swap usage
• Availability and percentage stats

Disk Information

• Disk usage (per device)
• Free space
• Mount points

Network Stats

• Upload/download speeds
• Total bytes transferred
• Interface state

Processes

• Processes count
• Top CPU-consuming processes
• Top memory-consuming processes

System Info

• OS details
• Uptime
• Logged-in users

These sensors allow you to:

• Create dashboards
• Build alerts (e.g., CPU above 80% for 5 minutes)
• Track long-term history

---

Example: Home Assistant Dashboard with Glances

Below are examples of how a system monitoring dashboard could look. Replace the image paths with your own screenshots.

CPU, RAM, and Temperature Overview

You can use:

• Gauge cards for CPU/RAM percentages
• Sensor cards for temperatures and disk usage
• Graph cards for network throughput
• Entity cards to display quick system statistics

---

Automation Ideas

Once the sensors are available, you can build helpful automations such as:

• Notification when CPU stays above 85% for more than 10 minutes
• Warning when disk usage exceeds 90%
• Alert if RAM usage is unusually high

For example:

alias: High CPU Load Warning
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.glances_cpu_used
    above: 85
    for: "00:10:00"
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
    data:
      message: "High CPU load detected on Home Assistant server!"

---

Conclusion

The Glances add-on works together with the Glances integration. This combination offers a powerful and user-friendly way to monitor Home Assistant and its underlying system. Whether you want detailed dashboards or simple alerts, Glances gives you all the data you need.

With just a few setup steps, you get a full suite of monitoring tools. Remember to set the integration port to 61209 during setup. These tools are available right inside Home Assistant.

If you’re looking to improve visibility into your system’s performance, Glances is easy to set up. It is also one of the most effective tools available.

Happy monitoring!