System monitoring is a crucial aspect of maintaining the health and performance of any computer system, including the Raspberry Pi. By monitoring your Raspberry Pi system, you can keep track of resource usage, identify potential issues, and optimize performance. While there are many system monitoring tools available for traditional computer systems, some adjustments need to be made to align them with the Raspberry Pi environment.

The Raspberry Pi is a small, low-power single-board computer that runs on various operating systems such as Raspbian (a Debian-based OS), Ubuntu, or even Windows 10 IoT Core. Due to its limited resources compared to traditional desktop systems, it's important to choose lightweight monitoring tools that consume minimal system resources.

Fortunately, there are several viable alternatives and equivalents available for system monitoring on the Raspberry Pi. These tools are lightweight, easy to install, and provide valuable insights into the system's performance.

Examples:

1. Htop: Htop is a popular command-line system monitoring tool that provides a real-time view of system processes, CPU usage, memory usage, and more. To install Htop on Raspberry Pi running Raspbian, open the terminal and run the following commands:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install htop

   Once installed, you can run Htop by simply typing htop in the terminal.

2. Netdata: Netdata is a powerful real-time monitoring tool that provides detailed insights into system performance, including CPU usage, memory usage, network traffic, and disk activity. To install Netdata on Raspberry Pi running Raspbian, open the terminal and run the following commands:

   bash <(curl -Ss https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh)

   Once the installation is complete, you can access the Netdata web interface by opening a web browser and navigating to http://localhost:19999.

3. Prometheus and Grafana: Prometheus is a monitoring and alerting toolkit, while Grafana is a visualization tool. Together, they provide a powerful solution for monitoring and visualizing Raspberry Pi system metrics. To install Prometheus and Grafana on Raspberry Pi running Raspbian, follow the official documentation provided by the respective projects.