What frequency is recommended for collecting infrastructure metrics at the process level?

Collecting infrastructure metrics at the process level every 10 seconds strikes a balance between providing detailed visibility into system performance and minimizing the load on the monitoring tools and the systems being monitored. This frequency allows for timely detection of performance issues, fluctuations in resource usage, and other critical events that can impact application performance or user experience.

Metrics collected every 10 seconds can capture transient issues that might otherwise be missed if the intervals were longer, such as brief spikes in CPU usage or memory consumption. Additionally, this frequency allows for a more granular view of the processes, enabling quicker troubleshooting and optimization of resource allocation without overwhelming the system with excessive data.

If the metrics were collected less frequently, such as every minute or hour, important variations and short-lived issues might not be detected, leading to potential blind spots in performance monitoring. Collecting metrics every 5 seconds, while providing very detailed insights, could generate a significant amount of data, leading to potential performance impacts on the monitoring tools and unnecessary complexity in data analysis. Hence, 10 seconds is often seen as an optimal choice for infrastructure level monitoring.