In today’s world of IT infrastructure, monitoring is a critical requirement. Large-scale monitoring stacks like Prometheus, Grafana, Telegraf, and InfluxDB are powerful, but they can be heavy, complex, and overkill for smaller environments. Sometimes, all you want is a lightweight monitoring solution that shows you the essentials: CPU usage, memory, disk space, and system temperatures.
That’s where Beszel comes in. It’s a simple, self-hosted monitoring tool that is easy to deploy, uses minimal system resources, and works across Linux and Windows environments.
In this blog post, we’ll explore Beszel’s hub-and-agent model, configuration process, and why it might be a great fit for your environment.
- What is Beszel?
- Beszel Hub Setup
- Beszel Clients (Agents)
- Real-World Example
- Notifications & Integrations
- Conclusion
What is Beszel?
Beszel is an open-source monitoring platform designed to be lightweight and easy to configure. Unlike heavier stacks, it focuses on simplicity while still offering powerful features such as:
- Monitoring Linux and Windows systems
- GPU and disk temperature reporting
- Low resource consumption (~8MB RAM per agent)
- Integration with notification platforms (Slack, Discord, Telegram, Email, etc.)
- OIDC authentication support (can integrate with Tailscale or other identity providers)
The Beszel architecture is built around a hub-and-agent model:
- Hub – A central server that collects and displays monitoring data
- Agents – Installed on each host to send data back to the hub
Beszel Hub Setup
The hub can be run inside Docker, a VM, or even an LXC container. Because it is lightweight, it doesn’t require enterprise-grade hardware.
A common setup is to deploy the Beszel hub in Docker with Tailscale for secure networking. This allows you to connect remote systems across the globe without opening firewall ports.
High-level steps for hub setup:
- Deploy a small VM or container (Ubuntu/Debian recommended)
- Install Docker and Tailscale
- Configure hub deployment with a
docker-compose.yamlfile - Enable Tailscale Serve for automatic TLS certificates and reverse proxy support
Once deployed, the hub will be accessible securely via your Tailscale tailnet.
Beszel Clients (Agents)
Beszel agents can be installed on:
- Linux hosts (binary or Docker-based)
- Proxmox nodes
- Windows (compiled Go binary or via WSL2)
- Even Home Assistant as an add-on
On Linux, installation is as simple as running a one-line install script and providing the SSH key from your Beszel hub. Windows setups can be trickier, but running the agent as a service via tools like NSSM makes it persistent and reliable.
Once installed, the agent reports back system metrics like CPU load, memory usage, disk usage, GPU power draw, and network throughput.
Real-World Example
A key strength of Beszel is multi-site monitoring. For example, you could:
- Run a Beszel hub in North America
- Install agents on Proxmox hosts in Europe
- Securely connect everything with Tailscale
Within minutes, you’d have real-time monitoring of remote infrastructure with no firewall changes required.
Notifications & Integrations
Beszel integrates with multiple platforms to send alerts, including:
- Slack
- Discord
- Telegram
- Mattermost
- If-This-Then-That (IFTTT)
This means you can get notified instantly if a server overheats, disk usage spikes, or a host goes offline.
Conclusion
Beszel is not meant to replace large enterprise monitoring stacks, but it fills a valuable niche: lightweight, secure, and easy-to-deploy monitoring for smaller environments. Its integration with Tailscale makes it especially appealing for distributed environments where remote monitoring without firewall headaches is a must.
If you’re looking for a middle ground between uptime checkers and full-blown Grafana dashboards, Beszel is a fantastic option to explore for 2025 and beyond.
📝 For more information about Beszel, please review this official documentation. Also, this is a great youtube video about Beszel.
