Step 1: Update Your System

Before installing Glances, ensure your system is up to date. Run the following commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Keeping your system updated is crucial for security and performance, whether you're setting it up locally or on a VPS Windows Servers platform.

Step 2: Install Python and Pip

Glances is written in Python, so you need to install Python and pip. You can do this by running:

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip -y

Step 3: Install Glances

You can install Glances using pip with the following command:

sudo pip3 install glances

This command will download and install Glances along with its dependencies.

Step 4: Run Glances

After installation, you can run Glances using the following command:

glances

Glances will start and you will see a terminal dashboard displaying real-time system metrics.

Step 5: Running Glances as a Web Server (Optional)

You can also run Glances in web server mode to access it from a web browser. To do this, use the following command:

glances -w

By default, Glances will run a web server on port 61208. Open your web browser and navigate to:

http://your_server_ip:61208

You should see the Glances web interface.

Step 6: Configure Glances to Start on Boot (Optional)

If you want Glances to start automatically at boot, you can create a systemd service. Create a new service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/glances.service

Add the following content to the file:

[Unit]
Description=Glances Service
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/glances -w
Restart=always
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
            

Save and exit the file, then enable and start the Glances service:

sudo systemctl enable glances
sudo systemctl start glances