The short answer
Choose Prometheus + node_exporter if you want one free, open stack for all of your infrastructure metrics and you're happy to assemble and operate the exporters, dashboards, and alert rules. Choose Rivana if you want storage monitoring that works out of the box — per-device eBPF latency distributions and SMART degradation alerts purpose-built for drive fleets — without standing up and maintaining a metrics stack.
Side by side
| Detail | Rivana | Prometheus + node_exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Purpose-built storage-fleet monitoring | General-purpose metrics & alerting stack |
| Per-device I/O latency | Per-device I/O latency distributions via eBPF (not just averages) | Aggregate disk I/O time from /proc (via exporters) |
| Drive-failure prediction | SMART degradation trends that flag drives before they fail | Raw SMART via smartctl_exporter; you write the rules |
| Deployment | Self-hosted single binary — deploys in ~10 min, no cloud | Self-hosted; assemble exporters + TSDB + Grafana + Alertmanager |
| Pricing | Per-device annual license (free 30-day trial) | Free & open source |
| Best for | Infra teams running 50–500 on-prem SSD/HDD drives, tired of guessing why latency degraded | Teams standardizing all infra metrics on one open stack |
Strengths & trade-offs
Rivana
Infra teams running 50–500 on-prem SSD/HDD drives, tired of guessing why latency degraded
Rivana is a self-hosted monitoring tool built specifically for storage fleets. A lightweight eBPF collector on each host captures real per-device I/O latency — full distributions, not just averages — alongside SMART attributes, temperature, and utilization, and the aggregator flags drives whose degradation trends predict failure. It installs as a single Rust binary in about ten minutes, runs entirely on your own infrastructure with no cloud dependency, and is licensed per monitored device.
Strengths
- Built only for storage — per-device latency, SMART, and degradation in one place
- eBPF captures real I/O latency distributions, not just averages
- Flags failing or slow drives from SMART trends before they cause an outage
- Self-hosted single binary — deploys in ~10 minutes, no cloud dependency
- Fleet-wide view of 50–500+ drives out of the box
Consider
- Storage-focused — not a general-purpose metrics platform
- Commercial per-device license (free 30-day trial, then paid)
- Linux hosts (the collector uses eBPF)
- Newer than the established monitoring stacks
Prometheus + node_exporter
Teams standardizing all infra metrics on one open stack
Prometheus with node_exporter (and smartctl_exporter for disk health) is the standard open-source metrics-and-alerting stack. It's powerful and flexible and can monitor storage among everything else — but storage is just one of many targets: you assemble the exporters, time-series database, dashboards, and alert rules yourself, and there's no purpose-built per-device latency-distribution or degradation analysis out of the box.
Strengths
- Free, open source, with a huge ecosystem
- One stack for all your infra metrics, not just storage
- Flexible querying (PromQL) and alerting
- smartctl_exporter can expose SMART attributes
Consider
- You assemble and operate the whole stack (exporters, TSDB, Grafana, Alertmanager)
- Disk metrics are aggregate — no per-op latency distributions out of the box
- No curated storage failure-prediction; you write the rules
- Storage is one target among many, not the focus
Frequently asked questions
Is Rivana a replacement for Prometheus + node_exporter?
Choose Prometheus + node_exporter if you want one free, open stack for all of your infrastructure metrics and you're happy to assemble and operate the exporters, dashboards, and alert rules. Choose Rivana if you want storage monitoring that works out of the box — per-device eBPF latency distributions and SMART degradation alerts purpose-built for drive fleets — without standing up and maintaining a metrics stack.
What storage devices and metrics does Rivana monitor?
Rivana monitors NVMe SSDs, SATA SSDs, and HDDs on Linux hosts. A lightweight eBPF collector captures per-device I/O latency distributions, SMART attributes, temperature, and utilization, and the aggregator surfaces fleet-wide dashboards plus degradation trends that flag drives likely to fail.
Does Rivana run on my own infrastructure?
Yes. Rivana is self-hosted: the aggregator installs as a single Rust binary in about ten minutes with an embedded database, and licenses are validated locally with no phone-home or internet dependency. Your storage telemetry never leaves your infrastructure.
See your storage fleet clearly
Deploy Rivana on your own infrastructure in about ten minutes. Free 30-day trial for up to 50 drives.
Start a free trialCompetitor capabilities and pricing are directional and were verified in June 2026 — check each project's or vendor's own site for current details. Rivana is an independent product and isn't affiliated with the tools compared here.