Why Bother With Monitoring Apps on Your NAS?
System monitoring apps for your NAS are web-based tools you install on the device to watch CPU, memory, disks, and other activity in real time, so you can spot problems early, keep backups and services running smoothly, and avoid digging through raw logs or command-line outputs whenever something feels slow or unstable.
Think of Glances and JetLog as a set of gauges you bolt onto your NAS so you stop guessing about what’s happening under the hood. They run in containers, show status in your browser, and fit neatly alongside the native NAS interface, so you can keep an eye on health without turning the box into a science project. You’ll get more confidence in your storage setup and fewer "what on earth is my NAS doing?" evenings.
Before you start, the real prerequisite is container support. On Asustor, that means having Dockhand installed and up to date. If you’ve never touched Docker or stacks before, don’t worry—the workflow is repetitive and predictable. Once you’ve walked through it once for Glances, you’ll recognize the same pattern when you set up JetLog or similar apps on UGREEN and Synology later.
Prerequisites: Getting Dockhand Ready on Asustor
On Asustor NAS devices, Glances and JetLog are deployed in Docker containers managed through Dockhand, so having Dockhand installed and current is non‑negotiable. If you skip this, nothing that follows will work. The good news: you only do this once per NAS, then reuse it for every monitoring app you spin up afterward.
You install Dockhand using a dedicated step‑by‑step guide, and if it is already present, you can move straight on to building stacks. The one caveat is version age: "Make sure you have installed the latest Dockhand version" so you avoid odd stack errors or missing options. Once Dockhand is in place, connecting is always the same: open a browser and go to the NAS IP on port 3866 to reach the Dockhand container interface.
At this stage your NAS needs three things: stable network access, enough free disk space in the Docker area, and a user account with permission to manage containers. If any of those are shaky, sort them out now. It’s far less painful to fix a permission issue before you start pasting compose stacks than after you’ve tried to deploy three times and everything says "failed".
Step-by-Step: Deploying Glances and JetLog on Asustor
Here’s the practical walk‑through you’d follow sitting next to a friend at their NAS: one path for Glances, one for JetLog, both hanging off Dockhand. The workflow is linear, so resist the urge to jump around—later steps assume earlier ones have succeeded.
- Install or update Dockhand on your Asustor NAS using the dedicated guide, ensuring you are on the latest version before proceeding.
- Open a browser and connect to Dockhand at http://asustor-ip-address:3866 so you can manage stacks and containers from its web interface.
- For JetLog, open File Explorer on the NAS, go to the Docker folder, and create a new subfolder named "jetlog" in lowercase to hold its data.
- In Dockhand, click Stacks, then + Create, and enter a lowercase stack name—"glances" for Glances or "jetlog" for JetLog—in the Stack name field, avoiding uppercase letters.
- Paste the provided Docker Compose service definition for Glances or JetLog into the Dockhand Compose Stack editor, and for JetLog update the PUID and PGID values to match your NAS user and group before saving.
- For JetLog, generate your own 64‑character SECRET_KEY and replace the example value in the environment section so the app does not run with the default shared key.
- Click Create & Start in Dockhand and wait; if everything goes right you will see a message stating "Created stack \"glances\"" or "Created stack \"jetlog\"" at the bottom right of the screen.
- Once the Glances container is healthy, open a browser and go to http://asustor-ip-address:61208 to reach its monitoring interface and confirm the dashboard loads.
- After the JetLog container comes up, access it via http://asustor-ip-address:3347, sign in with the default username and password "admin", then change both inside the account settings before you add or import any data.
Two common mistakes cause most of the frustration. First, stack names and folder names need to be in lowercase; using uppercase letters will break expectations and can stop containers from mounting correctly. Second, JetLog’s PUID and PGID must match your own values, not the example numbers, otherwise the container will write data that your regular account cannot read or modify later. Treat these two as hard rules and the install feels painless.
When the stacks are created and the URLs respond, you’re done. Glances will be serving its interface on port 61208 and JetLog on port 3347, both reachable through the same NAS IP. From here you can extend similar steps to UGREEN and Synology devices, since they follow comparable Docker‑and‑stack workflows even if the management front‑ends look slightly different.
What Success Looks Like (and What to Fix First When It Fails)
A successful deployment has three unmistakable signs. In Dockhand, you see a notification saying "Created stack \"glances\"" for Glances and "Created stack \"jetlog\"" for JetLog at the bottom right. In the Containers view, each app shows as running with its healthcheck passing. In your browser, the Glances interface appears at port 61208 and JetLog responds at port 3347 once Docker has finished pulling and starting the images.
If you do not see those stack messages or the web pages fail to load, start with the simple checks. Confirm Dockhand is on the latest release. Make sure you pasted the compose snippet cleanly, with no stray indentation. For JetLog, re‑verify your custom PUID and PGID as well as the SECRET_KEY change in the environment section. Most issues trace back to one of these details. As the original guide notes, the installation can take a few seconds or minutes depending on your Internet speed, so give it a bit of time before concluding that something is broken.
Once the interfaces respond, spend a minute hardening them. On JetLog, log in with the default admin/admin and immediately change those credentials under Account settings. On Glances, verify the dashboard loads cleanly from your usual workstation and that your NAS firewall rules are not exposing it to the wider network unintentionally. This is the moment to align access and security, not months down the line when you suddenly remember the default login.
Takeaway: Worth Adding These Tools to Your NAS?
If your NAS handles anything critical—backups, media libraries, shared project storage—then installing Glances and JetLog is worth the small effort. The workflow relies on one shared prerequisite, Dockhand, and once that foundation is in place the pattern of creating stacks, pasting compose files, and connecting through browser ports becomes second nature. The source guides point out that "almost 99,9% of the people that install something using my guides forget to support my work"—a reminder that these instructions come from real, hands‑on experience rather than theory.
Your main things to watch for are lowercase names, correct user IDs for JetLog, and giving Docker enough time to finish image downloads before you panic over a blank page. Handle those and you end up with two dependable browser‑based windows into what your NAS is doing. It’s a modest Sunday project that pays off every time something feels slow and you prefer a clear dashboard over guesswork.
