4.3 Process exclusion

Certain processes can be excluded from the listing. This is done using exclusion groups. An exclusion group is similar to the process group described above, with the exception that the field, pattern and match keywords select ancestors of the group members, not the members themselves. In other words, exclusion group is a set of processes that descend from a set of ancestors matched by the field, pattern and match keywords.

The exclusion group is defined using the exclude keyword:

Config: exclude name

Create exclusion group name. This statement can be followed by one or more statements valid for the group statement (described above).

For example, the definition:

  exclude docker
    field exe
    pattern /usr/bin/dockerd

excludes from the process listing all processes that descend from the process with the executable name ‘/usr/bin/docker’ (but not the ancestor process itself). Such processes are not shown in the detailed process listing (the processTable subtree) nor are they counted in any other groups, even if they would otherwise have been matched by them.

The above example, in particular, ensures that any proc and group definitions will cover only processes run on the server itself, as opposed to those that are started within docker containers.

The exclusion group provides the same statistic counters as are defined for the process group. These counters are available in the processExcludedTable subtree.

See Process Exclusion Groups for comprehensive examples of exclusion group definitions.