Network monitoring is critical for any modern IT infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance and timely identification of security threats. However, traditional agent-based solutions can introduce significant overhead, deployment complexity, and compatibility issues, especially in environments with thousands of endpoints or VMs. Gods-Eye-View offers an innovative alternative, leveraging eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) technology to provide deep network traffic visibility directly from the Linux kernel, without requiring agents on servers. This approach ensures lightweight, secure, and high-performance monitoring, ideal for enterprise scenarios where every millisecond counts and system stability is paramount. I’ve personally seen the benefits of agentless monitoring in a public healthcare organization, where deploying traditional agents on over 2,000 VMs was simply not feasible due to resource constraints and operational overhead.
Tested on: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS · Linux Kernel 5.15.0-107 · September 2026
Prerequisites / Test Environment
To use Gods-Eye-View, you need a system with a Linux kernel version 4.9 or higher. eBPF technology was introduced and expanded in these kernel versions, enabling user-defined programs to run in a sandboxed space within the kernel itself. You must have essential development tools installed to compile the project, such as clang, llvm, make, and linux-headers corresponding to your kernel version. It is crucial that the linux-headers precisely match the kernel version; otherwise, eBPF program compilation will fail. Read also: HAProxy Linux: Load Balancing & High Availability Guide 2026.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential clang llvm libelf-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r) git make1. Understanding eBPF and Gods-Eye-View
eBPF is a revolutionary technology that allows programs to run in a restricted space within the Linux kernel. These programs can attach to various kernel execution points (network events, system calls, kernel and user-space probes) to collect data, filter events, or modify system behavior, all without recompiling the kernel or loading traditional kernel modules. The primary advantage is efficiency: eBPF programs are verified for safety and termination before being loaded, ensuring stability and minimal overhead.
Gods-Eye-View leverages this capability to monitor network traffic. Instead of intercepting packets at the user-space level (as many traditional tools do) or installing a resource-consuming agent, Gods-Eye-View injects eBPF programs into the kernel that intercept network events (such as connect, accept, sendmsg, recvmsg). These programs collect essential metadata about connections and traffic, which is then passed to a user-space application for analysis and visualization. This approach is particularly beneficial in high-density environments like Kubernetes clusters or virtualization infrastructures with hundreds of VMs, where adding traditional agents to every instance would be prohibitively expensive in terms of resources and management.
2. Installation and Compilation
The installation process for Gods-Eye-View is relatively straightforward, as it’s an open-source project that needs to be compiled. You start by cloning the GitHub repository and then proceed with compilation.
git clone https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view.git
cd gods-eye-view
makeDuring compilation, the make command will compile both the eBPF program (bpf_program.o) and the user-space application (gods-eye-view) that interacts with it. Any errors at this stage are often related to missing dependencies (clang, llvm, libelf-dev) or a mismatch between the linux-headers version and the running kernel.
3. Execution and Basic Usage
Once compiled, Gods-Eye-View can be executed with root privileges, which are necessary to load eBPF programs into the kernel. The user-space application will connect to the eBPF program and begin receiving monitoring data.
sudo ./gods-eye-viewUpon startup, the tool will display output similar to this (exact output may vary depending on network traffic on the system):
[INFO] Initializing eBPF program...
[INFO] eBPF program loaded successfully.
[INFO] Starting network monitoring...
[NEW CONN] PID: 1234, Comm: 'nginx', Saddr: 192.168.1.10:443, Daddr: 10.0.0.5:54321
[DATA TX] PID: 1234, Comm: 'nginx', Bytes: 1024, Daddr: 10.0.0.5:54321
[DATA RX] PID: 5678, Comm: 'curl', Bytes: 512, Saddr: 10.0.0.5:54321
[CLOSE CONN] PID: 1234, Comm: 'nginx', Saddr: 192.168.1.10:443, Daddr: 10.0.0.5:54321This output provides real-time information on new connections (NEW CONN), transmitted traffic (DATA TX), received traffic (DATA RX), and closed connections (CLOSE CONN). For each event, the Process ID (PID), command name (Comm), source and destination IP addresses, and ports are shown. This granularity is extremely useful for network debugging, identifying processes generating unexpected traffic, or monitoring specific application activity. Read also: Wireshark for SysAdmins: Network Traffic Analysis in 20 Minutes.
4. Advanced Analysis and Integration
Gods-Eye-View provides textual output that can be easily parsed and integrated with other tools. For example, the output can be redirected to a file or a log analysis tool like grep, awk, or jq (if converted to JSON, which would require modifying the source code) to extract specific information. In a production environment, you might consider a Python or Bash wrapper that captures the output and sends it to a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) or an observability platform like Grafana Loki or Elastic Stack for long-term analysis and alerting. Read also: Wazuh vs Security Onion: 2-Week SIEM/EDR Test.
A simple redirection example:
sudo ./gods-eye-view > network_traffic.log &This command starts Gods-Eye-View in the background and redirects all output to the network_traffic.log file. You can then analyze this file with standard command-line tools.
Common Errors and Troubleshooting
Error loading BPF program: Operation not permitted: This error indicates that the program lacks the necessary permissions to load eBPF programs into the kernel. Ensure you run it withsudoor as therootuser.Error: No such file or directoryduring compilation: Check that you have installed the correctlinux-headersfor your kernel version.uname -rwill give you the exact version.- Empty or incomplete output: Verify that there is actual network traffic on the system. Gods-Eye-View monitors traffic in real time. There might also be a specific compatibility issue with your kernel version; in that case, consult the official eBPF documentation for your Linux version. Also, check system logs (
dmesg) for any eBPF-related errors.
FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
Can Gods-Eye-View replace a SIEM or EDR?
No, Gods-Eye-View is a low-level network monitoring tool, excellent for gaining granular visibility into traffic. A SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a broader platform that collects and correlates logs from multiple sources, while an EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) focuses on endpoint protection. Gods-Eye-View can be a valuable data source for a SIEM but does not replace them.
What is the overhead of Gods-Eye-View?
Thanks to eBPF’s efficiency, the overhead is extremely low, on the order of a few milliseconds of latency or a minimal percentage of CPU utilization, even under high traffic. This makes it ideal for production environments where performance is critical.
Is it compatible with all Linux distributions?
Yes, Gods-Eye-View is compatible with any Linux distribution running a kernel version 4.9 or higher and supporting eBPF. This includes recent versions of Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, and others. The kernel version is key, not the specific distribution.
Can I filter the monitored traffic?
In its current version, the output is quite raw. To filter, you need to parse the output with external tools (like grep). Modifications to the eBPF source code could allow for more advanced filtering directly in the kernel, further reducing processing overhead.
Conclusions with Operational Takeaways
Gods-Eye-View represents a significant step forward in network monitoring, offering a powerful and lightweight solution based on eBPF. Its ability to provide deep, agentless visibility makes it an invaluable tool for SecOps and SysAdmin teams. For those managing complex infrastructures, adopting Gods-Eye-View can drastically improve the ability to diagnose network issues, detect anomalies, and optimize performance, all with minimal resource impact. It’s an excellent example of how modern Linux kernel technologies are revolutionizing the way we monitor and secure our systems. I’ve seen this approach provide crucial insights for incident response teams, allowing them to pinpoint suspicious network activities that agent-based solutions might miss.
Sources
Updated: September 2026
