# Modify the BalenaOS image to add packages

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306>\
**Category:** balenaOS\
**Created:** [August 15, 2019, 7:56am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306 "2019-08-15T07:56:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lpierrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@lpierrat](https://forums.balena.io/u/lpierrat)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 7:56am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/1 "2019-08-15T07:56:43Z")

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Hi,

I understood that the OS partition is small, stateless and read-only, but we would like to add some packages to do monitoring (collect app logs, devices metrics like cpu/disk/network etc).

Is it possible to modify the balenaOS image to add these features?  
In the case we do it, what about support and os upgrades?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![nghiant2710](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nghiant2710](https://forums.balena.io/u/nghiant2710)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:16am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/4 "2019-08-15T08:16:41Z")

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Hi,

I don’t think you can install more packages to the hostOS, however you can create an application container that contains all the packages/utilities you need to do monitoring tasks like you mentioned above.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lpierrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@lpierrat](https://forums.balena.io/u/lpierrat)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:21am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/6 "2019-08-15T08:21:25Z")

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Ok, in that case we need to see if we could dockerize the monitoring application.

In case we manage to do it, can a container access to the hostOS logs/metrics and also to others containers logs?

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**Author:** ![dansku](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dansku/32/1183_2.png) [@dansku](https://forums.balena.io/u/dansku)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:37am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/10 "2019-08-15T08:37:02Z")

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Hello,

We have a few a couple blog posts showing how to do device monitoring and metrics.  
Please check

- [https://www.balena.io/blog/add-a-metrics-monitoring-service-to-your-resin-io-multicontainer-application/](https://www.balena.io/blog/add-a-metrics-monitoring-service-to-your-resin-io-multicontainer-application/)
- [https://www.balena.io/blog/monitoring-your-balena-devices-with-datadog/](https://www.balena.io/blog/monitoring-your-balena-devices-with-datadog/)
- [https://www.balena.io/blog/monitoring-the-edge-with-prometheus-pt-1/](https://www.balena.io/blog/monitoring-the-edge-with-prometheus-pt-1/)

Let us know if you have any questions 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lpierrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@lpierrat](https://forums.balena.io/u/lpierrat)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:43am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/12 "2019-08-15T08:43:26Z")

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Thanks, it looks great. Is there any integration with Splunk too ?

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**Author:** ![nghiant2710](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nghiant2710](https://forums.balena.io/u/nghiant2710)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:57am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/16 "2019-08-15T08:57:54Z")

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We don’t have any example using Splunk yet.  
This could be a fun project to integrate if you are up to a challenge.

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**Author:** ![odyslam](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/odyslam/32/1684_2.png) [@odyslam](https://forums.balena.io/u/odyslam)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/modify-the-balenaos-image-to-add-packages/25306/18 "2019-11-05T19:08:13Z")

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Hey everyone!

In this post in [balena forum](https://forums.balena.io/t/edge-device-e-g-raspberry-pi-monitoring-based-on-telegraf-influxdb-and-grafana/4378/11), we are inquiring whether it’s possible to run [netdata](https://github.com/netdata/netdata) in a balena container, since it needs certain bind mounts to function properly.

Any input is more than welcome @nghiant2710, @dansku

Thanks everyone!