Scaling real-time file monitoring with eBPF: How we filtered billions of kernel events per minute | Datadog

What this post added

This post details the engineering challenges and solutions for scaling real-time file monitoring using eBPF. It highlights the overwhelming volume of kernel events (billions per minute) and the need for efficient filtering. The solution involves agent-side rules to reduce data to ~1 million events/minute and, crucially, moving significant evaluation logic into eBPF programs to pre-filter 94% of events directly in the kernel. This architectural shift reduces data transmission and processing load, enabling robust file integrity monitoring at scale.