diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index ff4ac951d..edebcb0ba 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -222,6 +222,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "credibility",
  "dirs",
  "epoll",
+ "event_monitor",
  "hypervisor",
  "lazy_static",
  "libc",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1d899f98f..c3dd62a03 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ anyhow = "1.0"
 api_client = { path = "api_client" }
 clap = { version = "2.33.3", features = ["wrap_help"] }
 epoll = ">=4.0.1"
+event_monitor = { path = "event_monitor" }
 hypervisor = { path = "hypervisor" }
 libc = "0.2.86"
 log = { version = "0.4.14", features = ["std"] }
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 028aad9de..f6d198bbe 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ extern crate vmm_sys_util;
 #[macro_use(crate_authors)]
 extern crate clap;
 
+#[macro_use]
+extern crate event_monitor;
+
 use clap::{App, Arg, ArgGroup, ArgMatches};
 use libc::EFD_NONBLOCK;
 use log::LevelFilter;
@@ -20,6 +23,8 @@ use signal_hook::{
     iterator::{exfiltrator::WithRawSiginfo, SignalsInfo},
 };
 use std::env;
+use std::fs::File;
+use std::os::unix::io::FromRawFd;
 use std::sync::mpsc::channel;
 use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};
 use std::thread;
@@ -315,6 +320,14 @@ fn create_app<'a, 'b>(
                 .default_value(&api_server_path)
                 .group("vmm-config"),
         )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("monitor-fd")
+                .long("monitor-fd")
+                .help("File descriptor to report events on")
+                .takes_value(true)
+                .min_values(1)
+                .group("vmm-config"),
+        )
         .arg(
             Arg::with_name("restore")
                 .long("restore")
@@ -389,6 +402,8 @@ fn start_vmm(cmd_arguments: ArgMatches, api_socket_path: &str) -> Result<(), Err
             .unwrap();
     }
 
+    event!("vmm", "starting");
+
     let hypervisor = hypervisor::new().map_err(Error::CreateHypervisor)?;
     let vmm_thread = vmm::start_vmm_thread(
         env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION").to_string(),
@@ -501,6 +516,14 @@ fn main() {
         .expect("Missing argument: api-socket")
         .to_string();
 
+    if let Some(fd) = cmd_arguments
+        .value_of("monitor-fd")
+        .map(|s| s.parse::<i32>().expect("Expect integral file descriptor"))
+    {
+        let file = unsafe { File::from_raw_fd(fd) };
+        event_monitor::set_monitor(file).expect("Expected setting monitor to succeed");
+    }
+
     if let Err(e) = start_vmm(cmd_arguments, &api_socket_path) {
         eprintln!("{}", e);
         std::fs::remove_file(api_socket_path).ok();