How to monitor performance of Linux with Sysstat

    Sysstat is a Linux performance monitoring tool that collects and reports system utilization statistics. It provides a variety of performance metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O activity, and network bandwidth utilization. Sysstat is comprised of several utilities, including sar (system activity reporter), mpstat (multiprocessor statistics), pidstat (process statistics), iostat (input/output statistics), nfsiostat (NFS I/O statistics), and cifsiostat (CIFS I/O statistics).

    Sysstat is useful for system administrators who need to identify system bottlenecks, troubleshoot performance issues, and optimize system performance. By analyzing the performance data collected by Sysstat, administrators can identify potential problems and take proactive measures to address them. Additionally, Sysstat can be used to track system performance over time, allowing administrators to identify long-term trends and plan for future capacity needs. 

Installation Steps of Sysstat

    Here are the steps to install Sysstat on a Linux system:

1.    Open a terminal on your Linux system.

2.    Check if Sysstat is already installed by running the following command: 

           

If Sysstat is not installed, the command will return an error message.

3.    If Sysstat is not installed, you can install it using the package manager of your Linux distribution. For example, on Ubuntu and Debian, run the following command:

On CentOS and Fedora, run the following command:

4.    Once the installation is complete, you can start using the Sysstat utilities. For example, you can use the sar command to display system activity reports. Here's an example command:

  

This command will display CPU utilization statistics every second for five seconds.

Usage of Sysstat with command

Here are some common commands for using Sysstat:

1.    sar: This command is used to display system activity reports. Here's an example command to display CPU usage every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

      

2.    iostat: This command displays CPU, disk I/O, and NFS statistics. Here's an example command to display disk I/O statistics for the first disk every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

     

3.    mpstat: This command displays processor related statistics for individual processors and total processors. Here's an example command to display CPU statistics for all processors every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

    

4.    pidstat: This command displays process statistics. Here's an example command to display CPU and memory usage statistics for process with PID 123 every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

    

5.    nfsiostat: This command displays NFS server I/O statistics. Here's an example command to display NFS I/O statistics every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

    

6.    cifsiostat: This command displays CIFS client and server I/O statistics. Here's an example command to display CIFS I/O statistics every 5 seconds for 5 iterations:

    These commands are just a few examples of what you can do with Sysstat. For more information on using Sysstat, you can refer to the documentation or run the man command followed by the utility name.