The sysstat utilities are a collection of open source performance monitoring tools for Linux.
The utilities include mpstat, iostat, nfsiostat-sysstat, cifsiostat, pidstat, sar, sadc, sadf and sa tools.
Many programs available on the internet use sysstat’s data to make graphs (one of them, isag, is included in sysstat).
- iostat – reports CPU statistics and input/output statistics for devices, partitions and network filesystems.
- mpstat – reports individual or combined processor related statistics.
- pidstat – reports statistics for Linux tasks (processes) : I/O, CPU, memory, etc.
- sar – collects, reports and saves system activity information (CPU, memory, disks, interrupts, network interfaces, TTY, kernel tables, etc).
- sadc – is the system activity data collector, used as a backend for sar.
- sa1 – collects and stores binary data in the system activity daily data file. It is a front end to sadc designed to be run from cron.
- sa2 – writes a summarized daily activity report. It is a front end to sar designed to be run from cron.
- sadf – displays data collected by sar in multiple formats (CSV, XML, etc.) This is useful to load performance data into a database, or import them in a spreadsheet to make graphs.
- nfsiostat-sysstat – reports input/output statistics for network filesystems (NFS).
- cifsiostat – reports CIFS statistics.
Key Features
- Monitor:
- Input / Output and transfer rate statistics (global, per device, per partition, per network filesystem and per Linux task / PID).
- CPU statistics (global, per CPU and per Linux task / PID), including support for virtualization architectures.
- Memory, hugepages and swap space utilization statistics.
- Virtual memory, paging and fault statistics.
- Per-task (per-PID) memory and page fault statistics.
- Global CPU and page fault statistics for tasks and all their children.
- Process creation activity.
- Interrupt statistics (global, per CPU and per interrupt, including potential APIC interrupt sources, hardware and software interrupts).
- Extensive network statistics: network interface activity (number of packets and kB received and transmitted per second, etc.) including failures from network devices; network traffic statistics for IP, TCP, ICMP and UDP protocols based on SNMPv2 standards; support for IPv6-related protocols.
- NFS server and client activity.
- Socket statistics.
- Run queue and system load statistics.
- Kernel internal tables utilization statistics.
- System and per Linux task switching activity.
- Swapping statistics.
- TTY device activity.
- Power management statistics (instantaneous and average CPU clock frequency, fans speed, devices temperature, voltage inputs, USB devices plugged into the system)
- Filesystems utilization (inodes and blocks).
- Average statistics values are calculated over the sampling period.
- Most system statistics can be saved in a file for future inspection.
- Allows to configure the length of data history to keep.
- On the fly detection of new devices (disks, network interfaces, etc.) that are created or registered dynamically.
- Support for UP and SMP machines, including machines with hyperthreaded or multi-core processors.
- Support for hotplug CPUs (it detects automagically processors that are disabled or enabled on the fly) and tickless CPUs.
- Works on many different architectures, whether 32- or 64-bit.
- Needs very little CPU time to run (written in C).
- System statistics can be exported in various different formats (CSV, XML, JSON, etc.). DTD and XML Schema documents are included in sysstat package.
- Internationalization support.
Website: github.com/sysstat/sysstat
Support:
Developer: Sebastien Godard
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
sysstat is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Process Viewers | |
|---|---|
| btop++ | Continuation of bashtop and BpyTOP rewritten in C++ |
| htop | Provides a full list of processes running |
| Glances | System monitoring tool written in Python |
| nmon | Performance monitoring tool |
| bottom | GUI process/system monitor seeking inspiration from gtop, gotop and htop |
| gtop | System monitoring dashboard for the terminal |
| Conky | Advanced, highly configurable system monitor for X based on torsmo |
| Zenith | Turbo-charged top utility |
| BpyTOP | Presents the system resources in a logical and well-thought out way |
| atop | Monitor for system resources and process activity |
| ttop | System monitoring tool with historical snapshots and alerts |
| below | Time traveling resource monitor |
| sysstat | System performance tools |
| gotop | Seeks inspiration from gtop and vtop |
| sot | System observation tool |
| vtop | System monitoring tool in the spirit of top |
| dgop | System monitoring tool with CLI and REST API |
| evisum | Enlightenment system monitor |
| collectl | Collects data that describes the current system status |
| socktop | Remote system monitor with a rich TUI |
| Saidar | Displays live system statistics |
| Xtop | TUI system monito |
| tiptop | Graphical activity monitor for the command line |
| TTV | Term-task-viewer |
| Lyvoxa Stellar | Built from the ground up in Rust |
| bb | Simple process viewer |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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