PowerEdge: How to use System Activity Report, 'sar', to View Performance Information on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

Summary: How to use System Activity Report (sar), to view performance information about SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

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Instructions

 

Article Summary: This article provides information about how to use System Activity Report, 'sar', to view performance information about SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

 

Table of Contents:

1. Installation
2. Configure logging
3. Usage of the 'sar' command

 

1. Installation

  • Ensure you are logged in as 'root'
  • 'sar' is apart of the 'sysstat' package
    • # yast2 -i sysstat
  • Create a symlink for the cron job:
    • # ln -s /etc/sysstat/sysstat.cron /etc/cron.d/sysstat.cron
  • Restart cron service:
    • # rccron restart

 

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2. Configure logging:

  • Edit '/etc/sysstat/sysstat' with your favorite editor
  • Find the line that starts with 'HISTORY='
  • The value represents the number of days to retain log files
  • The default is sixty days and you can change it to meet your needs
  • Log files are stored in the '/var/log/sa' directory

 

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3. Usage of the 'sar' command

NOTE: It takes at least 10 minutes for the cron job to be run to gather data so that this command can be used.
  • Display the current day's:
    • CPU statistics
  • # sar
  • To specify a CPU, for example CPU 3:
    • # sar -P 3
  • Queue length and average statistics:
    • # sar -q
  •  RAM statistics:
    • # sar -r
    • # sar -R
  • Network statistics:
    • # sar -n NAME
  • Replace NAME with one of the following:
    • ALL – This displays all of the above information
    • DEV – Displays network devices vital statistics
    • EDEV – Display network device failure statistics
    • EICMP – Displays ICMPv4 network errors
    • EIP – Displays IPv4 network errors
    • EIP6 – Displays IPv6 network errors
    • ETCP – Displays TCPv4 network errors
    • ICMP – Displays ICMPv4 network traffic
    • ICMP6 – Displays ICMPv6 network traffic
    • IP – Displays IPv4 network traffic
    • IP6 – Displays IPv6 network traffic
    • NFS – Displays NFS client activities
    • NFSD – Displays NFS server activities
    • SOCK – Displays sockets in use for IPv4
    • SOCK6 – Displays sockets in use for IPv6
    • TCP – Displays TCPv4 network traffic
    • UDP – Displays UDPv4 network traffic
    • UDP6 - Displays UDPv6 network traffic
  • Swap space utilization:
    • # sar -S
  • Disk statistics:
    • # sar -b
  • Paging statistics:
    • # sar -B
  • Block device statistics:
    • # sar -d
  • Inode statistics:
    • # sar -v
  • Swapping statistics:
    • # sar -W
    • # sar -w
  • System switching statistics:
  • Real-time information can be displayed as well by adding interval and integer arguments:
    • Example: Display CPU statistics every five seconds a total of ten times
    • # sar 5 10
  • By default the 'sar' command display's the current day's statistics, but you can change that by use the switches -s for start and -e for end
  • Example: # sar -s 12:00:00 -e 16:00:00
  • This displays the CPU statistics for today between noon and 4PM

 

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Additional Information

Ask the community on the "Enterprise Operating Systems" forums.
 

Affected Products

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15

Products

PowerEdge XR2, PowerEdge C6420, PowerEdge C6520, PowerEdge C6525, PowerEdge C6615, PowerEdge C6620, PowerEdge FC640, PowerEdge M640, PowerEdge M640 (for PE VRTX), PowerEdge MX740C, PowerEdge MX750c, PowerEdge MX760c, PowerEdge MX840C, PowerEdge R240 , PowerEdge R250, PowerEdge R260, PowerEdge R340, PowerEdge R350, PowerEdge R360, PowerEdge R440, PowerEdge R450, PowerEdge R540, PowerEdge R550, PowerEdge R640, PowerEdge R6415, PowerEdge R650, PowerEdge R650xs, PowerEdge R6515, PowerEdge R6525, PowerEdge R660, PowerEdge R660xs, PowerEdge R6615, PowerEdge R6625, PowerEdge R740, PowerEdge R740XD, PowerEdge R740XD2, PowerEdge R7415, PowerEdge R7425, PowerEdge R750, PowerEdge R750XA, PowerEdge R750xs, PowerEdge R7515, PowerEdge R7525, PowerEdge R760, PowerEdge R760XA, PowerEdge R760xd2, PowerEdge R760xs, PowerEdge R7615, PowerEdge R7625, PowerEdge R840, PowerEdge R860, PowerEdge R940, PowerEdge R940xa, PowerEdge R960, PowerEdge T140, PowerEdge T150, PowerEdge T160, PowerEdge T340, PowerEdge T350, PowerEdge T360, PowerEdge T440, PowerEdge T550, PowerEdge T560, PowerEdge T640, PowerEdge XE2420, PowerEdge XE7420, PowerEdge XE7440, PowerEdge XE8545, PowerEdge XE8640, PowerEdge XE9640, PowerEdge XE9680, PowerEdge XR11, PowerEdge XR12, PowerEdge XR4510c, PowerEdge XR4520c ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000137717
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2024
Version:  6
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