Introduction
The Linux command iostat is a powerful tool used to monitor system input/output (I/O) device loading by observing the time the devices are active in relation to their average transfer rates. It can be used to monitor the performance of disk drives, network interfaces, and other I/O devices. It can also be used to identify and diagnose potential I/O bottlenecks. This command is available on most Linux distributions and is part of the sysstat package.
Examples
The iostat command is used to monitor input/output (I/O) statistics of devices and partitions in a Linux system. It can be used to report the device bandwidth utilization and the time the device is active in relation to its average transfer rate.
Syntax:
iostat [options] [devices] [interval [count]]
Options:
-a: Display all devices.
-d: Display only devices used for block I/O.
-m: Display statistics in megabytes per second.
-x: Display extended statistics.
Example:
To display the I/O statistics of all devices every 5 seconds for 10 times, use the following command:
iostat -a 5 10
Understanding the iostat Linux Command
The iostat Linux command is a powerful tool for monitoring system input/output (I/O) device loading by observing the time the physical disk is active in relation to its average transfer rate. It can be used to monitor system performance and to diagnose and identify potential I/O performance bottlenecks. This article will explain how to use the iostat command and provide examples of its output.
What is the iostat Command?
The iostat command is a tool used to monitor system input/output (I/O) device loading by observing the time the physical disk is active in relation to its average transfer rate. It can be used to monitor system performance and to diagnose and identify potential I/O performance bottlenecks. The iostat command is part of the sysstat package, which is installed by default on most Linux distributions.
How to Use the iostat Command
The iostat command is used to monitor system I/O device loading. It can be used to monitor system performance and to diagnose and identify potential I/O performance bottlenecks. The iostat command is used in the following format:
iostat [options] [devices] [interval [count]]
The options are used to specify the type of output to be displayed. The devices are the names of the devices to be monitored. The interval is the time in seconds between each report. The count is the number of reports to be generated. The iostat command can be used to monitor a single device or multiple devices. To monitor a single device, use the following command:
iostat -d /dev/sda
To monitor multiple devices, use the following command:
iostat -d /dev/sda /dev/sdb
The iostat command will generate a report that contains the following information:
- Device: The name of the device being monitored.
- tps: The number of transfers per second that were issued to the device.
- kB_read/s: The amount of data read from the device in kilobytes per second.
- kB_wrtn/s: The amount of data written to the device in kilobytes per second.
- kB_read: The total number of kilobytes read from the device.
- kB_wrtn: The total number of kilobytes written to the device.
- avgrq-sz: The average size (in kilobytes) of the requests that were issued to the device.
- avgqu-sz: The average queue length of the requests that were issued to the device.
- await: The average time (in milliseconds) for I/O requests issued to the device to be served.
- svctm: The average service time (in milliseconds) for I/O requests that were issued to the device.
- %util: Percentage of CPU time during which I/O requests were issued to the device (bandwidth utilization for the device). Device saturation occurs when this value is close to 100%.
The iostat command can be used to monitor system performance and to diagnose and identify potential I/O performance bottlenecks. It is an invaluable tool for system administrators and can be used to quickly identify and resolve I/O performance issues.
