How to Install Configure and Use sysstat utils (SAR) on RHEL 7

1. How to Install Configure and Use sysstat Utils
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Contents
Overview.......................................................................................................................................................1
SAR Package Installation...............................................................................................................................1
Verify Installed Status ...............................................................................................................................1
Install Package...........................................................................................................................................2
Enable Sysstat Service...............................................................................................................................2
Start Sysstat Service..................................................................................................................................3
Stop Sysstat Service ..................................................................................................................................3
Restart Sysstat Service..............................................................................................................................4
Check Sysstat Service Status.....................................................................................................................4
Sysstat – Default Configuration ....................................................................................................................5
Sysstat – Cron Job Configuration ..................................................................................................................5
Package Binaries and Purpose ......................................................................................................................6
SAR – Reports Generation ............................................................................................................................7
SAR Command – Syntax............................................................................................................................7
SAR Command – Examples .......................................................................................................................7
CPU Utilization Statistics...........................................................................................................................7
Memory Utilization Statistics....................................................................................................................8
Block Device Statistics...............................................................................................................................8
Hugepage Utilization Statistics .................................................................................................................9
Interrupt Statistics ....................................................................................................................................9
Network Statistics.....................................................................................................................................9
Network Statistics Options..................................................................................................................10
Kernel, INode and File Statistics..............................................................................................................10
Swap Space Utilization Statistics.............................................................................................................11
I/O Statistics............................................................................................................................................11
Paging Statistics ......................................................................................................................................12
Run Queue Length and Load Average Statistics .....................................................................................12
Swap Space Utilization Statistics.............................................................................................................13
SAR Report – Write Output File ..............................................................................................................13
SAR Report – Read Output File ...............................................................................................................13
SAR Report – Read Specific Day Report..................................................................................................14

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SAR Report – Read Specific Day and Time Report..................................................................................14

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Overview
The System Activity Report or SAR report; collects, reports and save(s) CPU, Memory & I/O usages at
regular intervals.
“sar” command supports generating different types of reports on fly and these reports can be exported
as well. In this guide we will explain sar command execution with various attributes.
SAR will collate and give information about below;
1. Block Device Statistics
2. Paging Statistics
3. Swap Statistics
4. CPU Utilization Statistics
5. Memory Utilization Statistics
6. Interrupt Statistics
7. Network Statistics
8. Power Management Statistics
9. Report I/O Statistics
10. Report Hugepages utilization statistics
SAR Package Installation
SAR package installation is simple and easy; to install the package follow the below steps.
Verify Installed Status
Before you install the package, check if the package is already installed, to know the package is already
installed, run the command;
yum list installed sysstat

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Install Package
After checking the package installation and you found that the package is not installed, to install the
package run the command;
yum install sysstat -y -q && yum list installed sysstat -q
Enable Sysstat Service
After installation, ensure that the sysstat is enabled, so that it can startup automatically upon boot-up. To
enable the service run the command;
systemctl enable sysstat

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Start Sysstat Service
Next, you need to start the sysstat service to generate the reports, to start the command;
systemctl start sysstat && systemctl status sysstat -l
Stop Sysstat Service
In case you would like to stop the service run the command;
systemctl stop sysstat && systemctl status sysstat -l

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Restart Sysstat Service
In case you would like to restart the service run the command;
systemctl restart sysstat && systemctl status sysstat -l
Check Sysstat Service Status
To check the sysstat service status, run the command;
systemctl status sysstat -l

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Sysstat – Default Configuration
Sysstat can be configured as per the business need and disk availability on the server, to view the current
configuration run the below command; Each attribute can be reconfigured as per the requirement of the
business.
egrep -v '^#|^$|^;' /etc/sysconfig/sysstat
Attribute Default Purpose
HISTORY 28 Configure statistics data to be retained for day(s)
COMPRESSAFTER 31 Compress statistics data after day(s)
SADC_OPTIONS "-S DISK" Configure system activity diagnostics collector option
ZIP "bzip2" Compression command for compressing
Sysstat – Cron Job Configuration
After configuring the sysstat, next we should configure cron job to collect periodical and store “SAR”
reports. To view current cron job, run the command below;
cat /etc/cron.d/sysstat
# Run system activity accounting tool every 10 minutes
*/10 * * * * root /usr/lib64/sa/sa1 1 1
# 0 * * * * root /usr/lib64/sa/sa1 600 6 &
# Generate a daily summary of process accounting at 23:53
53 23 * * * root /usr/lib64/sa/sa2 -A
Note: If the job is not configured, copy and paste the above snippet into new cron job.

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Package Binaries and Purpose
Package / Binary Purpose / Usage
sysstat To define the maximum no. of days to save SAR reports
/usr/bin/sar Collect, report, or save system activity information
/usr/bin/iostat Report Central Processing Unit (CPU) statistics and input/output statistics
/usr/bin/mpstat Report processors related statistics
/usr/bin/sadf Display data collected by SAR in multiple formats
/usr/lib64/sa summarizes accounting information
/usr/lib64/sa/sa1 Collect and store binary data in the system activity daily data file
/usr/lib64/sa/sa2 Write a daily report in the “/var/log/sa” directory
/usr/lib64/sa/sadc System activity data collector
/usr/bin/cifsiostat Report CIFS statistics
/usr/bin/nfsiostat Report input/output statistics for network filesystems (NFS).
/usr/bin/pidstat Report statistics for Linux tasks.
/usr/lib/systemd/system/
sysstat.service
Sysstat Systemd Management control file

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SAR – Reports Generation
One of the main purpose “SAR” package is to generate System activity reports on fly and export those
reports in different format.
SAR Command – Syntax
sar -[Options] [Interval] [Iteration Count]
sar -[Options] -s [hh:mm:ss] -e [hh:mm:ss] [Interval] [Iteration Count]
sar -o [output filename] [interval] [Iteration Count] >/dev/null 2>&1 &
SAR Command – Examples
SAR Command Purpose
sar -r 10 5 Memory utilization statistics every ten seconds
for 5 times.
sar -r -s 10:00:15 -e 10:15:00 Memory utilization statistics report between
specific timeframe.
sar -o /tmp/mem_stats -r -u 2 5 >/dev/null 2>&1 & Memory utilization statistics into output file.
CPU Utilization Statistics
To generate CPU Utilization statistics, run the command;
sar -u
sar -u [ALL] 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for CPU utilization statistics every 2 seconds. “ALL” represents
all CPU related fields should be shown.

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Memory Utilization Statistics
To generate CPU Utilization statistics, run the command;
sar -r
sar -r 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for Memory utilization report every 2 seconds.
Block Device Statistics
To generate block devices statistics, run the command;
sar -d
sar -d 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for each Block Device(s) report every 2 seconds.

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Hugepage Utilization Statistics
To generate hugepage utilization statistics, run the command;
sar -H
sar -H 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for huge pages info every 2 seconds.
Interrupt Statistics
To generate interrupt statistics, run the command;
sar -I 15 2 2
sar -I SUM 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for all interrupts report every 2 seconds
Network Statistics
To generate network statistics, run the command;
sar -n [options] 2 2
sar -n DEV 2 2

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Network Statistics Options
Option Purpose
DEV Network interfaces
EDEV Network interfaces (errors)
NFS NFS client
NFSD NFS server
SOCK Sockets (v4)
IP IP traffic (v4)
EIP IP traffic (v4) (errors)
ICMP ICMP traffic (v4)
EICMP ICMP traffic (v4) (errors)
TCP TCP traffic (v4)
ETCP TCP traffic (v4) (errors)
UDP UDP traffic (v4)
SOCK6 Sockets (v6)
IP6 IP traffic (v6)
EIP6 IP traffic (v6) (errors)
ICMP6 ICMP traffic (v6)
EICMP6 ICMP traffic (v6) (errors)
UDP6 UDP traffic (v6)
Kernel, INode and File Statistics
To generate INode, file and other kernel table statistics, run the command;
sar -v 2 5

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Swap Space Utilization Statistics
To generate swap space utilization statistics, run the command;
sar -S
sar -S 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for swap usage info report every 2 seconds.
I/O Statistics
To generate input/output (I/O) statistics, run the command;
sar -b
sar -b 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for I/O transfer rates info every 2 seconds.

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Paging Statistics
To generate paging statistics, run the command;
sar -B
sar -B 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for paging usage info report every 2 seconds.
Run Queue Length and Load Average Statistics
To generate queue length and load averages statistics, run the command;
sar -q
sar -q 2 2
Note: The above command will run 2 times for load & queue usage info report every 2 seconds.
Field Purpose
runq-sz Run queue length (number of processes waiting for run time)
plist-sz Number of processes and threads in the process list
ldavg-1 System load average for the last minute
ldavg-5 System load average for the past 5 minutes
ldavg-15 System load average for the past 15 minutes

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Swap Space Utilization Statistics
To generate swap space utilization statistics, run the command;
sar -S
sar -S 2 2
SAR Report – Write Output File
To store “sar” report to a data file, data file is stored in binary format and can be read by sar command,
to store the report/data into a file run the command;
sar -o /tmp/cpu_utilization_output_file -u 2 5 >/dev/null 2>&1 &
SAR Report – Read Output File
To read “sar” data file, run the command;
sar -f /tmp/cpu_utilization_output_file

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SAR Report – Read Specific Day Report
All the data files are stored in the directory “/var/log/sa/” by default it’s configured for 28 days. In order
to read a specific day’s report, run the command;
sar -f /var/log/sa/saXX
sar -f /var/log/sa/sa10
Note: Day of the month is represented by saXX, where xx means day of month.
SAR Report – Read Specific Day and Time Report
All the data files are stored in the directory “/var/log/sa/” by default it’s configured for 28 days. In order
to read a specific day and time report, run the command;
sar -f /var/log/sa/saXX -e -s 21:00:00 -e 22:00:00
sar -f /var/log/sa/sa10 -e -s 21:00:00 -e 22:00:00
Note: Day of the month is represented by saXX, where XX means day of month.