This example shows the iostat command printing information about disk usage on my Ubuntu system.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ iostat Linux 4.6.0-rc1-jason (jason-desktop) 01/05/16 _x86_64_ (4 CPU) avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 2.50 0.43 1.28 24.37 0.00 71.42 Device: tps kB_read/s kB_wrtn/s kB_read kB_wrtn sda 1.49 147.22 0.00 64455 0 sdb 0.41 14.30 0.00 6260 0 sdc 0.51 19.06 0.00 8345 0 sdd 0.75 28.59 0.00 12516 0 scd0 0.04 0.17 0.00 76 0 sde 153.23 2141.39 783.14 937499 342860 |
The -c parameter prints the CPU usage chart.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ iostat -c Linux 4.6.0-rc1-jason (jason-desktop) 01/05/16 _x86_64_ (4 CPU) avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 2.38 0.38 1.20 21.51 0.00 74.52 |
Use the -h parameter to display the hardware utilization chart in a human readable format.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ iostat -h Linux 4.6.0-rc1-jason (jason-desktop) 01/05/16 _x86_64_ (4 CPU) avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 2.28 0.34 1.19 19.46 0.00 76.72 Device: tps kB_read/s kB_wrtn/s kB_read kB_wrtn sda 1.19 117.04 0.00 64455 0 sdb 0.33 11.37 0.00 6260 0 sdc 0.40 15.15 0.00 8345 0 sdd 0.60 22.73 0.00 12516 0 scd0 0.03 0.14 0.00 76 0 sde 122.03 1702.43 629.65 937511 346744 |
The iostat command is available in the sysstat package for Debian and other distributions. Type sudo apt-get install sysstat to install this useful utility. A related command is vmstat. This will also print out useful system information.
vmstat example.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ vmstat procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu----- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st 0 0 0 9868316 201264 1025412 0 0 411 139 270 992 3 1 79 17 0 |
Use the -d parameter in vmstat to print out disk usage information. Kernel version newer than 2.5.70 required.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ vmstat -d disk- ------------reads------------ ------------writes----------- -----IO------ total merged sectors ms total merged sectors ms cur sec ram0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ram15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 loop7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 653 0 128910 1224 0 0 0 0 0 0 sdb 181 0 12520 892 0 0 0 0 0 0 sdc 223 0 16690 1556 0 0 0 0 0 0 sdd 329 0 25032 3765 0 0 0 0 0 1 sr0 19 0 152 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 sde 62169 2174 1875086 1247335 5089 13350 695344 516993 0 241 |
The -p parameter will print out information about a partition. Kernel version newer than 2.5.70 required.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ vmstat -p /dev/sda1 sda1 reads read sectors writes requested writes 563 124696 0 0 |