sar(1)sar(1)NAMEsar - System activity reporter
SYNOPSISsar [-P processor-id] [-ubdycaqvmpgrkA] [-ofile] t [n]
sar [-P processor-id] [-ubdycaqvmpgrkA] [-stime] [-e time] [-i seconds]
[-f file]
OPTIONS
Reports all data. This is the same as specifying -udqbcayvmpgrk.
Reports file access routine data. The file access routines are iget/s,
namei/s, and dirblk/s. Reports buffer activity data. The buffer
activity routines are: Measure the transfers of system buffers per sec‐
ond from disks and other block devices Measure the number of times per
second the system buffers have been accessed Express the cache hit
ratios as a percentage; the calculation is (1-(bread/lread)) Report the
transfer rate to physical devices Reports system calls. These reports
include: All types of system calls System reads System writes System
forks System execs The number of characters transferred per second by
read system calls The number of characters transferred per second by
write system calls Reports disk device activity. These reports
include: The time, expressed as a percent, a device was busy servicing
a transfer request The average number of outstanding requests during
the "busy" time The number of reads from and writes to the device The
number of transferred units of 512 bytes/unit The total time in
microseconds that transfer requests wait on queue to be serviced The
total time in microseconds used by the device to service requests. This
value includes wait time.
Due to the way that kernel statistics are gathered for Tru64
UNIX, the avserv statistic reported for the -d option is the
total of all time, including wait time, that is used by the
device to service requests. Specifies an end time for the
report. The time argument is in the form hh[:mm[:ss]]. This
option usually is used with the -s option. Specifies a file to
use for input. The sar command extracts data from this file.
Reports paging activity. The reports include: The number of
page-out requests per second The number of pages that were page-
out per second The number of pages per second that the page
stealing daemon placed on the free list The number of pages per
second that the page stealing daemon scans The percentage of
igets with page flushes, that is, the number of S5 inodes (that
were associated with reusable pages) that iget removed from the
freelist. These pages are flushed and cannot be reclaimed by
processes. Specifies the number of seconds in the interval
between samplings. Reports kernel memory allocation activity in
terms of "buckets". The reports include: The size of the bucket
The total memory for this bucket The number of bytes allocated
from this bucket The number of allocation failures from this
bucket Tru64 UNIX uses a different algorithm for handling kernel
memory; the -k option reports its data in terms of variously
sized buckets, rather than in terms of the sml_mem, lg_mem, and
ovsz_alloc fields reported on System V. Reports message and
semaphore activity. The reports include: The number of message
primitives per second The number of semaphore primitives per
second Reports the activity for processor-id, which must be
physically present on the machine. This option must be the first
option specified on the command line. Reports paging activity.
The reports include: The number of attaches (page faults that
are satisfied by reclaiming a page currently in memory) per sec‐
ond The number of page-in requests per second The number of
pages paged in per second The number of page faults caused by
protection errors per second. These are illegal access to page
errors. The number of address translation page faults per sec‐
ond. These faults occur when the valid page is not in memory.
The number of faults caused by software lock requests (requiring
physical I/O) per second. Report queue activity. The reports
include: The average length of the queue while occupied. The
percent of time occupied. Report unused memory pages and disk
blocks. The reports include: The average number of 8K pages
available for user processes. The number of pages available for
page swapping. Specifies a start time for the report. The time
argument is in the form hh[:mm[:ss]]. This option usually is
used with the -e option. Reports CPU use. This option is the
default option. The reports include: Percent of time processor-
id runs in user mode Percent of time processor-id runs in system
mode Percent of time processor-id is idle while a process waits
for block I/O Percent of time processor-id is idle. This does
not include the time reported by %wio Reports file activity at a
sampling point. The reports include: The number of entries in
the process table and the size of the process table The number
of entries in the inode table and the size of the inode table
The number of entries in the file table and the size of the file
table, usually denoted by dyn because Tru64 UNIX allocates these
table entries dynamically The number of entries in the lock file
table and the size of the lock file table, usually denoted by
dyn because Tru64 UNIX allocates these table entries dynamically
Overflows between sampling points for each table are reported in
the column labelled ov. Reports activity of terminal (TTY)
devices. The reports include: Raw input character rate Canonical
input character rate Output character rate Receive rate Trans‐
mit rate Modem interrupt rate
OPERANDS
Indicates the number of intervals during which sampling will take
place. Indicates the duration in seconds for each sampling. The value
for t should be 5 or greater.
DESCRIPTION
The operating system contains counters for the following: CPU use Buf‐
fer use Disk and tape I/O activity Terminal (TTY) activity System call
activity File access activity, Queue activity Inter-process communica‐
tions Paging
As these activities occur, the appropriate counters are incremented.
In the first synopsis, sar samples cumulative activity counters in the
operating system at n intervals of t seconds, where t should be 5 or
greater. If t is specified with more than one option, all headers are
printed together and the output may be difficult to read. If the sam‐
pling interval is less than 5, sar's own activity may affect the sam‐
ple.
If the -o option is specified, sar saves the samples in file in binary
format. The default value of n is 1.
In the second instance, without specifying a sampling interval, sar
extracts data from a previously recorded file, either the one specified
by the -f option or, by default, the standard system activity daily
data file /var/adm/sa/sadd for the current day dd.
You can bound the report's starting and ending times with the -s and
the -e time arguments in the form hh[:mm[:ss]]. The -i option selects
records at sec second intervals. Otherwise, all intervals found in the
data file are reported.
When the -P option is specified, sar reports activity that applies to
the specified processor-id; the -P option must be the first option
specified.
Command line option flags that request information that is not specific
to processor-id are ignored silently. The option flags that are effec‐
tive with -P are -abcgmuy.
In either case, you can specify data subsets by option flags.
EXAMPLES
The following example shows how to display the CPU activity thus far
today. $ sar resulting display The following example shows how to mon‐
itor the CPU activity for 10 minutes and save the data in a file named
temp. $ sar-o temp 60 10
The following example shows how to review the disk and tape activity
data saved on the file named temp. $ sar-d -f temp
The following example shows how to monitor all activity on processor 1,
starting at 9:00 A.M. ending at 5:01 P.M., and measuring each thirty
seconds: $ sar-P 1 -s 9:00 -e 17:01 -i 1800 -A
FILES
The daily data file, where dd represents the day of the month.
SEE ALSO
Commands: sar(8)sar(1)