Q. How do I install sar command under FreeBSD to collect, report, or save system activity information? How can I setup freebsd accounting?
A. . sar, sa1, sa2 and sadc commands are for SysV system such as Linux.
You need to install a package called bsdsar under FreeBSD. It is a system activity reporter (SAR) for FreeBSD systems. It stores or shows information on network, cpu, memory, swap, and NFS usage. Data is polled at intervals – usually every 20minutes during the day, and hourly in evening/night hours and is stored for later usage.
Install bsdsar
Type the following commands to install bsdsar:
# portsnap fetch update
# cd /usr/ports/sysutils/bsdsar
# make install clean
Configure bsdsar
Open configuration file /usr/local/etc/bsdsar.conf:
# vi /usr/local/etc/bsdsar.conf
Usually you need to configure the data gathering section. To turn ON gathering of data, put the word “on” after the type of data to gather. To turn it off, put “off” after the data type to turn that gathering off. All is on by default. For example turn off nfs data gathering, modify as follows:
nfs = off
Here is my own working sample config file:
log_directory = /var/log max_data_file_size = 4096000 cpu = on disk = on memory_swap = on net = on nfs = off cpu_mem_processes = on
Save and close the file.
bsdsar_gather command
bsdsar_gather is used to collect data. You should see following cronjob entry at /etc/crontab file for collecting data:
20,40 8-18 * * * root /usr/local/bin/bsdsar_gather 0 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/bsdsar_gather
How do I view selected cumulative activity counters in the operating system?
Simply use bsdsar command. To view network interface data, use:
# bsdsar -i
Sample output:
Time In Pkts In Errors In Bytes Out Pkts Out Errors Out Bytes Coll Interface 00:00 5930140 0 8741522861 3096503 0 250130450 0 em0 01:00 5965075 0 8792550130 3114793 0 252111930 0 em0 02:00 5965075 0 8792550130 3114793 0 252111930 0 em0 03:00 5965078 0 8792550507 3114796 0 252112134 0 em0 04:00 5965184 0 8792569021 3114902 0 252121128 0 em0 05:00 6004005 0 8849450350 3135235 0 254298106 0 em0 06:00 6004005 0 8849450350 3135235 0 254298106 0 em0 07:00 6004005 0 8849450350 3135235 0 254298106 0 em0 08:00 6004019 0 8849452569 3135249 0 254299292 0 em0 08:20 6087369 0 8973393420 3178573 0 257870960 0 em0 08:40 6087369 0 8973393420 3178573 0 257870960 0 em0 09:00 6087369 0 8973393420 3178573 0 257870960 0 em0 09:20 6087369 0 8973393420 3178573 0 257870960 0 em0 Time In Pkts In Errors In Bytes Out Pkts Out Errors Out Bytes Coll Interface 00:00 87328207 0 124968895768 76277756 0 5447644061 0 em1 01:00 87683130 0 125477348559 76595358 0 5470522718 0 em1 02:00 88052370 0 126006376581 76926305 0 5494392360 0 em1 03:00 88293028 0 126350982635 77142146 0 5509979199 0 em1 04:00 88293452 0 126351062483 77142510 0 5510002594 0 em1 05:00 88293927 0 126351095937 77142922 0 5510028116 0 em1 06:00 88294276 0 126351120751 77143228 0 5510047768 0 em1 07:00 88294694 0 126351149966 77143601 0 5510071725 0 em1 08:00 88295045 0 126351176397 77143918 0 5510092600 0 em1 08:20 88295174 0 126351185599 77144026 0 5510099546 0 em1 08:40 88295291 0 126351193960 77144132 0 5510106599 0 em1 09:00 88295411 0 126351202345 77144241 0 5510113604 0 em1 09:20 88295514 0 126351209917 77144332 0 5510119530 0 em1
To view cpu usage data, enter:
# bsdsar -u
Sample output:
Time % User % Sys % Nice % Intrpt % Idle 00:00 1 1 0 0 98 01:00 0 0 0 0 100 02:00 0 0 0 0 100 03:00 0 0 0 0 100 04:00 3 7 0 0 89 05:00 0 1 0 0 99 06:00 0 0 0 0 100 07:00 0 0 0 0 100 08:00 1 5 0 0 93 08:20 0 0 0 0 100 08:40 0 0 0 0 100 09:00 0 0 0 0 100 09:20 0 0 0 0 100
To view top 5 cpu processes, enter:
# bsdsar -s
To view top 5 memory processes, enter:
# bsdsar -S
To get help, enter:
# bsdsar -h
sa command — print system accounting statistics
sa is another preferred tool under FreeBSD to print system accounting statistics. First, you must turn on system accounting, open /etc/rc.conf file:
# vi /etc/rc.conf
Turn on accounting by entering following code:
accounting_enable="YES"
Save and close the file. Start accounting service
# /etc/rc.d/accounting start
How do I view statistics
To list all command names, including those containing unprintable characters and those used only once, enter:
# sa -a
Sort by the average number of disk I/O operations for each user command, enter:
# sa -d
To print total number of disk I/O operations, enter:
# sa -D
Show last commands executed
Use lastcomm command to display information on previously executed commands:
# lastcomm
Above command will display information about all the commands recorded during the current accounting file’s lifetime. To print the exit time and elapsed time of each command, enter:
# lastcomm -Ee
To print user vivek’s all command, enter:
# lastcomm vivek
Further readings:
- man pages sa, accton, rc.conf,lastcomm
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Why is the default crontab entry set to check only on the 20th and 40th minute of hours between 8 to 18 and only once an hour?
I changed mine to something that gives a more detailed and consistent picture:
*/10 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/bsdsar_gather