Master dstat: Real-Time Linux System Monitoring Made Easy

About dstat

dstat is a multifunctional tool that can replace vmstat, iostat, netstat, and ifstat, overcoming their limitations and adding more monitoring items, making it more flexible for system status monitoring, benchmarking, and troubleshooting.

dstat lets you see all system resources in real time, such as comparing disk utilization via IDE controller statistics or comparing disk throughput via network bandwidth values.

dstat presents options in a list format with clear units and scales, reducing information clutter and false alarms, and it is easy to write plugins to collect custom data.

The default output is designed for real‑time viewing, but you can export detailed information as CSV for analysis in Gnumeric or Excel.

Features

Combines vmstat, iostat, ifstat, netstat and more.

Real‑time statistics display.

Sortable monitoring items for analysis and troubleshooting.

Modular design.

Written in Python, easy to extend.

Easy to add custom counters.

Many extension plugins demonstrate simple addition of new metrics.

Group statistics for block/network devices with totals.

Show current status of each device.

Accurate timing even under high load.

Precise units and limited conversion error.

Color‑coded unit display.

Intermediate results delay less than 1 second.

CSV report output, importable into Gnumeric or Excel for charting.

Installation

Ubuntu/Mint/Debian: # sudo apt-get install dstat RHEL/CentOS/Fedora: # yum install dstat Arch Linux:

# pacman -S dstat

Usage

Basic command: dstat Typical default output includes CPU, disk, network, paging, and system statistics. Press CTRL‑C to exit. The first line may show no values because dstat uses the previous report for averages.

Run with two parameters to set interval and count, e.g.: dstat 3 10 Common options (see man dstat):

-l : show load statistics

-m : show memory usage (used, buffer, cache, free)

-r : show I/O statistics

-s : show swap usage

-t : display current time on the first line

--fs : show filesystem statistics (total files, inodes)

--nocolor : disable color output

--socket : show socket statistics

--tcp : show common TCP statistics

--udp : show listening UDP interfaces and usage

dstat also ships with plugins that extend functionality. They reside in /usr/share/dstat. Examples:

--disk-util : show disk utilization

--freespace : show current disk free space

--proc-count : show number of running processes

--top-bio : highlight process with highest block I/O

--top-cpu : graphical display of top CPU‑consuming process

--top-io : show process with highest I/O

--top-mem : show process using most memory

Example to list memory consumers: dstat -g -l -m -s --top-mem Example to display CPU resource consumption data:

dstat -c -y -l --proc-count --top-cpu

Exporting CSV

To output a CSV file for later analysis:

# dstat --output /tmp/sampleoutput.csv -cdn