Master Linux System Monitoring with Sysstat: Installation, Tools & Tips

Sysstat Overview

Sysstat is a convenient Linux package that provides a collection of system resource monitoring utilities for tracking performance and usage. Many everyday tools are derived from the sysstat suite, and it also supports scheduling data collection with cron expressions.

Tools Included in Sysstat

iostat : reports CPU statistics and I/O statistics for all devices.

mpstat : detailed CPU information, per‑processor or grouped.

pidstat : statistics for running processes/tasks, CPU, memory, etc.

sar : collects and reports detailed data on CPU, memory, I/O, network, kernel, and more.

sadc : system activity data collector used by sar.

sa1 : gathers and stores sadc data files.

sa2 : generates daily summary reports for sar.

sadf : formats sar output in various data formats such as CSV or XML.

sysstat : man page for the sysstat tools.

nfsiostat : NFS I/O statistics.

cifsiostat : CIFS (Common Internet File System) statistics.

New Features in Sysstat 11.0.0 (June 2014)

The stable 11.0.0 release adds several enhancements:

pidstat gains the -R option to display scheduling priority information and the -G option to search processes by name and list matching threads.

sar , sadc and sadf can now name data files with the -D option using a saYYYYMMDD pattern, and the data directory can be changed from the default /var/log/sa by setting the SA_DIR variable.

Installing Sysstat on Linux

Most Linux distributions include sysstat in their default repositories, but the packaged version may be outdated. To obtain the latest 11.0.0 release, download the source archive and compile it.

Download URL:

http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/download.html

Example commands:

# wget http://pagesperso-orange.fr/sebastien.godard/sysstat-11.0.0.tar.gz
# tar -xvf sysstat-11.0.0.tar.gz
# cd sysstat-11.0.0

Compilation Method A – iconfig

Run the interactive configuration script for fine‑grained control:

# ./iconfig

Compilation Method B – configure

Use the standard ./configure script; list all options with ./configure --help:

# ./configure --help
# ./configure
# make
# make install

Configuring Sysstat After Installation

By default sysstat installs under /usr/local, placing binaries in /usr/local/bin. If your system already has sysstat, binaries may reside in /usr/bin. Ensure the installation directory is in your $PATH or configure the --prefix option to /usr during compilation.

Updating Sysstat

To upgrade, remove the existing package and reinstall the new version:

# yum remove sysstat        # on RedHat‑based systems
# apt-get remove sysstat   # on Debian‑based systems
# ./configure --prefix=/usr
# make
# make install

Verify the updated version with:

# mpstat -V
sysstat version 11.0.0
(C) Sebastien Godard (sysstat <at> orange.fr)

References

For more detailed information, consult the Sysstat Documentation.