Editing Sar

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<code>[[Wikipedia: sar (Unix)|sar]]</code> (System Activity Report) is a system utility command used to collect and report different metrics such us [[system load]], CPU activity, [[memory]] (<code>[[sar -r]]</code>), paging (<code>sar -B</code>), swap (<code>sar -S</code>), disk ([[sar -d]]), device load and network. It is extremely useful in analyzing current and recent recorded [[system performance]]. Most Linux distributions provide sar utility binary in the <code>sysstat</code> package. You will also find sar in Solaris, AIX, HP-UX but not in MacOs or FreeBSD.

== Installation ==
One line command for installation and basic configuration for collecting :
* Debian/Ubuntu: 
:: <code>[[apt]] -y install [[sysstat]]; [[sed -i]] 's/ENABLED="false"/ENABLED="true"/g' [[/etc/default/sysstat]] && service sysstat restart && sar</code>
::Optionally modify collection interval in: <code>[[/etc/cron.d/sysstat]]</code>
::Optionally modify collection options in (SADC_OPTIONS="-S XALL"): <code>[[/etc/sysstat/sysstat]]</code> (<code>man sadc</code>)
* [[Red Hat]]/[[Fedora]]/Oracle Linux/AWS AMI: 
:: <code>yum -y install sysstat && service sysstat start</code> 


Installing sar Debian, you have to install sysstat package that includes sar and some other performance tools: 
* <code>[[apt]] -y install sysstat</code>
* Checking installation: <code>[[dpkg]] -l sysstat</code>
* Binaries installed in ''/usr/bin/'' directory: <code>dpkg -L sysstat | grep "/usr/bin"</code>. Sysstat package contains sar and some other utilities.
* [[Installing sysstat using Ansible]] 

== Binaries ==
*<code>/usr/bin/[[sadc]]</code> - System Activity Data Collector, a backend to the sar command. Writes binary log of kernel data to the <code>/var/log/sa/saXX</code> file, where the XX parameter indicates the current day
*<code>/usr/bin/sadf</code> - System Activity Data Formatter.        Display data collected by sar in multiple formats.
*<code>/usr/bin/sar.sysstat</code> -- (sar is a symbolink link to this binary)

*<code>/usr/bin/cifsiostat</code>
*<code>/usr/bin/[[iostat]]</code>
*<code>/usr/bin/[[mpstat]]</code>
*<code>/usr/bin/pidstat</code>
*<code>/usr/bin/tapestat</code>

== Configuration files ==
* [[Debian]]/[[Ubuntu]]:
:<code>[[/etc/default/sysstat]]</code>
:<code>[[/etc/cron.d/sysstat]]</code>     (Collection interval defined in cron configuration)
:<code>[[/etc/sysstat/sysstat]]</code>   ([[SADC]]_OPTIONS)
:<code>/etc/sysstat/sysstat.ioconf</code>
::Data directory: <code>[[/var/log/sysstat/]]</code>

* [[RHEL]]
:<code>cat [[/etc/sysconfig/sysstat]]</code>
:<code>cat [[/etc/cron.d/sysstat]]</code>

== Activation in Debian ==
* To start collection data modify file <code>/etc/default/sysstat</code>, changing text <code>disabled</code> by <code>enabled</code>: <code>vi /etc/default/sysstat</code>
* <code>service sysstat restart</code> (sysstat written with two "ss" do not misspell with systat with just one "s")

Modifying number of days to keep and some other options are done in <code>/etc/sysstat/sysstat</code> file. By default Debian collect files for <code>HISTORY=7</code> 7 days.

== Configuration in Debian/Ubuntu ==
=== Main Configuration file: /etc/sysstat/sysstat ===
<code>/etc/sysstat/sysstat</code> Everything configured in this file, including data collection (sadc) options, except collection interval configured in crontab: <code>/etc/cron.d/sysstat</code>
<pre>
/etc/sysstat/sysstat
HISTORY=7
COMPRESSAFTER=10
SADC_OPTIONS="-S XALL"
SA_DIR=/var/log/sysstat
ZIP="bzip2"
</pre>

By default configuration SADC_OPTIONs is configure to <code>SADC_OPTIONS="-S DISK"</code> you can change SADC_OPTIONS default option to collect all data:
<code> SADC_OPTIONS from ''-S DISK'' to ''-S XALL''</code>. See <code>man sadc</code> for more options: { DISK | INT | IPV6 | POWER | SNMP | XDISK | ALL | XALL [,...] }.

=== Collection interval configuration  ===
To change for every 10 minutes to every 2 minutes or every minute, modify [[cron]] job in file: <code>/etc/cron.d/sysstat</code>

 5-55/10 * * * * root command -v [[debian-sa1]] > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1

 Every minute
 * * * * * root command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1

 Every 5 minutes
 */5 * * * * root command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1

 Every 2 minutes
 */2 * * * * root command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1

== Usage ==
System activity collection is provided by 4 programs, two binaries <code>sar</code>,<code>sadc</code>  and two shell scripts<code>sa1</code><code>sa2</code>.

Binaries
* <code>/usr/bin/sar</code> -- reporting utility --  it is a link to /usr/bin/sar.sysstat
* <code>/usr/lib64/sa/sadc</code>  -- System activity data collector binary, a backend to the sar command. Writes binary log of kernel data to the /var/log/sa/sadd file, where the dd parameter indicates the current day

[[Shell]] scripts
* <code>/usr/lib64/sa/[[sa1]]</code> or <code>[[/usr/lib/sysstat/sa1]]</code >Collect and store binary data
* <code>/usr/lib64/sa/[[sa2]]</code> Create a report


* <code>[[sar --help]]</code>

== Basic Usage ==
* Displays collected system activity, execute <code>sar</code>, you will have to wait some time, depending on your configuration, for getting collected information: 
:<code>[[sar (example)|sar]]</code>
:<code>[[sar -A]]</code> Report all collected date

'''[[Memory]]'''
:<code>[[sar -r]]</code>

'''[[Swap]]'''
:<code>[[sar -S]]</code>
:<code>[[sar -W]]</code>

'''Disk, [[filesystems]]'''
:<code>[[sar -d]]</code> To report disk activity. See also <code>[[iostat]] -x</code>.
:<code>[[sar -F]]</code> To report filesystems statistics, disk and [[inodes]] usage. Requires sadc option in <code>/etc/sysstat/sysstat</code> <code>-S XDISK</code> or <code>-S XALL</code> activated.
'''[[Network]]'''
:<code>[[sar -n ALL]]</code> To show '''network''' data collected
'''power management'''
:<code>sar -m ALL</code> To show [[power management]] data collected including [[cpu temperature]] (Requires <code>[[sensors]]/[[lm-sensors]]</code> utility to be installed)
'''[[Process]]'''
:<code>[[sar -q]]</code>

'''[[Interrupts]]'''
:<code>[[sar -I]] ALL</code>


* <code>[[systemctl status sysstat]]</code>
* <code>systemctl restart sysstat</code>

== Activities ==
# Install and configure sar to record system activity every 5 minutes
# Read [[sysstat changelog]]: https://github.com/sysstat/sysstat/blob/master/CHANGES
# Read data from day 07 to day 11: <code>echo sa{07..11}  | [[xargs]] -n1 sar -f</code>


== Related==
* <code>[[collectl]]</code>
* [[Prometheus Node exporter]]
* [[Metricbeat]]
* [[Zabbix agent]]
* [[libsensors4]] package
* <code>[[for]] SA_FILE in $(ls -1 /var/log/sysstat/sa??); do sar -f $SA_FILE; done</code>

== See also ==
* {{top}}
* {{io performance commands}}
* {{sar}}
* [[isag]] - [[wikipedia:tcl]] based command to plot sar/sysstat data
* sargraph https://github.com/sysstat/sysstat/blob/master/contrib/sargraph/sargraph2
* systat [[FreeBSD]]<ref>https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=systat&apropos=0&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+11.2&arch=default&format=html</ref> or NetBSD commands.
* [[Telegraph]] https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1.12/introduction/getting-started/
* {{Metrics collectors}}

[[Category:Server administration]]
[[Category:Operating systems]]
[[Category:Linux]]
[[Category:monitoring]]


{{CC license}}
Original source: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Linux_server_administration/sar