collectl for Makes System Monitoring a Snap

collectl for Makes System Monitoring a Snap

When it comes to collecting system status data, sar is a veritable workhorse. It is not, however, without its limitations. If you're in the market for a utility that also handles NFS, Slab data, and sub-second intervals, consider collectl. ServerWatch offers a rundown of this more cutting-edge tool.

Most Linux system administrators are familiar with sar for collecting system status data. However, there's a few ways that sar shows its age and doesn't quite live up to expectations. If you're looking for a newer utility that also handles NFS, Slab data and sub-second intervals, collectl may better fit the bill.

The collectl utility was written by Mark Seger, and it is dual-licensed under the Artistic License and GNU General Public License (GPL). It's written in Perl and does a bit more than just read from /proc and copy data to the terminal.

Basically, collectl collects system data that reflects the system status/performance. If you're familiar with sar, you'll be right at home with collectl. If you've never used sar or a similar tool, here's a quick example running collectl -s cn:

Read the rest of "collectlfor Makes System Monitoring a Snap" at ServerWatch.