Performance

See also

• [Disk_Performance_Tuning]

dstat

`dstat` is one of the more valuable tools for monitoring system performance. The output columns can be easily customized for different situations.

The default options are -cdngy. The following are options I commonly use. Many other are described in the manpage.

-c --cpu    system, user, idle, wait, hardware interrupt, software interrupt
-d --disk   disk read, write
-f --full   full listing when using certain options (--cpu, --int, --disk, --net, --swap)
-g --page   page in, out
-i --int    interrupts (see also --full option, --I option, and review /proc/interrupts)
-l --load   load average
-m --mem    memory used, buffers, cache, free
-n --net    network receive, send
-r --io     I/O read, write
-s --swap   swap used, free
-y --sys    system interrupts, context switches
   --vm     vm hard pagefaults, soft pagefaults, allocated, free

`dstat` also has many Python plugins stored in /usr/share/dstat/.

Some statistics require the lm-sensors package. Run `sensors-detect` after installing.

CPU stress and burn

Install the Ubuntu package cpuburn. For each CPU core your system has run one instance of `burnP6` (for Intel P6 processors). Monitor the CPU usage and system load using `htop` or the tool of your choice. Monitor the temperature using `sensors` or some ACPI tool.

burnP6 &
burnP6 &
burnP6 &
burnP6 &
watch -n1 sensors
killall burnP6