SAR(8,C) AIX Commands Reference SAR(8,C) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sar PURPOSE Collects, reports, or saves system activity information. SYNTAX +- -u ----------+ +-----------+ +--- 1 ----+ sar ---| +- -A ------+ |---| |-- interval --| |---| +-| +-------+ |-+ +- -o file -+ +- number -+ +-| -a -u |-+ ^| -b -v || || -c -w || || -m -y || || -q -r || |+-------+| +---------+ +- -u -------------+ +--- -s08:00 ----+ +----------+ sar ---| +- -A ---------+ |---| one of |---| |---> +-| +----------+ |-+ | +------------+ | +- -i sec -+ +-| -a -m -w |-+ +-| -shh |-+ ^| -b -q -y || | -shh:mm | || -c -u -r || | -shh:mm:ss | || -v || +------------+ |+----------+| +------------+ +--- -e18:00 ----+ +- -f/usr/adm/sa/sadd -+ >---| one of |---| |---| | +------------+ | +------ -f file -------+ +-| -shh |-+ | -shh:mm | | -shh:mm:ss | +------------+ DESCRIPTION The first format of the sar command writes to standard output the contents of selected cumulative activity counters in the operating system. It writes information a total of number times spaced interval seconds apart. The default value of number is 1. You can also save the collected data in the file specified by -o file. In the second format (with no sampling interval specified), sar extracts and writes to standard output records previously saved in a file. This file can be Processed November 8, 1990 SAR(8,C) 1 SAR(8,C) AIX Commands Reference SAR(8,C) either the one specified by the -f flag or, by default, the standard system activity daily data file, /usr/adm/sa/sadd, for the current day, dd. You can select information about specific system activities with flags. Not specifying any flags selects only cpu activity. Specifying the -A flag selects all activities. Note: This command only reports on local activities. FLAGS -a Reports use of file access system routines: iget/s Calls per second to the inode look-up routine. namei/s Calls per second to the directory search routine. dirblk/s Directory blocks read per second by namei(). -A Report all data. -b Reports buffer activity for transfers, accesses, and cache hit ratios: lread/s, lwrit/s Number of logical read/write requests per interval. bread/s, bwrit/s Number of block read/write operations per interval. %rcache, %wcache Cache hit ratios (for example, 1 - bread/lread). pread/s, pwrit/s Read/writes per interval on seekable raw devices. -c Reports system calls: scall/s Total number of system calls per second. rchar/s, wchar/s Characters transferred per interval by read/write calls. sread/s, swrit/s fork/s, exec/s Specific system calls per second. -e hh[:mm[:ss]] Sets the ending time of the report. The default ending time is 18:00. -f file Extracts records from file (created by -o file). The default file is the current daily data file, /usr/adm/sa/sadd. -i seconds Selects data records at intervals as close as possible to the specified number of seconds. Otherwise, sar reports all intervals found in the data file. Processed November 8, 1990 SAR(8,C) 2 SAR(8,C) AIX Commands Reference SAR(8,C) -m Reports message and semaphore activities: msg/s IPC message primitives per second. sema/s IPC semaphore primitives per second. -o file Saves the readings in file in binary form. Each reading is in a separate record and each record contains a tag identifying the time of the reading. -q Reports average queue length while occupied, and percentage of time occupied: runq-sz, %runocc Runs queue of processes in memory and able to be run. -r Reports paging statistics: freeman average pages available to user processes freeswap disk blocks available for process swapping fault/s address translation page faults. -s hh[:mm[:ss]] Sets the starting time of the data. That is, extract records time-tagged at or following the time specified. The default starting time is 08:00. -u Reports CPU activity (this flag is on by default): %usr Percentage of CPU time devoted to the user. %sys Percentage of CPU time devoted to the kernel. %wio Percentage of CPU time waiting for block I/O to complete. %idle Percentage of CPU time idle. -v Reports status of process, inode, and file tables: proc-sz, inod-sz, file-sz Entries in use at each sample point for each table. proc-ov, inod-ov, file-ov Overflows occurring at each sample point for each table. -w Reports system switching activity: pswch/s Process switches per second. -y Reports TTY device activity: rawch/s TTY raw input queue characters per second. Processed November 8, 1990 SAR(8,C) 3 SAR(8,C) AIX Commands Reference SAR(8,C) canch/s TTY canonical input queue characters per second. outch/s TTY output queue characters per second. revin/s TTY receive interrupts per second. xmtin/s TTY transmit interrupts per second. mdmin/s TTY modem interrupts per second. FILES /usr/adm/sa/sadd Daily data file, where dd are numbers representing the day of the month. RELATED INFORMATION See the following command: "sag." See the discussion of monitoring system activity in Managing the AIX Operating System. Processed November 8, 1990 SAR(8,C) 4