Basic Linux Systems Monitoring Tools for System Admininstrators

How important is monitoring tools for our IT infrastructure? The best way to ensure a healthy infrastructure is through systems monitoring tools in order to verify performance and resources, act on alerts as well as planning for future improvements and upgrades. Let’s look at Linux monitoring tools for systems administrators:

MPSTAT

Usage:                  To monitor multiprocessor usage in Linux.

Command:          sudo mpstat

 

TCPDUMP

Usage:                  Tcpdump is a packet analyzer that allows a user to display TCP/IP and other packets being transferred over the network.

 

IOTOP

Usage:                  A python based I/O monitoring tool.

Command:          sudo iotop

 

TOP

Usage:                  Top is a process activity monitor that gives you a real-time view of a running system.

Command:          sudo top

 

HTOP

Usage:                  A similar command to TOP. It is used to view the interactive process.

Command:          sudo htop

 

ATOP

Usage:                  Used to monitor the load(resources) of your Linux system.

 

 

VMSTAT

Usage:                  This command gives you an overview of CPU activity, traps, paging, block I/O, memory, and processes.

Command:          sudo vmstat

 

PS

Usage:                  This command allows you to take a snapshot of the current processes.

Command:          sudo ps

 

PMAP

Usage:                  Monitors the process memory usage on Linux.

Command:          sudo pmap PID

 

NETSTAT

Usage:                  A built-in Linux monitoring and statistics tool used to list network connections, routing tables and network interfaces on the system.

Command:          sudo netstat

 

IPTRAF

Usage:                  Used to gather real-time network statistics on a Linux system.

Command:          sudo iptraf

 

IOSTAT

Usage:                  Helps to monitor the average CPU load and disk activity.

Command:          sudo iostat

 

SAR

Usage:                  Unix based system to check memory, CPU activity, and network.

Command:          sudo mpstat