Linux Performance Analysis using kSar
kSar is a java application that graphically shows recorded files from sar. This enables to show useful diagrams of sar's text-based output.
Starting KSar
The easiest way to start kSar would be to use Java Webstart.
Unfortunately the kSar website has removed the webstart link. That's why we must download the kSar zip file, extract it and start it afterwards. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ksar/files/
java -jar kSar.jar
A GUI windows is opened that enables to load sar files. Here is a screenshot of files that where loaded for demonstration purposes:
The default setting of sar is to record the latest 7 days. This value can be increased up to 1 month. Every day is stored in a single file (e.g. /var/log/sysstat/sar01). This files can be concatenated with "cat". To merge multiple days, please execute the following command:
cat /var/log/sysstat/sar?? > /tmp/sar.all
The resulting file can be directly opened in kSar.