Linux performance analysis in 60 seconds

When a critical performance issue arises on a Linux server, there is often little time to analyze the problem in detail. Brendan Gregg, computer performance analyst and kernel engineer, describes in a blog posting and in a video, which Linux commands he uses for the performance analysis in the first 60 seconds.

Commands for performance analysis

The following commands are recommended by Brendan Gregg:

uptime
dmesg | tail
vmstat 1
mpstat -P ALL 1
pidstat 1
iostat -xz 1
free -m
sar -n DEV 1
sar -n TCP,ETCP 1
top

More information on these commands can be found in the following articles:

• vmstat: Linux Performance Measurements using vmstat
• mpstat: Linux CPU performance measurements with mpstat
• iostat: Linux I/O Performance measurements with iostat
• free: Linux Page Cache Basics
• sar: Collect and report Linux System Activity Information with sar
• top: Linux-tool top

Video

In this video, Brendan Gregg shows how to execute these commands in 60 seconds:

References

Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.

Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.