Install and Use collectl Performance Monitoring Tool on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
This tutorial exists for these OS versions
- Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)
- Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)
On this page
Monitoring system resources & performance analysis is an important task of any system administrator. There are many tools available for Linux to monitor system performance including, top, htop, free, etc. Collectl is a free, open source and light-weight performance monitoring tool that can be used to gather information of system resources such as, cpu, disk, memory, network, Infiniband, lustre, memory, nfs, slabs and many more. Unlike other monitoring tools, collectl focus on a small set of statistics. Collectl is capable of monitoring different parameters at the same time and report them in a suitable manner. Collectl comes with a verity of options that help you to identify any kind of system performance issues. Using collectl, you can generate the same output of mpstat, netstat, nfsstat, sar, ps, top and iostat.
Features
- Ability to display the output in many formats.
- Export the data in various file formats.
- Ability to run as a service to monitor remote machines.
- Monitor almost any subsystem.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to install and use Collectl on Ubuntu 18.04 server.
Requirements
- A server running Ubuntu 18.04.
- A root password is setup to your server.
Getting Started
Before starting, you will need to update your system with the latest version. You can do this by running the following command:
apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade -y
Once your server is updated, restart your server to apply the changes.
Install Collectl
By default, Collectl is available in the Ubuntu 18.04 default repository. You can install it by running the following command:
apt-get install collectl -y
Once the installation has been completed, you can run the following command to list all the options available with collectl:
collectl --h
You should see the following output:
This is a subset of the most common switches and even the descriptions are
abbreviated. To see all type 'collectl -x', to get started just type 'collectl'
usage: collectl [switches]
-c, --count count collect this number of samples and exit
-f, --filename file name of directory/file to write to
-i, --interval int collection interval in seconds [default=1]
-o, --options options misc formatting options, --showoptions for all
d|D - include date in output
T - include time in output
z - turn off compression of plot files
-p, --playback file playback results from 'file' (be sure to quote
if wild carded) or the shell might mess it up
-P, --plot generate output in 'plot' format
-s, --subsys subsys specify one or more subsystems [default=cdn]
--verbose display output in verbose format (automatically
selected when brief doesn't make sense)
Various types of help
-h, --help print this text
-v, --version print version
-V, --showdefs print operational defaults
-x, --helpextend extended help, more details descriptions too
-X, --helpall shows all help concatenated together
--showoptions show all the options
--showsubsys show all the subsystems
--showsubopts show all subsystem specific options
--showtopopts show --top options
--showheader show file header that 'would be' generated
--showcolheaders show column headers that 'would be' generated
--showslabaliases for SLUB allocator, show non-root aliases
--showrootslabs same as --showslabaliases but use 'root' names
Copyright 2003-2016 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
collectl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License
or the GNU General Public License, which may be found in the source kit
Working with Collectl
Now, run the collectl without any option will display information on cpu, disk and network stats in a very short and human readable format.
collectl
You should see the following output:
waiting for 1 second sample... #<--------cpu--------><----------disks-----------><----------network----------> #cpu sys inter ctxsw KBRead Reads KBWrit Writes KBIn PktIn KBOut PktOut 17 11 503 320 4 1 20 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 565 165 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 6 3 545 83 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 508 39 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 517 42 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 442 37 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 538 65 0 0 20 2 0 2 0 2 1 1 443 39 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 409 39 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 381 38 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 451 44 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 2 482 42 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 9 2 528 101 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 428 39 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2
You can also list the statistics for all subsystems with the following command:
collectl --all
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample... #<--------cpu--------><-----------------memory-----------------><----------disks-----------><----------network----------><-------tcp--------><------sockets-----><----files---><------nfs totals------=""> #cpu sys inter ctxsw Cpu0 Free Buff Cach Inac Slab Map Fragments KBRead Reads KBWrit Writes KBIn PktIn KBOut PktOut IP Tcp Udp Icmp Tcp Udp Raw Frag Handle Inodes Reads Writes Meta Comm 3 0 459 48 459 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jibaa4a59ab 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 12 7 528 142 530 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 3 1 477 57 477 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 5 2 437 55 435 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 1 0 426 43 426 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 4 1 435 54 435 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44711 0 0 0 0 4 2 471 49 472 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M jhbaa5959ab 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 1088 44712 0 0 0 0
You can also use the collectl command with --top option as shown below:
collectl --top
Output:
# TOP PROCESSES sorted by time (counters are /sec) 14:14:24
# PID User PR PPID THRD S VSZ RSS CP SysT UsrT Pct AccuTime RKB WKB MajF MinF Command
5194 root 20 1233 0 R 66M 27M 0 0.06 0.13 19 00:02.79 0 0 0 0 /usr/bin/perl
8 root 20 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.01 0.00 1 00:01.86 0 0 0 0 rcu_sched
1165 root 20 866 0 S 103M 7M 0 0.01 0.00 1 00:05.00 0 0 0 0 sshd:
3593 root 20 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.01 0.00 1 00:01.45 0 0 0 0 kworker/0:0
1 root 20 0 0 S 76M 9M 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:10.28 0 0 0 0 /sbin/init
2 root 20 0 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.02 0 0 0 0 kthreadd
4 root 0 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 kworker/0:0H
6 root 0 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 mm_percpu_wq
7 root 20 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:02.75 0 0 0 0 ksoftirqd/0
9 root 20 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 rcu_bh
10 root RT 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 migration/0
11 root RT 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.03 0 0 0 0 watchdog/0
12 root 20 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 cpuhp/0
13 root 20 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 kdevtmpfs
14 root 0 2 0 I 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 netns
15 root 20 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 rcu_tasks_kthre
16 root 20 2 0 S 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0 00:00.00 0 0 0 0 kauditd
Monitor CPU, Memory and Disk Usage
You can monitor CPU usage by running the collectl with -sc option:
collectl -sc
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample... #<--------cpu--------> #cpu sys inter ctxsw 1 1 461 35 2 2 631 71 11 0 472 109 1 1 552 48 1 1 457 39 0 0 566 46 5 3 572 101 0 0 543 38 1 1 445 40 1 1 591 43 1 1 441 36 0 0 565 51
You can also see detail information of CPU usage with the following command:
collectl -sC
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample...
# SINGLE CPU STATISTICS
# Cpu User Nice Sys Wait IRQ Soft Steal Guest NiceG Idle
0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 94
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 98
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 98
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 98
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 97
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 96
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 98
To monitor memory usage of your system, run the following command:
collectl -sm
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample... #<-----------memory-----------> #Free Buff Cach Inac Slab Map 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M 139M 63M 573M 413M 93M 136M
Monitor memory usage with detail information with the following command:
collectl -sM
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample...
# MEMORY STATISTICS
# Node Total Used Free Slab Mapped Anon AnonH Locked Inact HitPct
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866844K 142800K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
0 985M 866968K 142676K 95928K 46160K 93416K 0 5408K 423952K 100.00
You can monitor disk usage with the following command:
collectl -sd
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample...
#<----------disks----------->
#KBRead Reads KBWrit Writes
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 8 0
0 0 0 2
Monitor disk usage with detail information with the following command:
collectl -sD
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample... # DISK STATISTICS (/sec) # <---------reads---------------><---------writes--------------><--------averages--------> Pct #Name KBytes Merged IOs Size Wait KBytes Merged IOs Size Wait RWSize QLen Wait SvcTim Util sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 20 1 1 20 0 20 0 0 0 0 sda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Monitor CPU, Memory and Disk at a Time
You can monitor CPU, Memory and Disk usage by running the single command:
collectl -scmd
Output:
waiting for 1 second sample... #<--------cpu--------><-----------memory-----------><----------disks-----------> #cpu sys inter ctxsw Free Buff Cach Inac Slab Map KBRead Reads KBWrit Writes 1 0 518 43 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 7 2 509 104 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 20 1 3 1 518 52 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 1 1 445 43 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 2 1 482 51 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 1 1 535 56 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 3 1 499 48 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 0 0 2 1 482 53 140M 63M 573M 413M 93M 135M 0 0 20 2
Conclusion
In the above article, I have provided a brief overview of collectl. Collectl comes with a lot of options that make it easy to monitor your Linux system.
