SAR(1) User Commands SAR(1)

NAME

sar - system activity reporter

SYNOPSIS

sar [-aAbcdgkmpqruvwy] [-o filename] t [n]


sar [-aAbcdgkmpqruvwy] [-e time] [-f filename] [-i sec]
[-s time]

DESCRIPTION

In the first instance, the sar utility samples cumulative activity
counters in the operating system at n intervals of t seconds, where t
should be 5 or greater. If t is specified with more than one option,
all headers are printed together and the output can be difficult to
read. (If the sampling interval is less than 5, the activity of sar
itself can affect the sample.) If the -o option is specified, it
saves the samples in filename in binary format. The default value of
n is 1.


In the second instance, no sampling interval is specified. sar
extracts data from a previously recorded filename, either the one
specified by the -f option or, by default, the standard system
activity daily data file /var/adm/sa/sadd for the current day dd. The
starting and ending times of the report can be bounded using the -e
and -s arguments with time specified in the form hh[:mm[:ss]]. The
-i option selects records at sec second intervals. Otherwise, all
intervals found in the data file are reported.

OPTIONS

The following options modify the subsets of information reported by
sar.

-a
Reports use of file access system routines: iget/s,
namei/s, dirblk/s


-A
Reports all data. Equivalent to -abcdgkmpqruvwy.


-b
Reports buffer activity:

bread/s, bwrit/s
transfers per second of data
between system buffers and disk or
other block devices.


lread/s, lwrit/s
accesses of system buffers.


%rcache, %wcache
cache hit ratios, that is,
(1-bread/lread) as a percentage.


pread/s, pwrit/s
transfers using raw (physical)
device mechanism.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-c
Reports system calls:

scall/s

system calls of all types.


sread/s, swrit/s, fork/s, exec/s

specific system calls.


rchar/s, wchar/s

characters transferred by read and write system
calls. No incoming or outgoing exec(2) and fork(2)
calls are reported.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-d
Reports activity for each block device (for example,
disk or tape drive) with the exception of XDC disks
and tape drives. When data is displayed, the device
specification dsk- is generally used to represent a
disk drive. The device specification used to
represent a tape drive is machine dependent. The
activity data reported is:

%busy, avque
portion of time device was
busy servicing a transfer
request, average number of
requests outstanding during
that time.


read/s, write/s, blks/s
number of read/write
transfers from or to
device, number of bytes
transferred in 512-byte
units.


avwait
average wait time in
milliseconds.


avserv
average service time in
milliseconds.

For more general system statistics, use iostat(8),
sar(8), or vmstat(8).

See System Administration Guide: Advanced
Administration for naming conventions for disks.


-e time
Selects data up to time. Default is 18:00.


-f filename
Uses filename as the data source for sar. Default is
the current daily data file /var/adm/sa/sadd.


-g
Reports paging activities:

pgout/s
page-out requests per second.


ppgout/s
pages paged-out per second.


pgfree/s
pages per second placed on the free list
by the page stealing daemon.


pgscan/s
pages per second scanned by the page
stealing daemon.


%ufs_ipf
the percentage of UFS inodes taken off the
freelist by iget which had reusable pages
associated with them. These pages are
flushed and cannot be reclaimed by
processes. Thus, this is the percentage of
igets with page flushes.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-i sec
Selects data at intervals as close as possible to sec
seconds.


-k
Reports kernel memory allocation (KMA) activities:

sml_mem, alloc, fail
information about the memory
pool reserving and allocating
space for small requests: the
amount of memory in bytes KMA
has for the small pool, the
number of bytes allocated to
satisfy requests for small
amounts of memory, and the
number of requests for small
amounts of memory that were
not satisfied (failed).


lg_mem, alloc, fail
information for the large
memory pool (analogous to the
information for the small
memory pool).


ovsz_alloc, fail
the amount of memory allocated
for oversize requests and the
number of oversize requests
which could not be satisfied
(because oversized memory is
allocated dynamically, there
is not a pool).


-m
Reports message and semaphore activities:

msg/s, sema/s
primitives per second.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-o filename
Saves samples in file, filename, in binary format.


-p
Reports paging activities:

atch/s
page faults per second that are satisfied
by reclaiming a page currently in memory
(attaches per second).


pgin/s
page-in requests per second.


ppgin/s
pages paged-in per second.


pflt/s
page faults from protection errors per
second (illegal access to page) or "copy-
on-writes".


vflt/s
address translation page faults per second
(valid page not in memory).


slock/s
faults per second caused by software lock
requests requiring physical I/O.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-q
Reports average queue length while occupied, and
percent of time occupied:

runq-sz, %runocc
Run queue of kernel threads in
memory and runnable


swpq-sz, %swpocc
Swap queue of processes


-r
Reports unused memory pages and disk blocks:

freemem
average pages available to user processes.


freeswap
disk blocks available for page swapping.


-s time
Selects data later than time in the form hh[:mm].
Default is 08:00.


-u
Reports CPU utilization (the default):

%usr, %sys, %wio, %idle
portion of time running in
user mode, running in
system mode, idle with some
process waiting for block
I/O, and otherwise idle.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-v
Reports status of process, i-node, file tables:

proc-sz, inod-sz, file-sz, lock-sz

entries/size for each table, evaluated once at
sampling point.


ov

overflows that occur between sampling points for
each table.


-w
Reports system swapping and switching activity:

swpin/s, swpot/s, bswin/s, bswot/s

number of transfers and number of 512-byte units
transferred for swapins and swapouts (including
initial loading of some programs).


pswch/s

process switches.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.


-y
Reports TTY device activity:

rawch/s, canch/s, outch/s
input character rate,
input character rate
processed by canon,
output character rate.


rcvin/s, xmtin/s, mdmin/s
receive, transmit and
modem interrupt rates.

If run in a non-global zone and the pools facility is
active, these values reflect activity on the
processors of the processor set of the pool to which
the zone is bound.

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Viewing System Activity

The following example displays today's CPU activity so far:


example% sar

Example 2: Watching System Activity Evolve

To watch CPU activity evolve for 10 minutes and save data:


example% sar -o temp 60 10

Example 3: Reviewing Disk and Tape Activity

To later review disk and tape activity from that period:


example% sar -d -f temp

FILES

/var/adm/sa/sadd
daily data file, where dd are digits representing
the day of the month

SEE ALSO

exec(2), fork(2), attributes(7), iostat(8), sar(8), vmstat(8)


System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration

NOTES

The sum of CPU utilization might vary slightly from 100 because of
rounding errors in the production of a percentage figure.

May 13, 2017 SAR(1)