How to check CPU load in command line

[Swiss2K]

I've an Ubuntu server running with no desktop. Is there a way to check the CPU load (and maybe also network load) in command line?

If there is no tool in command line, I’m willing to install Xfce. Does Xfce Standard come with a cpu monitor?

Appreciate any help:D

[paul.maddox]

top displays all sorts of CPU/Memory/Process information.

I believe that there is also ntop for monitoring network stuff but I've never used this myself.

free -m will show you stats about RAM usage in MB

uptime will show you the load average for the past 1min, 5mins and 15mins

cat /proc/cpuinfo will give you general information about the CPU(s)

A great program for monitoring network traffic is iptraf which is in the repositories.

[Swiss2K]

Thank you very much!

[lamego]

Installing the sysstat package and using the "sar" command is also a very good option.

[Kurt`]

Installing the sysstat package and using the "sar" command is also a very good option.
I apt-get install'ed sysstat, and sar returns this:

# Cannot open /var/log/sysstat/sa28: No such file or directory

Shouldn't that directory be created when it's installed?

[fdoving]

I use 'htop' and i like it.
It's in universe.

- Frode

[paul.maddox]

htop gets a thumbs up from me, never seen it before but it looks much nicer than top.

[Kurt`]

Wow, htop is really cool!

[bicchi]

I apt-get install'ed sysstat, and sar returns this:

# Cannot open /var/log/sysstat/sa28: No such file or directory

Shouldn't that directory be created when it's installed?
Happened to me also. Just reconfigure the application from the command line and it will work. You can have it start from /etc/init.d and uninstall it when you will not longer use it.

For now just type:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure sysstat

[rastilin]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned vmstat. Type "vmstat #" and you'll get a run down of memory use, disk operations and cpu usage every # seconds. The first line's a running average.

[paul.maddox]

Can you just give a quick explanation of what the various columns represent in vmstat and which ones we should be looking at to determin different performance problems?

[ruedu]

Can you just give a quick explanation of what the various columns represent in vmstat and which ones we should be looking at to determin different performance problems?


type man vmstat

[mobilehavoc]

Nice. htop is great. Just ssh'd into my box, apt-get installed it and ran it...remote monitoring FTW!

[etcpool]

htop is cool!!!! :D ;)

[karsteb]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned vmstat. Type "vmstat #" and you'll get a run down of memory use, disk operations and cpu usage every # seconds. The first line's a running average.

I apt-get install'ed sysstat, and sar returns this:

# Cannot open /var/log/sysstat/sa28: No such file or directory

Shouldn't that directory be created when it's installed?


Sar needs to be enabled before it can be used. I agree that the error message is completely uselsess, but anyways:

Enable sysstat data collection by doing

# dpkg-reconfigure sysstat

or manually by changing value of ENABLED from "false" to "true" in /etc/default/sysstat

Then start sysstat by doing

# /etc/init.d/sysstat start

Check var/log/sysstat/ and you will find the file that were missing.

Run

$ sar

[netlogic]

Also, it is good to understand how to read the /proc
There are plenty of docs on the net explain about the /proc