The iostat command¶

The iostat command in Linux is used for monitoring system input/output statistics for devices and partitions. It monitors system input/output by observing the time the devices are active in relation to their average transfer rates. The iostat produce reports may be used to change the system configuration to raised balance the input/output between the physical disks. iostat is being included in sysstat package. If you don’t have it, you need to install first.

Syntax:¶

[linux] iostat [ -c ] [ -d ] [ -h ] [ -N ] [ -k | -m ] [ -t ] [ -V ] [ -x ] [ -z ] [ [ [ -T ] -g group_name ] { device [...] | ALL } ] [ -p [ device [,...] | ALL ] ] [ interval [ count ] ]

Examples:¶

1. Display a single history-since-boot report for all CPU and Devices: [linux] iostat -d 2

2. Display a continuous device report at two-second intervals: [linux] iostat -d 2 6

3.Display, for all devices, six reports at two-second intervals: [linux] iostat -x sda sdb 2 6

4.Display, for devices sda and sdb, six extended reports at two-second intervals: [linux] iostat -p sda 2 6

Additional Flags and their Functionalities:¶