3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

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20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

Ravi Saive Last Updated: January 3, 2015 Linux Commands, Monitoring Tools 118 Comments

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It’s really very tough job for every System or Network administrator to monitor and debug Linux System
Performance problems every day. After being a Linux Administrator for 5 years in IT industry, I came to know that
how hard is to monitor and keep systems up and running. For this reason, we’ve compiled the list of Top 20
frequently used command line monitoring tools that might be useful for every Linux/Unix System Administrator.
These commands are available under all avors of Linux and can be useful to monitor and nd the actual causes of
performance problem. This list of commands shown here are very enough for you to pick the one that is suitable for
your monitoring scenario.

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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

1. Top – Linux Process Monitoring

Linux Top command is a performance monitoring program which is used frequently by many system administrators
to monitor Linux performance and it is available under many Linux/Unix like operating systems. The top command
used to dipslay all the running and active real-time processes in ordered list and updates it regularly. It display CPU
usage, Memory usage, Swap Memory, Cache Size, Buffer Size, Process PID, User, Commands and much more. It
also shows high memory and cpu utilization of a running processess. The top command is much userful for system
administrator to monitor and take correct action when required. Let’s see top command in action.

# top

Top Command Example

For more examples of Top command read : 12 TOP Command Examples in Linux

2. VmStat – Virtual Memory Statistics

Linux VmStat command used to display statistics of virtual memory, kernerl threads, disks, system processes, I/O
blocks, interrupts, CPU activity and much more. By default vmstat command is not available under Linux systems
you need to install a package called sysstat that includes a vmstat program. The common usage of command
format is.

# vmstat
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1 0 0 810420 97380 70628 0 0 115 4 89 79 1 6 90 3 0

For more Vmstat examples read : 6 Vmstat Command Examples in Linux

3. Lsof – List Open Files

Lsof command used in many Linux/Unix like system that is used to display list of all the open les and the
processes. The open les included are disk les, network sockets, pipes, devices and processes. One of the main
reason for using this command is when a disk cannot be unmounted and displays the error that les are being used
or opened. With this commmand you can easily identify which les are in use. The most common format for this
command is.

# lsof

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME

init 1 root cwd DIR 104,2 4096 2 /
init 1 root rtd DIR 104,2 4096 2 /
init 1 root txt REG 104,2 38652 17710339 /sbin/init
init 1 root mem REG 104,2 129900 196453 /lib/ld-2.5.so
init 1 root mem REG 104,2 1693812 196454 /lib/libc-2.5.so
init 1 root mem REG 104,2 20668 196479 /lib/libdl-2.5.so
init 1 root mem REG 104,2 245376 196419 /lib/libsepol.so.1
init 1 root mem REG 104,2 93508 196431 /lib/libselinux.so.1
init 1 root 10u FIFO 0,17 953 /dev/initctl

More lsof command usage and examples : 10 lsof Command Examples in Linux

4. Tcpdump – Network Packet Analyzer

Tcpdump one of the most widely used command-line network packet analyzer or packets sniffer program that is
used capture or lter TCP/IP packets that received or transferred on a speci c interface over a network. It also
provides a option to save captured packages in a le for later analysis. tcpdump is almost available in all major
Linux distributions.

# tcpdump -i eth0

tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
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22:09:07.653466 IP tecmint.com.ssh > 115.113.134.3.static-mumbai.vsnl.net.in.28472: P 116:232(

22:08:59.617916 IP 115.113.134.3.static-mumbai.vsnl.net.in.28472 > tecmint.com.ssh: . ack 116

For more tcpdump usage read : 12 Tcpdump Command Examples in Linux

5. Netstat – Network Statistics

Netstat is a command line tool for monitoring incoming and outgoing network packets statistics as well as
interface statistics. It is very useful tool for every system administrator to monitor network performance and
troubleshoot network related problems.

# netstat -a | more

Active Internet connections (servers and established)

Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:sunrpc *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:realm-rusd *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:ftp *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:ipp *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:smtp *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:smtp localhost.localdomain:42709 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:smtp localhost.localdomain:42710 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 *:http *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:https *:* LISTEN

More Netstat examples : 20 Netstat Command Examples in Linux.

6. Htop – Linux Process Monitoring

Htop is a much advanced interactive and real time Linux process monitoring tool. This is much similar to Linux top
command but it has some rich features like user friendly interface to manage process, shortcut keys, vertical and
horizontal view of the processes and much more. Htop is a third party tool and doesn’t included in Linux systems,
you need to install it using YUM package manager tool. For more information on installation read our article below.

# htop

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Htop Command Example Screenshot

For Htop installation read : Install Htop (Linux Process Monitoring) in Linux

7. Iotop – Monitor Linux Disk I/O

Iotop is also much similar to top command and Htop program, but it has accounting function to monitor and
display real time Disk I/O and processes. This tool is much useful for nding the exact process and high used disk
read/writes of the processes.

# iotop

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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

8. Iostat – Input/Output Statistics

IoStat is simple tool that will collect and show system input and output storage device statistics. This tool is often
used to trace storage device performance issues including devices, local disks, remote disks such as NFS.

# iostat

Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5 (tecmint.com) 09/13/2012

avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle

2.60 3.65 1.04 4.29 0.00 88.42

Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn

cciss/c0d0 17.79 545.80 256.52 855159769 401914750
cciss/c0d0p1 0.00 0.00 0.00 5459 3518
cciss/c0d0p2 16.45 533.97 245.18 836631746 384153384
cciss/c0d0p3 0.63 5.58 3.97 8737650 6215544
cciss/c0d0p4 0.00 0.00 0.00 8 0

cciss/c0d0p5 0.63 3.79 5.03 5936778 7882528

cciss/c0d0p6 0.08 2.46 2.34 3847771 3659776

For more Iostat usage and examples visit : 6 Iostat Command Examples in Linux

9. IPTraf – Real Time IP LAN Monitoring

IPTraf is an open source console-based real time network (IP LAN) monitoring utility for Linux. It collects a variety of
information such as IP traf c monitor that passes over the network, including TCP ag information, ICMP details,
TCP/UDP traf c breakdowns, TCP connection packet and byne counts. It also gathers information of general and
detaled interface statistics of TCP, UDP, IP, ICMP, non-IP, IP checksum errors, interface activity etc.

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IP Traf c Monitor

For more information and usage of IPTraf tool, please visit : IPTraf Network Monitoring Tool

10. Psacct or Acct – Monitor User Activity

psacct or acct tools are very useful for monitoring each users activity on the system. Both daemons runs in the
background and keeps a close watch on the overall activity of each user on the system and also what resources are
being consumed by them.

These tools are very useful for system administrators to track each users activity like what they are doing, what
commands they issued, how much resources are used by them, how long they are active on the system etc.

For installation and example usage of commands read the article on Monitor User Activity with psacct or acct

11. Monit – Linux Process and Services Monitoring

Monit is a free open source and web based process supervision utility that automatically monitors and managers
system processes, programs, les, directories, permissions, checksums and lesystems.

It monitors services like Apache, MySQL, Mail, FTP, ProFTP, Nginx, SSH and so on. The system status can be viewed
from the command line or using it own web interface.

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Monit Linux Process Monitoring

Read More : Linux Process Monitoring with Monit

12. NetHogs – Monitor Per Process Network Bandwidth

NetHogs is an open source nice small program (similar to Linux top command) that keeps a tab on each process
network activity on your system. It also keeps a track of real time network traf c bandwidth used by each program
or application.

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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

13. iftop – Network Bandwidth Monitoring

iftop is another terminal-based free open source system monitoring utility that displays a frequently updated list of
network bandwidth utilization (source and destination hosts) that passing through the network interface on your
system. iftop is considered for network usage, what ‘top‘ does for CPU usage. iftop is a ‘top‘ family tool that monitor
a selected interface and displays a current bandwidth usage between two hosts.

iftop – Network Bandwidth Monitoring

Read More : iftop – Monitor Network Bandwidth Utilization

14. Monitorix – System and Network Monitoring

Monitorix is a free lightweight utility that is designed to run and monitor system and network resources as many as
possible in Linux/Unix servers. It has a built in HTTP web server that regularly collects system and network
information and display them in graphs. It Monitors system load average and usage, memory allocation, disk
driver health, system services, network ports, mail statistics (Sendmail, Post x, Dovecot, etc), MySQL statistics
and many more. It designed to monitor overall system performance and helps in detecting failures, bottlenecks,
abnormal activities etc.

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Monitorix Monitoring

Read More : Monitorix a System and Network Monitoring Tool for Linux

15. Arpwatch – Ethernet Activity Monitor

Arpwatch is a kind of program that is designed to monitor Address Resolution (MAC and IP address changes) of
Ethernet network traf c on a Linux network. It continuously keeps watch on Ethernet traf c and produces a log of IP
and MAC address pair changes along with a timestamps on a network. It also has a feature to send an email alerts
to administrator, when a pairing added or changes. It is very useful in detecting ARP spoo ng on a network.

Read More : Arpwatch to Monitor Ethernet Activity

16. Suricata – Network Security Monitoring

Suricata is an high performance open source Network Security and Intrusion Detection and Prevention Monitoring
System for Linux, FreeBSD and Windows.It was designed and owned by a non-pro t foundation OISF (Open
Information Security Foundation).

Read More : Suricata – A Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention System

17. VnStat PHP – Monitoring Network Bandwidth

VnStat PHP a web based frontend application for most popular networking tool called “vnstat“. VnStat PHP
monitors a network traf c usage in nicely graphical mode. It displays a total IN and OUT network traf c usage in
hourly, daily, monthly and full summary report.
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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

18. Nagios – Network/Server Monitoring

Nagios is an leading open source powerful monitoring system that enables network/system administrators to
identify and resolve server related problems before they affect major business processes. With the Nagios system,
administrators can able to monitor remote Linux, Windows, Switches, Routers and Printers on a single window. It
shows critical warnings and indicates if something went wrong in your network/server which indirectly helps you to
begin remediation processes before they occur.

Read More : Install Nagios Monitoring System to Monitor Remote Linux/Windows Hosts

19. Nmon: Monitor Linux Performance

Nmon (stands for Nigel’s performance Monitor) tool, which is used to monitor all Linux resources such as CPU,
Memory, Disk Usage, Network, Top processes, NFS, Kernel and much more. This tool comes in two modes: Online
Mode and Capture Mode.

The Online Mode, is used for real-time monitoring and Capture Mode, is used to store the output in CSV format for
later processing.

Nmon Monitoring

Read More: Install Nmon (Performance Monitoring) Tool in Linux

20. Collectl: All-in-One Performance Monitoring Tool

Collectl is a yet another powerful and feature rich command line based utility, that can be used to gather
information about Linux system resources such as CPU usage, memory, network, inodes, processes, nfs, tcp, sockets
and much more.
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Collectl Monitoring

Read More: Install Collectl (All-in-One Performance Monitoring) Tool in Linux

We would like to know what kind of monitoring programs you use to monitor performance of your Linux servers?
If we’ve missed any important tool that you would like us to include in this list, please inform us via comments and
please don’t forget to share it.

Read Also: 13 Linux Performance Monitoring Tools – Part 2

 Linux Monitoring

 LUKS: Linux Hard Disk Data Encryption with NTFS linux-dash: Monitors “Linux Server Performance”
Support in Linux Remotely Using Web Browser 

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118 thoughts on “20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux

Performance”
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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

Bindas Yar
January 13, 2021 at 12:13 pm

Memorize these for job interviews and pretend to know about them. Once you get hired, just sit back, relax,
and enjoy.

Reply

user214
May 27, 2020 at 1:42 am

I Added this to my browser bookmark bar as cool

Reply

Joel Wangolo
February 26, 2020 at 5:25 pm

I use this “Lsof” command a lot and there is not mentioned here about goaccess. I use it a lot to monitor
Nginx log and other Nginx traf c stats.

Reply

kalyan
December 3, 2019 at 4:41 pm

Hi Team,

I need help with monitoring URL by Nagios tool. Currently, I have installed Nagios 4.4.5.

could you please help me with this.

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3/4/2021 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance

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