Monitoring basic system performance

We need to keep an eye out on global system values. The ones that are particularly of interest are the following:

• kernel.all.pswitch

• kernel.all.nprocs

• kernel.all.load

How to do it…

I'll show you a way to display both text-based and graphical output. Here are the steps:

1. Display live data for the metrics with a 1-second interval for the guest.example.com host by executing the following command:

   ~]# pmdumptext -H -t 1 -i -l kernel.all.pswitch kernel.all.nprocs kernel.all.load -h guest.example.com
   

   

2. Create a configuration file for pmchart to display live data called system.conf with the following contents:

   #kmchart
   version 1
   
   chart style plot antialiasing off
           
   plot color #ffff00 metric kernel.all.pswitch
   chart style plot antialiasing off
           plot color #ffff00 metric kernel.all.nprocs
   chart style plot antialiasing off
           plot color #ffff00 metric kernel.all.load instance "1 minute"
           plot color #ff924a metric kernel.all.load instance ...