sar (Unix)

<h2 id="platform-support">Platform support</h2>
<p>Sar was originally developed for the Unix System V operating system; it is available in AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and other System V based operating systems but it is not available for macOS or FreeBSD. Prior to 2013 there was a bsdsar tool, but it is now deprecated.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p><p>Most <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> distributions provide sar utility through the sysstat package.
</p>
<h2 id="syntax">Syntax</h2>
sar [-flags] [ -e time ] [ -f filename ] [-i sec ] [ -s time ]

-f
filename Uses filename as the data source for sar. The default is the current daily data file /var/adm/sa/sadd.
-e
time Selects data up to time. The default is 18:00.
-i
sec Selects data at intervals as close as possible to sec seconds.
<h2 id="example">Example</h2>
[user@localhost]$ sar  # Displays current CPU activity.

<h2 id="sysstat-package">Sysstat package</h2>
<p>Additional to sar command, Linux <a href="/facts/Sysstat/xPtgJIqD">sysstat</a> package in Debian,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> RedHat Enterprise Linux and SuSE provides additional reporting tools:
</p>
<ul><li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/sar">sar(1)</a>: Collect, report, or save system activity information. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/8/sa1">sa1(8)</a>: Collect and store binary data in the system activity daily data file. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> Administration and Privileged Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/8/sa2">sa2(8)</a>: shell variant of sar, supporting the same flags as sar command which write a daily report in the /var/log/sa directory. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> Administration and Privileged Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/man_sadf.html">sadf(1)</a>: , similar to sar but can write its data in  different formats (CSV, XML, etc.). This is useful to load performance data into a database, or import them in a spreadsheet to make graphs.</li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/iostat">iostat(1)</a>: <a href="/facts/Iostat/Lpg4ETYt">reports basic CPU statistics and input/output statistics for devices, partitions and network filesystems.</a> – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/mpstat">mpstat(1)</a>: reports individual or combined processor related statistics. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/pidstat">pidstat(1)</a>: reports statistics for Linux tasks (processes) : I/O, CPU, memory, etc. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/nfsiostat">nfsiostat(1)</a>: reports input/output statistics for network filesystems (NFS). – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/cifsiostat">cifsiostat(1)</a>: reports I/O statistics for <a href="/facts/CIFS/pWM35pl8">CIFS</a> resources. – <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a> User Commands <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li>atopsar</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Nmon/WdSujmoH">Nmon</a></li>
<li>sag - "system activity graph" command<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li>
<li>ksar-  BSD licensed Java-based application to create graph of all parameters from the data collected by Unix sar utilities.</li>
<li>CURT, <a href="/facts/IBM_AIX/cRWERua2">IBM AIX</a> CPU Usage Reporting Tool</li>
<li>isag, tcl based command to plot sar/sysstat data</li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88353_01/html/E37839/sar-1.html">sar(1)</a> – <a href="/facts/Solaris_(operating_system)/KPfT98EJ">Solaris 11.4</a> User Commands Reference <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">Manual</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-unix-perfmonsar.html">Easy system monitoring with SAR (IBM developerWorks)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.softpanorama.org/Admin/Monitoring/sar.shtml">System Activity Reporter (Softpanorama)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.computerhope.com/unix/usar.htm">Article on sar at Computerhope</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes</h2>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"SYSSTAT". sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr. <a href="http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/man_sar.html" target="_blank">http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/man_sar.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"FreshPorts -- sysutils/bsdsar: System Activity Reporter for FreeBSD". www.freshports.org. <a href="https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/bsdsar" target="_blank">https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/bsdsar</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Debian -- Details of package sysstat in sid". packages.debian.org. <a href="https://packages.debian.org/sid/sysstat" target="_blank">https://packages.debian.org/sid/sysstat</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"sag(1)" (PDF). SUNOS Reference Manual. Mountain View, California: Sun Microsystems. 1993-02-24. pp. 1–895. Retrieved 2010-05-04. sag - system activity graph [...] DESCRIPTION sag graphically displays the system activity data stored in a binary data file by a previous sar(1) run. <a href="https://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/solaris2.5-docs/40.3/802-1930-01.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/solaris2.5-docs/40.3/802-1930-01.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

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sar (Unix)