Performance analysis with iostat, sar, Ksar, collectd, and serverstats
Sooner or later, most server administrators realize they need to do some performance analysis. Whether you hope to detect bottlenecks or plan resources, reliable performance data is essential for any well-managed network. Also, historical records showing performance over an extended period makes it easier to forecast and adapt to changes.
The most important part of measuring performance values is that you don't start measuring right away. To begin, you need to consider carefully what information you want to obtain. Here are five suggestions for what is important during a performance analysis:
- Document your observations and results. You must allocate presumptions and conclusions based on your data.
- Set up a baseline of performance for your systems. This baseline is a defined initial state that you can use to qualify measurements.
- Measure the state of the system during the analysis before making a change. All data you collect for a defined system will help.
- Locate the bottlenecks in your system. Which resources limit performance?
- Make realistic assessments regarding which measures improve performance, and restrict yourself to these parts when optimizing.
[...]
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