iostat (''input/output statistics'') is a computer

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tool used to collect and show

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input and output statistics. It is often used to identify performance issues with storage devices, including local disks, or remote disks accessed over network file systems such as NFS. It can also be used to provide information about terminal (TTY) input and output, and also includes some basic CPU information.

Syntax and availability

iostat -x displays output where each line (row) gives numerical data for one device. The first column lists the device name, and subsequent columns show various statistics for that device. Columns include the average service time (''svc_t'', which includes not only the time a request is in the service queue, but also the seek time and transfer time), the average busy percentage (''%b'', essentially the proportion of time that the device is in use), and the percentage of time that the queue is not empty (''%w'', which means the proportion of time in which requests from the device have not yet been fulfilled). It is best to run iostat specifying a time interval in seconds (for example iostat -x 30) in order to see the results over time. This is because otherwise, the output will reflect the values over the entire timespan since the system was last rebooted. The iostat tool is available on most

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and

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operating systems, such as

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(''com.apple.pkg.Core'' package),

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( sysstat package), and Solaris. The syntax and output of iostat often differs slightly between them.

Output of the command

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stated that high values in the ''wait'' and ''svc_t'' fields suggest a lack of overall throughput in the system, indicating that "the system is overloaded with I/O operations". Consistently high values in the ''kr/s'', ''kw/s'', ''%w'' and ''%b'' fields also indicate "a possible I/O bottleneck". In versions of Solaris before Solaris 7, iostat can give misleading information in the ''wait'' field on

multiprocessor Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...

systems. This is because iostat can misinterpret one processor being in a state where it is waiting for I/O, as meaning that all processors in the system are having to wait. It is also advisable to disregard high values in the ''svc_t'' field for disks that have very low rates of activity (less than 5%). This is because the ''fsflush'' process can force up the average service time when synchronising data on disk with what is in memory. iostat does not display information about the individual volumes on each disk if a volume manager is used . The ''vxstat'' command can be used to show this information instead. In contrast, when using Linux LVM as a volume manager, iostat does display volume information individually, because each logical volume has its own device mapper (dm) device.

References

{{Reflist

External links

FreeBSD iostat(8) manual page

Mac OS X iostat manual page
Unix file system-related software System monitors Computer performance System administration

Syntax and availability

Output of the command

See also

References

External links