How to Display Disk Utilization Information (iostat) (System Administration Guide, Volume 2)

System Administration Guide, Volume 2

How to Display Disk Utilization Information (`iostat`)

You can display disk activity information by using the iostat command with a time interval.

$ iostat 5
     tty          fd0           sd3          nfs1         nfs31          cpu
tin tout kps tps serv  kps tps serv  kps tps serv  kps tps serv  us sy wt id
  0    1   0   0  410    3   0   29    0   0    9    3   0   47   4  2  0 94

The first line of output shows the statistics since the last boot. Each subsequent line shows the interval statistics. The default is to show statistics for the terminal (tty), disks (fd and sd), and CPU (cpu).

The table below describes the fields in the iostat command output.

Table 36-4 Output From the iostat n Command


For Each ...	Field Name	Description
Terminal
	`tin`	Number of characters in the terminal input queue
	`tout`	Number of characters in the terminal output queue
Disk
	`bps`	Blocks per second
	`tps`	Transactions per second
	`serv`	Average service time, in milliseconds
CPU
	`us`	In user mode
	`sy`	In system mode
	`wt`	Waiting for I/O
	`id`	Idle

Example--Displaying Disk Utilization Information

The following example shows disk statistics gathered every five seconds.

$ iostat 5
tty        sd0           sd6           nfs1         nfs49           cpu
tin tout kps tps serv  kps tps serv  kps tps serv  kps tps serv  us sy wt id
 0    0   1   0   49    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0   15   0  0  0 100
 0   47   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16  44   6  132    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  1 99
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   3   1   23    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  1 99
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100
 0   16   0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0    0   0    0   0  0  0 100