20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know

Need to monitor Linux server performance? Try these built-in command and a few add-on tools. Most Linux distributions are equipped with tons of monitoring. These tools provide metrics which can be used to get information about system activities. You can use these tools to find the possible causes of a performance problem. The commands discussed below are some of the most basic commands when it comes to system analysis and debugging server issues such as:

1. Finding out bottlenecks.
2. Disk (storage) bottlenecks.
3. CPU and memory bottlenecks.
4. Network bottlenecks.

#1: top - Process Activity Command

#2: vmstat - System Activity, Hardware and System Information

#3: w - Find Out Who Is Logged on And What They Are Doing

 #4: uptime - Tell How Long The System Has Been Running

#5: ps - Displays The Processes

#6: free - Memory Usage

#7: iostat - Average CPU Load, Disk Activity

#8: sar - Collect and Report System Activity

#9: mpstat - Multiprocessor Usage

#10: pmap - Process Memory Usage#11 and #12: netstat and ss - Network Statistics

#13: iptraf - Real-time Network Statistic#14: tcpdump - Detailed Network Traffic Analysis

#15: strace - System Calls

#16: /Proc file system - Various Kernel Statistics

17#: Nagios - Server And Network Monitoring

18#: Cacti - Web-based Monitoring Tool

#19: KDE System Guard - Real-time Systems Reporting and Graphing

#20: Gnome System Monitor - Real-time Systems Reporting and Graphing