8. Record historical values for use with the pcp-dstat tool
pcp-dstat is a general performance analysis tool to view multiple system resources instantly, for example - we can compare disk usage in combination with interrupts from a disk controller, or compare the network bandwidth numbers directly with the disk throughput (in the same interval).
It also cleverly gives the most detailed information in columns and clearly indicates in what magnitude and unit the output is being displayed. Less confusion, fewer mistakes, more efficient.
The latest generation of Dstat, pcp-dstat, allows for analysis of historical performance data (in the PCP archive format created by *pmlogger*(1)), as well as distributed systems analysis of live performance data from remote hosts running the *pmcd*(1) process).
To list all available plugin names:
pcp dstat --list
To relate disk-throughput with network-usage (eth0), total CPU-usage and system counters:
$ pcp dstat -dnyc -N eth0 -C total -f 5
To report 10 samples from metrics recorded in a PCP archive 20180729 from 2:30 AM:
$ pcp --origin '@02:30' -a 20180729 dstat --time --cpu-adv --sys 1 10
We can also examine the same metrics live from a remote host:
$ pcp --host www.acme.com dstat --time --cpu-adv --sys 1 10