Chapter 4. Monitoring Server Performance

In this chapter, we will cover the following:

• Monitoring CPU usage
• Monitoring paging and swapping
• Tracking CPU consuming processes
• Monitoring CPU load
• Identifying CPU bottlenecks
• Identifying disk I/O bottlenecks
• Monitoring system load
• Tracking historical CPU usage
• Tracking historical memory usage
• Monitoring disk space
• Monitoring network status

Introduction

In order to be able to solve performance problems we should be able to effectively use operating system utilities. We should be able to use the right operating system tools and commands in order to identify performance problems that may be due to CPU, memory, or disk I/O issues. Many times a DBA's duties often overlap with certain system administration-related functions and it is important for a DBA to be effective in using the related operating system utilities in order to correctly identify where the underlying issue on the server could be. In this chapter, we are going to discuss various Unix/Linux related operating system utilities that can help the DBA in performance analysis and troubleshooting issues.