Using Nmon to monitor Linux system performance

Nmon (named Nigel's Monitor) is a computer performance system monitoring tool developed by IBM employees Nigel Griffiths for AIX and Linux systems. Nmon can display the operating system statistics on the screen or stored in a data file to help understand the use of computer resources, adjust direction and system bottlenecks. This system benchmark tool only needs to use one command to get a lot of important performance data. With Nmon, you can easily monitor the system's CPU, memory, network, hard disk, file system, NFS, high-consumption processes, resources, and differential areas of the IBM Power system.

Nmon Installation

The Nmon default is in the Ubuntu repository. You can install Nmon by using the following command:

sudo apt-get install Nmon

How to use Nmon to monitor Linux performance

After the installation is complete, start the Nmon by entering the Nmon command in the terminal

Nmon

You will see the following output:

Nmon-output

From the above you can see that the Nmon command-line tool is fully interactive, and you can use shortcut keys to easily view the corresponding statistics. You can use the following Nmon shortcut keys to display different system statistics:

• Q: Stop and exit Nmon

• H: View Help

• C: View CPU statistics

• M: View Memory statistics

• D: View hard disk Stats

• K: View kernel statistics

• N: Viewing network statistics

• N: Viewing NFS statistics

• J: View File system statistics

• T: View the high consumption process

• V: View virtual Memory statistics

• V: Verbose mode

Verifying CPU Processors

If you want to collect statistical data about CPU performance, you should press the C key on your keyboard and you will see the following output:

Nmon_cpu_output

verification of high-consumption process statistics

If you want to collect statistics on the high-consumption processes that the system is running, press the T key on the keyboard, and then you will see the following output:

Nmon_process_output

Verification of network statistical data

If you want to collect network statistics for your Linux system, press the N key and you will see the following output:

N_network_output

hard disk I/O chart

Using the D key to get information about the hard disk, you will see the following output:

Nmon_disk_output

Verifying kernel information

Nmon A very important shortcut key is the K key, which is used to display the system kernel-related profile information. After you press the K key, you see the following output:

Nmon_kernel_output

Get System Information

A very useful shortcut key for each system administrator is the R key, which can be used to display information about different resources, such as the system structure of the computer, the operating system version number, and the CPU. When you press the R key, you see the following output:

Nmon_system_output

Summary

There are many other tools that do the same job as Nmon, but Nmon is friendly to a new Linux novice.

Using Nmon to monitor Linux system performance