SYSMETER(1) SYSMETER(1)
NAME
sysmeter - display system performance values
SYNOPSIS
sysmeter [ -s samp ] [ -a avg ] [ -h name ] [ -d win ] [ -g ht ] [ -x
x-cord ] [ -y y-cord ] [ -r row ] [ -m ] [ -i bk,cbg,avg,txt,chg ] [ -v
value value ... ]
DESCRIPTION
sysmeter opens a window and displays various system performance values
collected from either local machine, or any remote machine that
implements the rstat version 3 protocol. When sysmeter starts, it makes
a connection to the rstatd(1M) daemon on the target machine and
periodically collects data from the daemon.
Various performance data can be selected for display. Each selected
performance value will be displayed within one sub-window in either of
the two styles: bar chart or strip chart. In both formats, the y-axis
represents the value collected. In the strip chart, the x-axis
represents the time.
The default option is to collect CPU usage data on local machine for
every 2 seconds with window width equals to 120 seconds. The options can
be set either from command line or by clicking the left or right mouse
button.
The average of performance values, if selected, are displayed as shaded
areas in the strip chart format while in the bar chart format, the values
are displayed in the rear bars.
When resizing the window, sysmeter always re-adjusts the window size for
the best possible shape to fit all the selected values in order to
prevent the distortion of the graphics. If the width of the window is
wide enough, sysmeter will display the hostname, sample time, averaging
time and display window width in the window title.
OPTIONS
-s samp Sets the sample time to samp seconds.
-a avg Sets the averaging time to avg seconds. If this option is not
supplied, sysmeter will not display the averaging value.
-h name Selects the host specified by name as the target machine for
performance data collection.
-d win Sets the window width to win seconds. This number divided by
the sample time is equivalent to the number of samples appears
in one sub-window. This option is meaningful only with the
strip chart format.
Page 1
SYSMETER(1) SYSMETER(1)
-g ht Sets the sub-window height to ht pixels. The default height is
50 pixels.
-x x-cord Sets the X coordinate of the left lower corner of the window to
x-cord. Since sysmeter always re-adjust window size and
location on a bad re-locating or resizing, a large x coordinate
close to the left end of screen will automatically be reduced
as needed.
-y y-cord Sets the y coordinate of the left lower corner of the window to
y-cord. If both X and Y coordinates are provided, sysmeter
will automatically open a window without user intervention.
-r row Sets the number of rows of sub-windows to be row. The default
is two columns.
-m selects the bar chart format instead of the default strip chart
format.
-i bk,cbg,avg,txt,chg
These values specify the five colors used by the displays,
separated by commas. The values are the color map indices of
the background, chart background, averaged area, text and
change-parameters colors. The defaults are 15, 12, 1, 4, and
10, respectively.
-v value Selects performance values to be displayed:
all display all of the following values
cpu percent of CPU being utilized
page paging activity in pages per second
swap jobs swapped per second
intr number of device interrupts per second
disk disk traffic in transfers per second
cntxt number of context switches per second
load average of number of runnable jobs over the last
minute times 1024
pkts total of input and output network packets per second
inpkts input network packets per second
outpkts output network packets per second
colls collisions per second detected on the network
errs errors per second when receiving packets
When sysmeter is running, you can move the mouse cursor into the window,
press and hold the right button to get the pop-up menu. This menu has
the options: cpu, page, swap, intr, disk, cntxt, load, pkts, inpkts,
outpkts, colls, errs, display-average, change-param, style, and exit.
The entries corresponding to each performance values specified in -v
option are toggle switches. If you move the cursor to any one of those
entries and releases the right button, sysmeter will toggle between
displaying or removing the sub-window. If no parameters are specified
when sysmeter is started, it will display the: cpu usage by default.
Page 2
SYSMETER(1) SYSMETER(1)
The display-average and style selections are also toggle switches.
When change-parameter entry is selected, a parameter changing panel will
appear in the left lower corner of the window and the display activity is
frozen although sysmeter is still collecting data packets internally. If
the window is too narrow, only a partial view of the panel will show up.
You can fix this problem by reshaping the window.
Inside the panel, there is a parameter selection location marked with
three curly arrows. Moving the cursor to this area and click the left
button, the panel will switch among the three changeable parameters:
sample interval, averaging period, and window width.
After moving the cursor to the up-pointed triangle under the ruler,
pressing, holding and moving the left button along the ruler will change
the selected parameter to the number indicated in the small window above
the ruler. The ruler is exponentially increased to maximum of 7200
seconds (2 hours).
Once the change is made, moving the cursor to the location marked with ok
and pressing the left button will update the values.
EXAMPLE
The following command will automatically display the local system
performance data on the top of the screen.
sysmeter -x 50 -y 900 -g 50 -v all -a 120 -d 300 -s 5 -r 1
SEE ALSO
rstatd(1M), rpcinfo(1)
BUGS
The maximum number allowed to be displayed on the y-axis of a sub-window
is 8192. If a value exceeds this limit, the display will be truncated to
8192.
Page 3