iostat Command Examples in Linux

The iostat utility generates reports on CPU and device usage. For storage, it provides input and output statistics for block devices and partitions. Using the -d option to specify device information only, the iostat command lists the following statistics for each storage device:

• Transfers (I/O requests) per second (tps).
• Number of blocks read per second (kB_read/s).
• Number of blocks written per second (kB_wrtn/s).
• The total number of blocks read (kB_read).
• The total number of blocks written (kB_wrtn).

You can use this report to monitor how a storage drive is being used and to identify any potential bottlenecks. For example, a faulty drive might have lower reads and/or writes per second than expected. You can also use the report to help you decide how to best distribute I/O load between the available devices.

Syntax

The syntax of the iostat command is:

# iostat [options] [device names]

Displaying storage device usage statistics.

iostat Configuration files

• /proc/stat – It contains system statistics.
• /proc/uptime – It contains system uptime.
• /proc/partitions – It contains disk statistics (for pre 2.5 kernels that have been patched).
• /proc/diskstats – It contains disks statistics (for post 2.5 kernels).
• /sys – It contains statistics for block devices (post 2.5 kernels).
• /proc/self/mountstats – It contains statistics for network filesystems.

iostat Command Examples

1. To get the CPU utilization:

2. To get the device utilization:

# iostat -d
# iostat -d 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations) 

3. To display the human readable NFS IO stats:

# iostat -nh
# iostat -n -h 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

4. To display the stats in kilo bytes instead of bytes/second:

# iostat -k 
# iostat -k 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

5. To display the stats in mega bytes instead of bytes/second:

# iostat -m 
# iostat -m 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

6. To display the registered device mapper names:

# iostat -N 
# iostat -N 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

7. To display the NFS reports:

# iostat -n 
# iostat -n 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

8. To display the stats for block devices and their partitions:

# iostat -p 
# iostat -p 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

9. To get the time for each report displayed:

# iostat -t 
# iostat -t 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

10. To get the version number:

# iostat -V 
# iostat -V 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

11. To display the extended statistics:

# iostat -x
# iostat -x sda
# iostat -x sda 2 5         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)

12. To tell iostat to omit the output:

# iostat -z 
# iostat -z 2 10         (With delay of 2 seconds and 10 iterations)