Advantages
The command
atop has some major advantages compared
to other performance-monitors:
- Resource consumption by all processes
It shows the resource-consumption by all processes
that were active during the interval, so also the resource-consumption
by those processes that have finished during the interval —
see example.
- Utilization of all relevant resources
Obviously it shows system-level counters concerning cpu-, memory- and
swap-utilization, however it also shows disk I/O and network
utilization counters on system-level —
see example.
- Permanent logging of resource utilization
It is able to store raw counter-data in a file (compressed) for
long-term analysis on system- and process-level. By default the daily
logfiles are preserved for 28 days —
see example.
System activity reports can be generated from a logfile by
using the command atopsar as shown by
this example.
- Highlight critical resources
It is able to highlight resources that have (almost) reached a
critical load by using colors for system statistics —
see example.
- Watch activity only
By default, it only shows system-resources and processes that were
really active during the last interval (output related to resources or
processes that were completely passive during the interval is by
default suppressed) —
see example.
- Watch deviations only
For the active system resources and processes, only the load
during the last interval is shown (not the accumulated utilization
since boot or process startup) —
see example.
- Accumulated process activity per user
For each interval it is able to accumulate the resource
consumption for all processes per user.
- Accumulated process activity per program
For each interval it is able to accumulate the resource
consumption for all processes with the same name.
- Disk and network activity per process
In combination with optional kernel patches it shows
process-level counters concerning
disk I/O and
network activity.
So
atop is not just 'another' full-screen monitor;
there are some major
differences.