Use Glances on Linux

Use Glances on Linux

Table of Contents

• 1. why use glances
• 2. install
  • 2.1. install on ubuntu
  • 2.2. install on Centos
  • 2.3. watch version
• 3. statistical indicators
  • 3.1. cpu
    • 3.1.1. indicators
    • 3.1.2. warning
    • 3.1.3. switch
  • 3.2. load
    • 3.2.1. definition
    • 3.2.2. warning
  • 3.3. mem
  • 3.4. swap
  • 3.5. network
  • 3.6. disk
  • 3.7. file system
  • 3.8. process
    • 3.8.1. indicators
    • 3.8.2. switch
• 4. export
  • 4.1. to csv file
• 5. referer

1 why use glances

It cannot replace long-term monitoring system. But it's a useful tool to help us find the most important information ASAP.

2 install

2.1 install on ubuntu

sudo apt-get install glances

2.2 install on Centos

yum install glances

if the vesion of glances installed by yum is too low, you could use this way to install newest.

curl -L http://bit.ly/glances | /bin/bash

2.3 watch version

glances --version
Glances v2.3 with psutil v2.2.1

3 statistical indicators

3.1 cpu

3.1.1 indicators

Table 1: cpu indicators

indicator	description
user
system
idle
nice
irq
iowait
steal

3.1.2 warning

If user|system CPU is <50%, then status is set to "OK"
If user|system CPU is >50%, then status is set to "CAREFUL"
If user|system CPU is >70%, then status is set to "WARNING"
If user|system CPU is >90%, then status is set to "CRITICAL"

3.1.3 switch

To switch to per-CPU stats, just hit the 1 key

3.2 load

3.2.1 definition

On the No Sheep blog, Zachary Tirrell defines the load average:"In short it is the average sum of the number of processes waiting in the run-queue plus the number currently executing over 1, 5, and 15 minutes time periods."

3.2.2 warning

Glances gets the number of CPU core to adapt the alerts. Alerts on load average are only set on 15 minutes time period. The first line 
also displays the number of CPU core.
If load average is <0.7*core, then status is set to "OK"
If load average is >0.7*core, then status is set to "CAREFUL"
If load average is >1*core, then status is set to "WARNING"
If load average is >5*core, then status is set to "CRITICAL"

Note: limit values can be overwritten in the configuration file under the [load] section.

3.3 mem

3.4 swap

3.5 network

3.6 disk

3.7 file system

3.8 process

3.8.1 indicators

CPU%
    % of CPU used by the process If IRIX mode is off (aka Solaris mode), the value is divided by logical core number
MEM%
    % of MEM used by the process
VIRT
    Total program size - Virtual Memory Size (VMS)
RES
    Resident Set Size (RSS)
PID
    Process ID
USER
    User ID
NI
    Nice level of the process (niceness other than 0 is highlighted)
S
    Process status (running process is highlighted)
TIME+
    Cumulative CPU time used
IOR/s
    Per process I/O read rate (in Byte/s)
IOW/s
    Per process I/O write rate (in Byte/s)
COMMAND
    Process command line User cans switch to the process name by pressing on the / key

3.8.2 switch

1. a key
   

   By default, or if you hit the a key, the processes list is automatically sorted by:
   
       CPU if there is no alert (default behavior)
       CPU if a CPU or LOAD alert is detected
       MEM if a memory alert is detected
       Disk I/O if a CPU iowait alert is detected
   

2. enter
   

   hit enter key, then fill in process filter pattern, e.g. fill in nginx, only nginx process is shown

4 export

4.1 to csv file

use argument –export-csv

glances --export-csv a.csv

5 referer

official documentation

Author: Dean Chen

Created: 2016-02-02 二 10:37

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