California seeks to ban free, single-use carryout bags in retail

Full story: Chain Store Age

ROME, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The G7 industrial powers, fearing a 1930s-style resurgence of protectionism, ended crisis talks in Rome on Saturday with a pledge to do all they could to combat recession without distorting free trade.

Aware of their limits, they also adopted a more conciliatory tone towards China, a non-member regarded as vital to success at an April G20 summit in London where both rich and developing economies hope to produce visible progress on promises to make the global financial system safer and more accountable.

"We are confronted with a broader and deeper slowdown than has been experienced in decades," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"We will work closely with our colleagues in the G7 and the G20 to build consensus on reforms that match the scope fo the problem revealed by this crisis."

On the day in Rome, it was mostly renewed pledges from the gathered finance ministers and central bankers, amid mounting tension over the impact economic stimulus plans and state bailouts of industry could have on each other.

Geithner, making his G7 debut in the job, publicly rowed back on comments that Beijing was manipulating its exchange rate to its advantage in export markets and sought to soothe concerns over Washington's own anti-crisis plans.

CNN traveled to "shark alley" off the coast of South Africa, one of the best places in the world to see great whites.

 

 Shark tourism has become big business, bringing in more than $30 million every year to South Africa.

The experience is a major draw for tourists, but it's controversial. Local surfers and swimmers say it is changing shark behavior and may be causing more attacks.

Anderson Cooper swam with these great white sharks -- without a cage -- as part of his report for "Planet in Peril: Battle Lines," airing Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.

He talked about the experience Thursday morning with "American Morning" anchors John Roberts and Kiran Chetry.

Anderson Cooper: We went diving with great white sharks. There is a big controversy over whether or not these cage tour operators are actually changing sharks' behavior. They chum the water to attract the sharks, tourists get in the water, and so we had the opportunity to go cage diving and also to go free diving with the sharks, which is a pretty rare thing. There's not many people on the planet who actually do it, probably for very smart reasons.

You'll see that tonight on "Planet in Peril." Actually, swimming with great white sharks without a cage, which is among the most remarkable experiences of my life, I've got to say. Anderson dives with great whites »

Kiran Chetry: What do they call that, a free dive with sharks?

Cooper: Yeah, we went free diving with the sharks. The water is chummed with blood, so it's bloody water, and I was just about to get in, and I turned to the guy and said, "Do you have any recommendations?'" And he said, "Project confidence." See how great white sharks are lured to the surface »

Chetry: There you go. Thanks.

John Roberts: He also told you not to breathe, right, because they don't like the noise of the bubbles?

Cooper: Right, they don't like air bubbles.

Roberts: So, meantime you're down there hyperventilating.

Cooper: It's all well and good to say "OK, don't take a breath," but your heart is beating so fast when a huge great white shark is close to you, that you can't hold your breath. So I was actually breathing more and causing more air bubbles. And the sharks open up their mouths and extend their jaws when they're nervous, and that makes me very nervous.

Roberts: You're reminded of when Roy Scheider [in the movie "Jaws"] said, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

Cooper: For me, I think it was, "I need to get back in the boat."

Starbucks Corp. said it will offer limited free Wi-Fi service at its stores beginning this spring.

Under the Seattle coffee giant's (NASDAQ: SBUX) plan, customers with a Starbucks card can use up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day. And AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) broadband customers will have unlimited free Wi-Fi access.

After two hours, non-AT&T customers can purchase additional Wi-Fi access for $3.99 for an additional two hours, or monthly memberships will cost $19.99.

Starbucks said it will phase in its new Wi-Fi plan "on a market-by-market basis with store implementation beginning this spring and completed by the end of the year."

A look at bMighty's free online calculator.

Also From bMighty:

SasS and Cloud Computing At Small Firms

PaaS For Growing Companies

Cost-cutting may reduce your bottom line, but it can also cripple your information-technology infrastructure. That's why, when making smart decisions about where to invest (and save) your IT dollars, it's critical to calculate the "total cost of ownership." Bmighty aims to help, with its Total Cost of Ownership Calculator, provided courtesy of Info-Tech Research Group.

This free Excel-based calculator accurately estimates your IT costs at the strategic and daily operational levels. It can account for both direct and indirect costs, including hardware, software, systems management, support and services.
The calculator can also be adapted to include costs unique to your business. And the graphically represented results make the analysis easy to grasp and act on.

Check out the free TCO calculator here. And for more help getting a handle on everything from hardware and networking to executing and securing transactions in cyberspace, check out the The Small-Biz Tech Starter Kit.

Service Providers

The following text messaging service providers are supported.

Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel) (from: 11, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Message is sent to number@chat.wirefree.ca

Alltel (from: 50, msg: 116, total: 116)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@message.alltel.com.

Ameritech (ACSWireless) (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@paging.acswireless.com

Arch Wireless (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.arch.com/message/ (assumes blank PIN)

AT&T (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@txt.att.net

AU by KDDI (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Enter your phone number. Goes to username@ezweb.ne.jp

BeeLine GSM (from: 50, msg: 255, total: 255)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.beemail.ru

Bell Mobility Canada (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number, including the 1 prefix. Goes to number@txt.bellmobility.ca

Bellsouth (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@bellsouth.cl

BellSouth Mobility (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blsdcs.net

Blue Sky Frog (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blueskyfrog.com

Boost (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@myboostmobile.com

Cellular South (from: 50, msg: 155, total: 155)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@csouth1.com

CellularOne (Dobson) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mobile.celloneusa.com

CellularOne West (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mycellone.com

Centennial Wireless (from: 10, msg: 110, total: 110)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.centennialwireless.com

Cincinnati Bell (from: 20, msg: 50, total: 50)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@gocbw.com

Claro (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@clarotorpedo.com.br

Comviq (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.comviq.se

Dutchtone/Orange-NL (from: 15, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.orange.nl

Edge Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.edgewireless.com

EinsteinPCS / Airadigm Communications (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@einsteinsms.com

EPlus (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 480)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@smsmail.eplus.de.

Estonia Mobile Telefon (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via webform.

Fido Canada (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@fido.ca.

Golden Telecom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number or nickname. Messages are sent to number@sms.goldentele.com

Idea Cellular (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@ideacellular.net

Kyivstar (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.kyivstar.net

LMT (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your username. Goes to username@sms.lmt.lv

Manitoba Telecom Systems (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to @text.mtsmobility.com

Meteor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.mymeteor.ie

Metro PCS (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mymetropcs.com

Metrocall Pager (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@page.metrocall.com

MobileOne (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@m1.com.sg

Mobilfone (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@page.mobilfone.com

Mobility Bermuda (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@ml.bm

MTS Primtel (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.

Netcom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.netcom.no

Nextel (from: 50, msg: 126, total: 126)
10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@messaging.nextel.com. Note: do not use dashes in your phone number.

NPI Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@npiwireless.com.

NTC (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.

O2 (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter O2 username - must be enabled first at http://www.o2.co.uk. Goes to username@o2.co.uk.

O2 M-mail (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter phone number, omitting initial zero - must be enabled first by sending an SMS saying "ON" to phone number "212". Goes to +44[number]@mmail.co.uk.

Optus (from: 20, msg: 114, total: 114)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @optusmobile.com.au

Orange (UK) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @orange.net. You will need to create a user account at orange.net first.

Oskar (from: 20, msg: 320, total: 320)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @mujoskar.cz

Other (from: 15, msg: 100, total: 100)
If your provider isn't supported directly, enter the email address that sends you a text message in phone number field. To be safe, the entire message is sent in the body of the message, and the length limit is really short. We'd prefer you give us information about your provider so we can support it directly.

Pagenet (from: 20, msg: 220, total: 240)
10-digit phone number (or gateway and pager number separated by a period). Goes to number@pagenet.net.

PCS Rogers (from: 20, msg: 125, total: 125)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@pcs.rogers.com. Requires prior registration with PCS Rogers.

Personal Communication (Sonet) (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to sms@pcom.ru with your number in the subject line.

Plus GSM Poland (from: 20, msg: 620, total: 620)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@text.plusgsm.pl.

Powertel (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@ptel.net

Primtel (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.primtel.ru

PSC Wireless (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.pscel.com

Qualcomm (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your username. Goes to username@pager.qualcomm.com

Qwest (from: 14, msg: 100, total: 100)
10-digit phone number. Goes to @qwestmp.com

Safaricom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @safaricomsms.com

Satelindo GSM (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @satelindogsm.com

SCS-900 (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @scs-900.ru

Simple Freedom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @text.simplefreedom.net

Skytel - Alphanumeric (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)
Enter your 7-digit pin number as your number and your message will be mailed to pin@skytel.com

Smart Telecom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @mysmart.mymobile.ph

Smarts GSM (from: 11, msg: 70, total: 70)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.samara-gsm.ru/scripts/smsgate.exe

Southern Linc (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @page.southernlinc.com

Sprint PCS (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @messaging.sprintpcs.com

Sprint PCS - Short Mail (from: 15, msg: 1000, total: 1000)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @sprintpcs.com

SunCom (from: 18, msg: 110, total: 110)
Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@tms.suncom.com.

SureWest Communications (from: 20, msg: 200, total: 200)
Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@mobile.surewest.com

SwissCom Mobile (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@bluewin.ch

T-Mobile Germany (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@T-D1-SMS.de

T-Mobile Netherlands (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Send "EMAIL ON" to 555 from your phone, then enter your number starting with 316. Email will be sent to number@gin.nl

T-Mobile UK (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Messages are sent to number@t-mobile.uk.net

T-Mobile USA (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Messages are sent to number@tmomail.net

T-Mobile USA (Sidekick) (from: 30, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Messages are sent to username@tmail.com

Tele2 Latvia (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.tele2.lv.

Telefonica Movistar (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@movistar.net

Telenor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mobilpost.no.

Telia Denmark (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
8-digit phone number. Goes to number@gsm1800.telia.dk.

Telus Mobility (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@msg.telus.com.

The Phone House (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.phonehouse.de.

TIM (from: 30, msg: 350, total: 350)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@timnet.com.

UMC (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)
Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.umc.com.ua

Unicel (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)
Sent by addressing the message to number@utext.com

US Cellular (from: , msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter a 10 digit USCC Phone Number. Messages are sent to number@email.uscc.net

Verizon Wireless (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Messages are sent via email to number@vtext.com.

Verizon Wireless (formerly Airtouch) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@airtouchpaging.com. This is ONLY for former AirTouch customers. Verizon Wireless customers should use Verizon Wireless instead.

Verizon Wireless (myairmail.com) (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent via to number@myairmail.com.

Vessotel (from: 20, msg: 800, total: 800)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to roumer@pager.irkutsk.ru.

Virgin Mobile Canada (from: 20, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobile.ca.

Virgin Mobile USA (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobl.com.

Vodafone Italy (from: 20, msg: 132, total: 132)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.vodafone.it

Vodafone Japan (Chuugoku/Western) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@n.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Hokkaido) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@d.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Hokuriko/Central North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@r.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kansai/West -- including Osaka) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@k.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kanto/Koushin/East -- including Tokyo) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@t.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kyuushu/Okinawa) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@q.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Shikoku) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@s.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Touhoku/Niigata/North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@h.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Toukai/Central) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@c.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Spain (from: 20, msg: 90, total: 90)
Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.es

Vodafone UK (from: 20, msg: 70, total: 90)
Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.net

Voicestream (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Message is sent via the email gateway, since they changed their web gateway and we have not gotten it working with the new one yet.

Weblink Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @airmessage.net

WellCom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @sms.welcome2well.com

WyndTell (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 500)
Enter username/phone number. Goes to @wyndtell.com

 

Red Hat Linux comes with a variety of resource monitoring tools. While there are more than those listed here, these tools are representative in terms of functionality. The tools are:

• free

• top (and GNOME System Monitor, a more graphically oriented version of top)

• vmstat

• The Sysstat suite of resource monitoring tools

Let us look at each one in more detail.

1. free

The free command displays system memory utilization. Here is an example of its output:

total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 255508 240268 15240 0 7592 86188 -/+ buffers/cache: 146488 109020 Swap: 530136 26268 503868

The Mem: row displays physical memory utilization, while the Swap: row displays the utilization of the system swap space, and the -/+ buffers/cache: row displays the amount of physical memory currently devoted to system buffers.

Since free by default only displays memory utilization information once, it is only useful for very short-term monitoring, or quickly determining if a memory-related problem is currently in progress. Although free has the ability to repetitively display memory utilization figures via its -s option, the output scrolls, making it difficult to easily see changes in memory utilization.

Tip

A better solution than using free -s would be to run free using the watch command. For example, to display memory utilization every two seconds (the default display interval), use this command: watch free The watch command issues the free command every two seconds, after first clearing the screen. This makes it much easier to see how memory utilization changes over time, as it is not necessary to scan continually scrolling output. You can control the delay between updates by using the -n option, and can cause any changes between updates to be highlighted by using the -d option, as in the following command: watch -n 1 -d free For more information, refer to the watch man page. The watch command runs until interrupted with [Ctrl]-[C]. The watch command is something to keep in mind; it can come in handy in many situations.

2. top

While free displays only memory-related information, the top command does a little bit of everything. CPU utilization, process statistics, memory utilization — top does it all. In addition, unlike the free command, top's default behavior is to run continuously; there is no need to use the watch command. Here is a sample display:

11:13am up 1 day, 31 min, 5 users, load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.07 89 processes: 85 sleeping, 3 running, 1 zombie, 0 stopped CPU states: 0.5% user, 0.7% system, 0.0% nice, 98.6% idle Mem: 255508K av, 241204K used, 14304K free, 0K shrd, 16604K buff Swap: 530136K av, 56964K used, 473172K free 64724K cached PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND 8532 ed 16 0 1156 1156 912 R 0.5 0.4 0:11 top 1520 ed 15 0 4084 3524 2752 S 0.3 1.3 0:00 gnome-terminal 1481 ed 15 0 3716 3280 2736 R 0.1 1.2 0:01 gnome-terminal 1560 ed 15 0 11216 10M 4256 S 0.1 4.2 0:18 emacs 1 root 15 0 472 432 416 S 0.0 0.1 0:04 init 2 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd 3 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kapmd 4 root 34 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0 5 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd 6 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 bdflush 7 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kupdated 8 root 25 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 mdrecoveryd 12 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald 91 root 16 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 khubd 185 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald 186 root 15 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kjournald 576 root 15 0 712 632 612 S 0.0 0.2 0:00 dhcpcd

The display is divided into two sections. The top section contains information related to overall system status — uptime, load average, process counts, CPU status, and utilization statistics for both memory and swap space. The lower section displays process-level statistics, the exact nature of which can be controlled while top is running.

	Warning
	Although top looks like a simple display-only program, this is not the case. top uses single character commands to perform various operations; if you are logged in as root, it is possible to change the priority and even kill any process on your system. Therefore, until you have reviewed top's help screen (type [?] to display it), it is safest to only type [q] (which exits top).

2.1. The GNOME System Monitor — A Graphical top

If you are more comfortable with graphical user interfaces, the GNOME System Monitor may be more to your liking. Like top, the GNOME System Monitor displays information related to overall system status, process counts, memory and swap utilization, and process-level statistics.

However, the GNOME System Monitor goes a step further by also including graphical representations of CPU, memory, and swap utilization, along with a tabular disk space utilization listing. Here is an example of the GNOME System Monitor's Process Listing display:

Figure 2-1. The GNOME System Monitor Process Listing Display

Additional information can be displayed for a specific process by first clicking on the desired process and then clicking on the More Info button.

To view the CPU, memory, and disk usage statistics, click on the System Monitor tab.

3. vmstat

For a more concise view of system performance, try vmstat. Using this resource monitor, it is possible to get an overview of process, memory, swap, I/O, system, and CPU activity in one line of numbers:

procs memory swap io system cpu r b w swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id 1 0 0 0 524684 155252 338068 0 0 1 6 111 114 10 3 87

The process-related fields are:

• r — The number of runnable processes waiting for access to the CPU

• b — The number of processes in an uninterruptible sleep state

• w — The number of processes swapped out, but runnable

The memory-related fields are:

• swpd — The amount of virtual memory used

• free — The amount of free memory

• buff — The amount of memory used for buffers

• cache — The amount of memory used as page cache

The swap-related fields are:

• si — The amount of memory swapped in from disk

• so — The amount of memory swapped out to disk

The I/O-related fields are:

• bi — Blocks sent to a block device

• bo— Blocks received from a block device

The system-related fields are:

• in — The number of interrupts per second

• cs — The number of context switches per second

The CPU-related fields are:

• us — The percentage of the time the CPU ran user-level code

• sy — The percentage of the time the CPU ran system-level code

• id — The percentage of the time the CPU was idle

When vmstat is run without any options, only one line is displayed. This line contains averages, calculated from the time the system was last booted.

However, most system administrators do not rely on the data in this line, as the time over which it was collected varies. Instead, most administrators take advantage of vmstat's ability to repetitively display resource utilization data at set intervals. For example, the command vmstat 1 displays one new line of utilization data every second, while the command vmstat 1 10 displays one new line per second, but only for the next ten seconds.

In the hands of an experienced administrator, vmstat can be used to quickly determine resource utilization and performance issues. But to gain more insight into those issues, a different kind of tool is required — a tool capable of more in-depth data collection and analysis.

4. The Sysstat Suite of Resource Monitoring Tools

While the previous tools may be helpful for gaining more insight into system performance over very short time frames, they are of little use beyond providing a snapshot of system resource utilization. In addition, there are aspects of system performance that cannot be easily monitored using such simplistic tools.

Therefore, a more sophisticated tool is necessary. Sysstat is such a tool.

Sysstat contains the following tools related to collecting I/O and CPU statistics:

iostat

Displays an overview of CPU utilization, along with I/O statistics for one or more disk drives.

mpstat

Displays more in-depth CPU statistics.

Sysstat also contains tools that collect system resource utilization data and create daily reports based on that data. These tools are:

sadc

Known as the system activity data collector, sadc collects system resource utilization information and writes it to a file.

sar

Producing reports from the files created by sadc, sar reports can be generated interactively or written to a file for more intensive analysis.

The following sections explore each of these tools in more detail.

4.1. The iostat command

The iostat command at its most basic provides an overview of CPU and disk I/O statistics:

Linux 2.4.18-18.8.0 (pigdog.example.com) 12/11/2002 avg-cpu: %user %nice %sys %idle 6.11 2.56 2.15 89.18 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn dev3-0 1.68 15.69 22.42 31175836 44543290

Below the first line (which displays the system's kernel version and hostname, along with the current date), iostat displays an overview of the system's average CPU utilization since the last reboot. The CPU utilization report includes the following percentages:

• Percentage of time spent in user mode (running applications, etc.)

• Percentage of time spent in user mode (for processes that have altered their scheduling priority using nice(2))

• Percentage of time spent in kernel mode

• Percentage of time spent idle

Below the CPU utilization report is the device utilization report. This report contains one line for each active disk device on the system and includes the following information:

• The device specification, displayed as dev<major-number>-sequence-number, where <major-number> is the device's major number[1], and <sequence-number> is a sequence number starting at zero.

• The number of transfers (or I/O operations) per second.

• The number of 512-byte blocks read per second.

• The number of 512-byte blocks written per second.

• The total number of 512-byte blocks read.

• The total number of 512-byte block written.

This is just a sample of the information that can be obtained using iostat. For more information, see the iostat(1) man page.

4.2. The mpstat command

The mpstat command at first appears no different from the CPU utilization report produced by iostat:

Linux 2.4.18-14smp (pigdog.example.com) 12/11/2002 07:09:26 PM CPU %user %nice %system %idle intr/s 07:09:26 PM all 6.40 5.84 3.29 84.47 542.47

With the exception of an additional column showing the interrupts per second being handled by the CPU, there is no real difference. However, the situation changes if mpstat's -P ALL option is used:

Linux 2.4.18-14smp (pigdog.example.com) 12/11/2002 07:13:03 PM CPU %user %nice %system %idle intr/s 07:13:03 PM all 6.40 5.84 3.29 84.47 542.47 07:13:03 PM 0 6.36 5.80 3.29 84.54 542.47 07:13:03 PM 1 6.43 5.87 3.29 84.40 542.47

On multiprocessor systems, mpstat allows the utilization for each CPU to be viewed individually, making it possible to determine how effectively each CPU is being used.

4.3. The sadc command

As stated earlier, the sadc command collects system utilization data and writes it to a file for later analysis. By default, the data is written to files in the /var/log/sa/ directory. The files are named sa<dd>, where <dd> is the current day's two-digit date.

sadc is normally run by the sa1 script. This script is periodically invoked by cron via the file sysstat, which is located in /etc/crond.d. The sa1 script invokes sadc for a single one-second measuring interval. By default, cron runs sa1 every 10 minutes, adding the data collected during each interval to the current /var/log/sa/sa<dd> file.

4.4. The sar command

The sar command produces system utilization reports based on the data collected by sadc. As configured in Red Hat Linux, sar is automatically run to process the files automatically collected by sadc. The report files are written to /var/log/sa/ and are named sar<dd>, where <dd> is the two-digit representations of the previous day's two-digit date.

sar is normally run by the sa2 script. This script is periodically invoked by cron via the file sysstat, which is located in /etc/crond.d. By default, cron runs sa2 once a day at 23:53, allowing it to produce a report for the entire day's data.

4.4.1. Reading sar Reports

The format of a sar report produced by the default Red Hat Linux configuration consists of multiple sections, with each section containing a specific type of data, ordered by the time of day that the data was collected. Since sadc is configured to perform a one-second measurement interval every ten minutes, the default sar reports contain data in ten-minute increments, from 00:00 to 23:50[2].

Each section of the report starts with a heading that illustrates the data contained in the section. The heading is repeated at regular intervals throughout the section, making it easier to interpret the data while paging through the report. Each section ends with a line containing the average of the data reported in that section.

Here is a sample section sar report, with the data from 00:30 through 23:40 removed to save space:

00:00:01 CPU %user %nice %system %idle 00:10:00 all 6.39 1.96 0.66 90.98 00:20:01 all 1.61 3.16 1.09 94.14 … 23:50:01 all 44.07 0.02 0.77 55.14 Average: all 5.80 4.99 2.87 86.34

In this section, CPU utilization information is displayed. This is very similar to the data displayed by iostat.

Other sections may have more than one line's worth of data per time, as shown by this section generated from CPU utilization data collected on a dual-processor system:

00:00:01 CPU %user %nice %system %idle 00:10:00 0 4.19 1.75 0.70 93.37 00:10:00 1 8.59 2.18 0.63 88.60 00:20:01 0 1.87 3.21 1.14 93.78 00:20:01 1 1.35 3.12 1.04 94.49 … 23:50:01 0 42.84 0.03 0.80 56.33 23:50:01 1 45.29 0.01 0.74 53.95 Average: 0 6.00 5.01 2.74 86.25 Average: 1 5.61 4.97 2.99 86.43

There are a total of seventeen different sections present in reports generated by the default Red Hat Linux sar configuration; many are discussing in upcoming chapters. For more information about the data contained in each section, see the sar(1) man page.

Notes

brw-rw----    1 root     disk       3,   0 Aug 30 19:31 /dev/hda