System Monitoring Tools: A Guide to Linux Server Performance Viewing

This article introduces 6 essential performance monitoring tools for Linux server beginners, helping them quickly grasp the "health status" of servers. System monitoring is crucial for ensuring service stability, requiring regular checks of CPU, memory, disk, and other resources. Core tools include: `top` for real-time monitoring of CPU, memory, and processes; sort by P/M to quickly identify high resource-consuming processes. `vmstat` analyzes overall system performance, focusing on the number of runnable processes (r), IO blocking processes (b), and swap partition usage (swpd). `iostat` specializes in disk IO, using tps and %util to determine bottlenecks. `free -h` provides a quick view of memory usage and available space. `df -h` and `du -sh` monitor disk partition space and directory/file sizes respectively. Tool selection scenarios: Use `top` for a quick overview, `free` when memory is tight, `iostat` to diagnose disk IO bottlenecks, `df` when space is insufficient, and `du` to locate large files. Mastering these tools enables timely detection and resolution of resource issues through targeted monitoring, ensuring stable server operation.