Tru64 - Collecting performance data with the collect utility

Tru64 - Collecting performance data with the collect utility

Description

Collect is a tool that collects operating system and process data under HP Tru64 UNIX Versions 4.x and 5.x. Collect is designed for high reliability and low system-resource overhead.

Hereafter you will find some information on how to gather performance data from a Tru64 system.

 

Note: The "collect" utility is provided by default with Tru64 V4.x and V5.x and updated with patches.

Step-by-step guide

Collecting data

Interactive mode

The base option is to run "collect" in interactive mode just specifying the output data file and then press <CTRL-C> when complete:

# collect -f <myfile>

If you don't specify anything else, collect  will use default values. The most important are:

  • the collection interval (time between samples) is 10 seconds

  • data is collected for all subsystems (Proc,Mem,Disk,Tape,Lsm,Net,Cpu,Filesys,mQueue,ttY)

When you write to a file using the above command, the data is writting in binary form. You must use playback mode to display it (see below). If you do not specify an output file, collect will write the data in a human-readable format directly to standard output (STDOUT).

You can choose specific subsystems for which you want to collect data using "-s <list>" where <list> is a sequece composed of the letters pmdtlncfmy, which stand for the subsystems above. For example:

# collect -s cndm

would collect data for the memory, disk, network and cpu subsystems.

To specify the interval, use "-i <seconds>". For example:

# collect -i 1 -f /tmp/foobar

This will collect data once a second, and write it to /tmp/foobar.cgz.

 

To stop the collect utility you must press <CTRL-C> or kill the process with the TERM signal, not the KILL one otherwise you risk losing data, because collect cannot write out the data it its buffer.

It is also possible to add a duration for the collect utility to stop after an amount of time.

Example with 30 minutes:

# collect -f /data/myserver -R 30m

Example with 12 hours:

# collect -f /data/myserver -R 12h

Example with 1 day:

# collect -f /data/myserver -R 1d

Batch mode

If you prefer not to have a terminal connected for the collect duration, you can use the following commands:

# echo collect -f /data/myserver -R 1d | at now

This will execute the collect utility starting from now and for 1 day duration.

 

It is also possible to execute this command without time limit in case you want to collect performance data while a job is running and you have no idea about it's duration:

# echo collect -f /data/myserver | at now

To stop the collect process then you'll have to identify the process id and stop it with a TERM signal, not a KILL one otherwise the output data file will be empty.

# ps -ef | grep [c]ollect
root 2175 2174 0.0 16:29:50 ?? 0:00.59 collect -f /data/pluto
# kill -TERM 2175

Notes:



© Stromasys, 1999-2025  - All the information is provided on the best effort basis, and might be changed anytime without notice. Information provided does not mean Stromasys commitment to any features described. 
Need fast, reliable migration? We have done it countless times. Talk to an expert