nmon – A Nifty Tool To Monitor System Resources On Linux

nmon stands for Nigel’s performance Monitor for Linux & AIX, developed by IBM employee Nigel Griffiths. Initially, it was developed for IBM AIX operating system, later a version written for Linux too and released as a open source under GPL on 2009.

nmon is a another nifty tool to monitor various system resources such as CPU, memory, network, disks, file systems, NFS, top processes, Power micro-partition and resources (Linux version & processors) on Linux terminal.

It support common architectures like POWER, x86, x86_64, Mainframe & now ARM (Raspberry Pi). This system administrator tuner, benchmark tool gives you a huge amount of important performance information which will help you to troubleshoot the system performance when you have the issues.

For real-time monitoring it uses curses library for low CPU impact and you can see the data directly on the screen and updated every two seconds. Alternatively you can save the data to file for later analysis.

So many command line system performance monitoring tool is available in Linux like Top, Htop, etc but why i wrote about nmon because we can enable/disable the required statistics widgets with any sequence but all other tools not like that.

Install Nmon on Debian/Ubuntu/Mint

Debian based users can install nmon easily from distribution official repository by using below command.

$ sudo apt-get install nmon

Install Nmon on Fedora

Fedora users can install nmon easily from distribution official repository by using below command.

$ sudo dnf install nmon

Install Nmon on RHEL/CentOS

RHEL/CentOS users need to install/enable EPEL Repository in order to install nmon.

$ sudo yum install nmon

Install Nmon on openSUSE

openSUSE users can install nmon easily from distribution official repository by using below command.

$ sudo zypper in nmon

How to use nmon to monitory system performance

nmon wont required high end tech skill to work on it. Just type nmon and hit enter you will be presented with welcome screen similar to this. Welcome screen itself you will get all the major options to work further.

To display/hide particular widgets statistics, just press the associated key. Say for example, if you want to display CPU utilization, just press c and press again the same key c to hide the CPU utilization widgets statistics.

$ nmon
β”Œnmon─14g─────────────────────Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:09.46───────────────────┐
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β”‚  ------------------------------       For help type H or ...                                β”‚
β”‚  #    #  #    #   ####   #    #        nmon -?  - hint                                      β”‚
β”‚  ##   #  ##  ##  #    #  ##   #        nmon -h  - full                                      β”‚
β”‚  # #  #  # ## #  #    #  # #  #                                                             β”‚
β”‚  #  # #  #    #  #    #  #  # #       To start the same way every time                      β”‚
β”‚  #   ##  #    #  #    #  #   ##        set the NMON ksh variable                            β”‚
β”‚  #    #  #    #   ####   #    #                                                             β”‚
β”‚  ------------------------------                                                             β”‚
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β”‚  Use these keys to toggle statistics on/off:                                                β”‚
β”‚     c = CPU        l = CPU Long-term   - = Faster screen updates                            β”‚
β”‚     m = Memory     j = Filesystems     + = Slower screen updates                            β”‚
β”‚     d = Disks      n = Network         V = Virtual Memory                                   β”‚
β”‚     r = Resource   N = NFS             v = Verbose hints                                    β”‚
β”‚     k = kernel     t = Top-processes   . = only busy disks/procs                            β”‚
β”‚     h = more options                   q = Quit                                             β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Check CPU utilization by processor

Just press c key, to see the CPU utilization based on the processor. Each CPU shows (user process, sys process & wait process utilization).

β”Œnmon─13g──────[H for help]───Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:06.29───────────────────┐
β”‚ CPU Utilisation ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚                           +-------------------------------------------------+               β”‚
β”‚CPU  User%  Sys% Wait% Idle|0          |25         |50          |75       100|               β”‚
β”‚ 1   0.5   0.0   0.0   99.5|       >                                         |               β”‚
β”‚ 2   0.0   0.0   0.0  100.0|     >                                           |               β”‚
β”‚                           +-------------------------------------------------+               β”‚
β”‚Avg  0.2   0.2   0.0   99.5|      >                                          |               β”‚
β”‚                           +-------------------------------------------------+               β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Check memory utilization

Just press m key to see memory utilization stats (cached, active, inactive, buffered, free in MB & free percent)

β”Œnmon─14g──────[H for help]───Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:24.44───────────────────┐
β”‚ Memory Stats ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚                RAM     High      Low     Swap    Page Size=4 KB                             β”‚
β”‚ Total MB     32079.5     -0.0     -0.0  20479.0                                             β”‚
β”‚ Free  MB     11205.0     -0.0     -0.0  20479.0                                             β”‚
β”‚ Free Percent    34.9%   100.0%   100.0%   100.0%                                            β”‚
β”‚             MB                  MB                  MB                                      β”‚
β”‚                      Cached= 19763.4     Active=  9617.7                                    β”‚
β”‚ Buffers=   172.5 Swapcached=     0.0  Inactive = 10339.6                                    β”‚
β”‚ Dirty  =     0.0 Writeback =     0.0  Mapped   =    11.0                                    β”‚
β”‚ Slab   =   636.6 Commit_AS =   118.2 PageTables=     3.5                                    β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Check disk utilization

Just press d key to see disk utilization for each disk partition (each disk partition read, write shows in KB & busy shows in percent. Over all disk partition read & write shows in MB & data transfer rate shows in sec).

β”Œnmon─14g──────[H for help]───Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:26.59───────────────────┐
β”‚ Disk I/O ──/proc/diskstats────mostly in KB/s─────Warning:contains duplicates────────────────│
β”‚DiskName Busy    Read    Write       Xfers   Size  Peak%  Peak-RW    InFlight                β”‚
β”‚sda        0%      0.0     10.0KB/s    2.5   4.0KB    0%      18.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚sda1       0%      0.0      0.0KB/s    0.0   0.0KB    0%       0.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚sda2       0%      0.0     10.0KB/s    2.5   4.0KB    0%      18.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚sda3       0%      0.0      0.0KB/s    0.0   0.0KB    0%       0.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚sdb        0%      0.0      0.0KB/s    0.0   0.0KB    0%       0.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚sdb1       0%      0.0      0.0KB/s    0.0   0.0KB    0%       0.0KB/s   0                   β”‚
β”‚Totals Read-MB/s=0.0      Writes-MB/s=0.0      Transfers/sec=5.0                             β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Check Network utilization

Just press n key to see Network utilization based on the Network interface (Inter face name, Data received & Data send KB/s, packet in, packet out, insize, outsize & Total data transaction)

β”Œnmon─14g──────[H for help]───Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:28.18───────────────────┐
β”‚ Network I/O ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚I/F Name Recv=KB/s Trans=KB/s packin packout insize outsize Peak->Recv Trans                 β”‚
β”‚      lo     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚    eth0     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        5.2    22.4                β”‚
β”‚    eth1     0.0     0.2       0.5      0.5    60.0  330.0        2.0    15.4                β”‚
β”‚    eth2     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚    eth3     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚   bond0     0.0     0.2       0.5      0.5    60.0  330.0        7.3    37.8                β”‚
β”‚    usb0     0.1     0.1       1.5      1.5    65.3   79.3        9.9    11.7                β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Check Top processes

Just press t key to see Top processes which is similar to Top command utility.

β”Œnmon─14g──────[H for help]───Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:28.57───────────────────┐
β”‚ Top Processes Procs=625 mode=3 (1=Basic, 3=Perf 4=Size 5=I/O)───────────────────────────────│
β”‚  PID       %CPU    Size     Res    Res     Res     Res    Shared    Faults  Command         β”‚
β”‚             Used      KB     Set    Text    Data     Lib    KB     Min   Maj                β”‚
β”‚    16528     2.0   17720    4876     112    7384       0   948    308      0 nmon           β”‚
β”‚        1     0.0   19356    1520     140     404       0  1196      0      0 init           β”‚
β”‚        2     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 kthreadd       β”‚
β”‚        3     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/0    β”‚
β”‚        4     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/0    β”‚
β”‚        5     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/0      β”‚
β”‚        6     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/0     β”‚
β”‚        7     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/1    β”‚
β”‚        8     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/1      β”‚
β”‚        9     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/1    β”‚
β”‚       10     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/1     β”‚
β”‚       11     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/2    β”‚
β”‚       12     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/2      β”‚
β”‚       13     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/2    β”‚
β”‚       14     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/2     β”‚
β”‚       15     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/3    β”‚
β”‚       16     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/3      β”‚
β”‚       17     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/3    β”‚
β”‚       18     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/3     β”‚
β”‚       19     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/4    β”‚
β”‚       20     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/4      β”‚
β”‚       21     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/4    β”‚
β”‚       22     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/4     β”‚
β”‚       23     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/5    β”‚
β”‚       24     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/5      β”‚
β”‚       25     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/5    β”‚
β”‚       26     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 watchdog/5     β”‚
β”‚       27     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 migration/6    β”‚
β”‚       28     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 stopper/6      β”‚
β”‚       29     0.0       0       0       0       0       0     0      0      0 ksoftirqd/6    β”‚
└─────────Warning: Some Statistics may not shownβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜

Check system information

Just press r key to see varies system information like, kernel version, gcc version, CPU info, No of CPUs, Machine architecture, distribution name, distribution code name & distribution version no)

β”Œnmon─16f──────[H for help]───Hostname=daygeek──────Refresh= 2secs ───03:04.19────────────────┐
β”‚ Resources Linux & Processor ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚    Linux: Linux version 4.8.0-22-generic (buildd@lgw01-11)                                  β”‚
β”‚    Build: (gcc version 6.2.0 20161005 (Ubuntu 6.2.0-5ubuntu12) )                            β”‚
β”‚    Release  : 4.8.0-22-generic                                                              β”‚
β”‚    Version  : #24-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 8 09:15:00 UTC 2016                                    β”‚
β”‚    cpuinfo: model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz                          β”‚
β”‚    cpuinfo: vendor_id : GenuineIntel                                                        β”‚
β”‚    cpuinfo: cpu MHz  : 2592.002                                                             β”‚
β”‚    cpuinfo: wp  : yes                                                                       β”‚
β”‚    # of CPUs: 1                                                                             β”‚
β”‚    Machine  : x86_64                                                                        β”‚
β”‚    Nodename : daygeek                                                                       β”‚
β”‚    /etc/*ease[1]: DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu                                                         β”‚
β”‚    /etc/*ease[2]: DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.10                                                     β”‚
β”‚    /etc/*ease[3]: DISTRIB_CODENAME=yakkety                                                  β”‚
β”‚    /etc/*ease[4]: DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.10"                                        β”‚
β”‚    lsb_release: Distributor ID:        Ubuntu                                               β”‚
β”‚    lsb_release: Description:   Ubuntu 16.10                                                 β”‚
β”‚    lsb_release: Release:       16.10                                                        β”‚
β”‚    lsb_release: Codename:      yakkety                                                      β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
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Load more then one widgets

Just press c,m,d,n key to see CPU, memory, disk & network utilization on your system.

β”Œnmon─14g─────────────────────Hostname=2daygeek──Refresh= 2secs ───07:30.42───────────────────┐
β”‚ Memory Stats ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚                RAM     High      Low     Swap    Page Size=4 KB                             β”‚
β”‚ Total MB     32079.5     -0.0     -0.0  20479.0                                             β”‚
β”‚ Free  MB     11205.2     -0.0     -0.0  20479.0                                             β”‚
β”‚ Free Percent    34.9%   100.0%   100.0%   100.0%                                            β”‚
β”‚             MB                  MB                  MB                                      β”‚
β”‚                      Cached= 19763.4     Active=  9617.8                                    β”‚
β”‚ Buffers=   172.5 Swapcached=     0.0  Inactive = 10339.5                                    β”‚
β”‚ Dirty  =     0.0 Writeback =     0.0  Mapped   =    11.0                                    β”‚
β”‚ Slab   =   636.6 Commit_AS =   118.7 PageTables=     3.5                                    β”‚
β”‚ Network I/O ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚I/F Name Recv=KB/s Trans=KB/s packin packout insize outsize Peak->Recv Trans                 β”‚
β”‚      lo     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚    eth0     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.5     5.9                β”‚
β”‚    eth1     0.0     0.1       0.5      0.5    60.0  234.0        0.1     2.9                β”‚
β”‚    eth2     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚    eth3     0.0     0.0       0.0      0.0     0.0    0.0        0.0     0.0                β”‚
β”‚   bond0     0.0     0.1       0.5      0.5    60.0  234.0        0.5     8.8                β”‚
β”‚    usb0     0.1     0.1       1.5      1.5    65.3   79.3        0.7     0.8                β”‚
β”‚ Disk I/O ──/proc/diskstats────mostly in KB/s─────Warning:contains duplicates────────────────│
β”‚DiskName Busy  Read WriteKB|0          |25         |50          |75       100|               β”‚
β”‚sda        0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚sda1       0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚sda2       0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚sda3       0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚sdb        0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚sdb1       0%    0.0    0.0|>                                                |               β”‚
β”‚Totals Read-MB/s=0.0      Writes-MB/s=0.0      Transfers/sec=0.0                             β”‚
│─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β”‚                                                                                             β”‚
β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜

Enjoy..)

About Magesh Maruthamuthu

Love to play with all Linux distribution

View all posts by Magesh Maruthamuthu

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