topas command

Purpose

Reports selected local system statistics.

Syntax

topas [ -disks number_of_monitored_hot_disks ] [ -interval monitoring_interval_in_seconds ] [ -nets number_of_monitored_hot_network_interfaces ] [ -procs number_of_monitored_hot_processes ] [ -wlms number_of_monitored_hot_WLM_classes ] [ -cpus number_of_monitored_hot_CPUs ] [ -procsdisp | -wlmdisp | -cecdisp] [ -filesys number_of_monitored_file_systems ] [ -tape] [ -fullscreen { process | WLM | lpar disk | net | CEC | vg | filesys | tape }]

Description

The topas command reports selected statistics about the activity on the local system. The command displays its output in a format suitable for viewing on an 80x25 character-based display.

If the topas command is invoked without flags, it runs as if invoked with the following command line:

topas -disks 20 -interval 2 -nets 20 -procs 20 -wlms 20 -cpus 20 -filesys 2

When you specify a single flag, the topas command will take that value and the other values will be the default values. This is applicable to all the flags.

The program extracts statistics from the system with an interval specified by the monitoring_interval_in_seconds argument. The default output, as shown below, consists of two fixed parts and a variable section. The top two lines at the left of the display show the name of the system the topas command runs on, the date and time of the last observation, and the monitoring interval.

The second fixed part fills the rightmost 25 positions of the display. It contains five subsections of statistics, as follows:

Parameter	Description
EVENTS/QUEUES	Displays the per-second frequency of selected system-global events and the average size of the thread run and wait queues: Cswitch The number of context switches per second over the monitoring interval. Syscalls The total number of system calls per second executed over the monitoring interval. Reads The number of read system calls per second executed over the monitoring interval. Writes The number of write system calls per second executed over the monitoring interval. Forks The number of fork system calls per second executed over the monitoring interval. Execs The number of exec system calls per second executed over the monitoring interval. Runqueue The average number of threads that were ready to run but were waiting for a processor to become available. Waitqueue The average number of threads that were waiting for paging to complete.
FILE/TTY	Displays the per-second frequency of selected file and tty statistics. Readch The number of bytes read per second through the read system call over the monitoring interval. Writech The number of bytes written per second through the write system call over the monitoring interval. Rawin The number of raw bytes read per second from TTYs over the monitoring interval. Ttyout The number of bytes written to TTYs per second over the monitoring interval. Igets The number of calls per second to the inode lookup routines over the monitoring interval. Namei The number of calls per second to the pathname lookup routines over the monitoring interval. Dirblk The number of directory blocks scanned per second by the directory search routine over the monitoring interval.
PAGING	Displays the per-second frequency of paging statistics. Faults Total number of page faults taken per second over the monitoring interval. This includes page faults that do not cause paging activity. Steals Physical memory 4K frames stolen per second by the virtual memory manager over the monitoring interval. PgspIn Number of 4K pages read from paging space per second over the monitoring interval. PgspOut Number of 4K pages written to paging space per second over the monitoring interval. PageIn Number of 4K pages read per second over the monitoring interval. This includes paging activity associated with reading from file systems. Subtract PgspIn from this value to get the number of 4K pages read from file systems per second over the monitoring interval. PageOut Number of 4K pages written per second over the monitoring interval. This includes paging activity associated with writing to file systems. Subtract PgspOut from this value to get the number of 4K pages written to file systems per second over the monitoring interval. Sios The number of I/O requests per second issued by the virtual memory manager over the monitoring interval.
MEMORY	Displays the real memory size and the distribution of memory in use. Real,MB The size of real memory in megabytes. % Comp The percentage of real memory currently allocated to computational page frames. Computational page frames are generally those that are backed by paging space. % Noncomp The percentage of real memory currently allocated to non-computational frames. Non-computational page frames are generally those that are backed by file space, either data files, executable files, or shared library files. % Client The percentage of real memory currently allocated to cache remotely mounted files.
PAGING SPACE	Display size and utilization of paging space. Size,MB The sum of all paging spaces on the system, in megabytes. % Used The percentage of total paging space currently in use. % Free The percentage of total paging space currently free.
NFS	Display NFS stats in calls per second Server V2 calls/sec Client V2 calls/sec Server V3 calls/sec Client V3 calls/sec

The variable part of the topas display can have one, two, three, four, or five subsections. If more than one subsection displays, they are always shown in the following order:

CPU
Network Interfaces
Physical Disks
WorkLoad Management Classes
Processes

When the topas command is started, it displays all subsections for which hot entities are monitored. The exception to this is the WorkLoad Management (WLM) Classes subsection, which is displayed only when WLM is active.

Parameter	Description
CPU Utilization	This subsection displays a bar chart showing cumulative CPU usage. If more than one CPU exists, a list of CPUs can be displayed by pressing the c key twice. Pressing the c key only once will turn this subsection off. The following fields are displayed by both formats: User% This shows the percent of CPU used by programs executing in user mode. (Default sorted by User%) Kern% This shows the percent of CPU used by programs executing in kernel mode. Wait% This shows the percent of time spent waiting for IO. Idle% This shows the percent of time the CPU(s) is idle. When this subsection first displays the list of hot CPUs, the list is sorted by the User% field. However, the list can be sorted by the other fields by moving the cursor to the top of the desired column.
Network Interfaces	This subsection displays a list of hot network interfaces. The maximum number of interfaces displayed is the number of hot interfaces being monitored, as specified with the -nets flag. A smaller number of interfaces will be displayed if other subsections are also being displayed. Pressing the n key turns off this subsection. Pressing the n key again shows a one-line report summary of the activity for all network interfaces. Both reports display the following fields: Interf The name of the network interface. KBPS The total throughput in megabytes per second over the monitoring interval. This field is the sum of kilobytes received and kilobytes sent per second. I-Pack The number of data packets received per second over the monitoring interval. O-Pack The number of data packets sent per second over the monitoring interval. KB-In The number of kilobytes received per second over the monitoring interval. KB-Out The number of kilobytes sent per second over the monitoring interval. When this subsection first displays the list of hot network interfaces, the list is sorted by the KBPS field. However, the list can be sorted by the other fields by moving the cursor to the top of the desired column. Sorting is only valid for up to 16 network adapters.
Physical Disks	This subsection displays a list of hot physical disks. The maximum number of physical disks displayed is the number of hot physical disks being monitored as specified with the -disks flag. A smaller number of physical disks will be displayed if other subsections are also being displayed. Pressing the d key turns off this subsection. Pressing the d key again shows a one-line report summary of the activity for all physical disks. Both reports display the following fields: Disk The name of the physical disk. Busy% Indicates the percentage of time the physical disk was active (bandwidth utilization for the drive). KBPS The number of kilobytes read and written per second over the monitoring interval. This field is the sum of KB-Read and KB-Read. TPS The number of transfers per second that were issued to the physical disk. A transfer is an I/O request to the physical disk. Multiple logical requests can be combined into a single I/O request to the disk. A transfer is of indeterminate size. KB-Read The number of kilobytes read per second from the physical disk. K -Writ The number of kilobytes written per second to the physical disk. When this subsection first displays the list of hot physical disks, the list is sorted by the KBPS field. However, the list can be sorted by the other fields by moving the cursor to the top of the desired column. Sorting is only valid for up to 128 physical disks.
WLM Classes	This subsection displays a list of hot WorkLoad Management (WLM) Classes. The maximum number of WLM classes displayed is the number of hot WLM classes being monitored as specified with the -wlmdisp flag. A smaller number of classes will be displayed if other subsections are also being displayed. Pressing the w key turns off this subsection. The following fields are displayed for each class: % CPU Utilization The average CPU utilization of the WLM class over the monitoring interval. % Mem Utilization The average memory utilization of the WLM class over the monitoring interval. % Blk I/O The average percent of Block I/O of the WLM class over the monitoring interval. When this subsection first displays the list of hot WLM classes, the list will be sorted by the CPU% field. However, the list can be sorted by the other fields by moving the cursor to the top of the desired column.
Processes	This subsection displays a list of hot processes. The maximum number of processes displayed is the number of hot processes being monitored as specified with the -procs flag. A smaller number of processes will be displayed if other subsections are also being displayed. Pressing the p key turns off this subsection. The process are sorted by their CPU usage over the monitoring interval. The following fields are displayed for each process: Name The name of the executable program executing in the process. The name is stripped of any pathname and argument information and truncated to 9 characters in length. Process ID The process ID of the process. % CPU Utilization The average CPU utilization of the process over the monitoring interval. The first time a process is shown, this value is the average CPU utilization over the lifetime of the process. Paging Space Used The size of the paging space allocated to this process. This can be considered an expression of the footprint of the process but does not include the memory used to keep the executable program and any shared libraries it may depend on. Process Owner (if the WLM section is off) The user name of the user who owns the process. WorkLoad Management (WLM) Class (if the WLM section is on) The WLM class to which the process belongs.

Implementation Specifics

Changes to WLM that are shown by topas (like adding new classes, or changing existing class names) will not be reflected after starting topas. You must stop topas and all clients which use Spmi, then restart after the WLM changes are made. This is also the case for Disks and Network Adapters added after topas or any other Spmi consumer is started.

Sample Default Output

The following is an example of the display generated by the topas command:

Topas Monitor for host:    niller               EVENTS/QUEUES    FILE/TTY
Mon Mar 13 15:56:32 2000   Interval:  2         Cswitch     113  Readch  1853576
                                                Syscall    2510  Writech   49883
CPU   User%   Kern%  Wait%  Idle%               Reads       466  Rawin         0
cpu0    7.0     4.0    0.0   89.0               Writes       12  Ttyout      706
cpu1    1.0     8.0    0.0   91.0               Forks         0  Igets         0
cpu2    0.0     0.0    0.0  100.0               Execs         0  Namei         0
                                                Runqueue    0.0  Dirblk        0
                                                Waitqueue   0.0
Interf   KBPS   I-Pack  O-Pack   KB-In  KB-Out
lo0      100.4    45.7    45.7    50.2    50.2  PAGING           MEMORY
tr0        2.0     4.4     3.4     1.4     0.6  Faults        1  Real,MB    1024
                                                Steals        0  % Comp     81.0
Disk    Busy%     KBPS     TPS KB-Read KB-Writ  PgspIn        0  % Noncomp  19.0
hdisk0    0.0      0.0     0.0     0.0     0.0  PgspOut       0  % Client    3.0
hdisk1    0.0      0.0     0.0     0.0     0.0  PageIn        0
                                                PageOut       0  PAGING SPACE
WLM-Class (Active)  CPU%    Mem%     Disk%      Sios          0  Size,MB       0
System               8      41        12                        % Used
Shared               1      24         9                        % Free
                                                NFS      calls/sec
Name     PID      CPU%   PgSP  Class            ServerV2    0   Press:
topas    (35242)  3.0    0.3   System           ClientV2    0   "h" for help.
X        (3622)   1.4   44.4   System           ServerV3    0   "q" to quit.
notes    (25306)  1.3  123.3   System           ClientV3    0

Sample Full Screen Process Output

Topas Monitor for host:    mothra      Interval:   2    Wed Nov  8 12:27:34 2000
                             DATA  TEXT  PAGE               PGFAULTS
USER       PID  PPID PRI NI   RES   RES SPACE    TIME CPU%  I/O  OTH COMMAND
root      1806     0  37 41    16  3374    16   13:25  1.0    0    0 gil
root      1032     0  16 41     3  3374     3    0:00  0.0    0    0 lrud
root      1290     0  60 41     4  3374     4    0:02  0.0    0    0 xmgc
root      1548     0  36 41     4  3374     4    0:26  0.0    0    0 netm
root         1     0  60 20   197     9   180    0:24  0.0    0    0 init
root      2064     0  16 41     4  3374     4    0:04  0.0    0    0 wlmsched
root      2698     1  60 20    14     2    14    0:00  0.0    0    0 shlap
root      3144     1  60 20    40     1    36    5:19  0.0    0    0 syncd
root      3362     0  60 20     4  3374     4    0:00  0.0    0    0 lvmbb
root      3666     1  60 20   135    23   123    0:00  0.0    0    0 errdemon
root      3982     0  60 20     4  3374     4    0:01  0.0    0    0 rtcmd
root      4644     1  17 20     6  3374     6    0:00  0.0    0    0 dog
root      4912     1  60 20   106    13    85    0:00  0.0    0    0 srcmstr
root      5202  4912  60 20    94     8    84    0:01  0.0    0    0 syslogd
root      5426  4912  60 20   195    76   181    0:12  0.0    0    0 sendmail
root      5678  4912  60 20   161    11   147    0:01  0.0    0    0 portmap
root      5934  4912  60 20   103    11    88    0:00  0.0    0    0 inetd
root      6192  4912  60 20   217    61   188    0:21  0.0    0    0 snmpd
root      6450  4912  60 20   137    10   116    0:00  0.0    0    0 dpid2
root      6708  4912  60 20   157    29   139    0:06  0.0    0    0 hostmibd
root         0     0  16 41     3  3374     3    7:08  0.0    0    0
root      6990     1  60 20   106    10    86    0:06  0.0    0    0 cron

Sample Full-Screen WorkLoad Management Classes Output

Topas Monitor for host:    mothra      Interval:   2    Wed Nov  8 12:30:54 2000
WLM-Class (Active)              CPU%      Mem%     Disk-I/O%
System                           0         0            0
Shared                           0         0            0
Default                          0         0            0
Unmanaged                        0         0            0
Unclassified                     0         0            0




==============================================================================
                             DATA  TEXT  PAGE               PGFAULTS
USER       PID  PPID PRI NI   RES   RES SPACE    TIME CPU%  I/O  OTH COMMAND
root         1     0 108 20   197     9   180    0:24  0.0    0    0 init
root      1032     0  16 41     3  3374     3    0:00  0.0    0    0 lrud
root      1290     0  60 41     4  3374     4    0:02  0.0    0    0 xmgc
root      1548     0  36 41     4  3374     4    0:26  0.0    0    0 netm
root      1806     0  37 41    16  3374    16   13:25  0.0    0    0 gil
root      2064     0  16 41     4  3374     4    0:04  0.0    0    0 wlmsched
root      2698     1 108 20    14     2    14    0:00  0.0    0    0 shlap
root      3144     1 108 20    40     1    36    5:19  0.0    0    0 syncd
root      3362     0 108 20     4  3374     4    0:00  0.0    0    0 lvmbb
root      3666     1 108 20   135    23   123    0:00  0.0    0    0 errdemon
root      3982     0 108 20     4  3374     4    0:01  0.0    0    0 rtcmd

Flags

Flag name	Description
-cecdisp	Displays the cross-partition panel.
-cpus	Specifies the number of hot CPUs to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of CPUs displayed when enough room is available on the screen. If this number exceeds the number of CPUs available, only the installed CPUs will be monitored and displayed. If this argument is omitted, a default of 2 is assumed. If a value of 0 (zero) is specified, no CPU information is monitored. When you specify a single flag, the topas command will take that value and the other values will be the default values. This is applicable to all the flags.
-disks	Specifies the number of disks to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of disks displayed when enough room is available on the screen. When this number exceeds the number of disks installed, only the installed disks are monitored and displayed. If this argument is omitted, a default of 2 is assumed. If a value of 0 (zero) is specified, no disk information is monitored.
-interval	Sets the monitoring interval in seconds. The default is 2 seconds.
-nets	Specifies the number of hot network interfaces to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of network interfaces displayed when enough room is available on the screen. When this number exceeds the number of network interfaces installed, only the installed network interfaces will be monitored and displayed. If this argument is omitted, a default of 2 is assumed. If a value of 0 (zero) is specified, no network information is monitored.
-procsdisp	Displays the full-screen process display. This display shows a list of the busiest processes, similar to the process subsection on the default display, only with more columns showing more metrics per process. This list can be sorted by any column.
-procs	Specifies the number of hot processes to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of processes shown when enough room is available on the screen. If this argument is omitted, a default of 20 is assumed. If a value of 0 is specified, no process information will be monitored. Retrieval of process information constitutes the majority of the topas overhead. If process information is not required, always use this option to specify that you do not want process information.
-wlmdisp	Displays the full-screen WLM class display, which is a split display. The top part of the display shows a list of hot WLM classes, similar to the WLM classes subsection on the default display, but with enough space available to display the full class names. This list can be sorted on any column. The bottom part of the display shows a list of busiest processes, similar to the full screen process display, but only displays processes belonging to one WLM class (selected with the f key).
-wlms	Specifies the number of hot WorkLoad Management (WLM) classes to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of WLM classes displayed when enough room is available on the screen. If this number exceeds the number of WLM classes installed, only the installed WLM classes will be monitored and displayed. If this argument is omitted, a default of 2 is assumed. If a value of 0 (zero) is specified, no WLM class information is monitored.
-filesys	Specifies the number of file systems to be monitored. This is also the maximum number of file systems displayed when enough room is available. When this number exceeds the number of file systems mounted, only the mounted file systems are monitored and displayed. If you do not specify the -filesys flag, the default value is 2. If you specify a value of 0, the file system information is monitored.
-tape	Switches the tape display section between on and off in the main topas display.
-fullscreen	Specifies the full-screen display of the specified parameter. The following parameters can be specified: process, WLM, lpar, disk, net, CEC, vg, filesys, or tape. This list can be sorted by any column. process Displays the full screen Process screen. This display shows a list of the busiest processes. This is similar to the process subsection on the default panel, only with more columns showing more metrics per process. WLM Displays the full screen WLM Classes panel. The top part of the screen shows a list of hot WLM classes. This is similar to the WLM classes subsection on the default screen, but with enough space available to display the full class names. lpar Displays the full screen Logical Partition panel. In shared-memory mode, this screen displays information about I/O memory entitlement of the partition. disk Displays the full screen Disk Metrics panel (Disk Panel View). The screen reports disk service times, disk queuing metrics, and disk throughput. net Displays the full screen statistics for the shared Ethernet adapter on a Virtual I/O Server. CEC Displays the Cross-partition Panel. The topas command collects a set of metrics from AIX® partitions that are running on the same hardware platform. Dedicated and shared partitions are displayed, and a set of aggregated values provide an overview of the entire hardware systems partition set. Certain values that are only available from the HMC platform can be set through the HMC console. vg Displays the Volume Group Panel. The panel reports the following metrics of the volume groups in the top section of the screen, and the same metrics of the logical volumes in the bottom section of the screen. filesys Displays full file system information. The screen reports file system service times, file system queuing metrics, and file system throughput. tape Displays the full screen tape screen. This reports bandwidth use of the tape device, the amount of data transferred (read or written) to the tape device, and the average number of transfers per second issued to the tape device.

Subcommands

While topas is running, it accepts one-character subcommands. Each time the monitoring interval elapses, the program checks for one of the following subcommands and responds to the action requested.

Command	Description
a	The a key shows all of the variable subsections being monitored (CPU, network, disk, WLM, and process). Pressing the a key always returns the topas command to the initial main display.
c	The c key toggles the CPU subsection between the cumulative report, off, and a list of the busiest CPUs. The number of busiest CPUs displayed will depend upon the space available on the screen.
d	The d key toggles the disk subsection between a list of busiest disks, off, and the report on the total disk activity of the system. The number of busiest disks displayed will depend upon the space available on the screen.
h	Show the help screen.
n	The n key toggles the network interfaces subsection between a list of busiest interfaces, off, and the report on the total network activity of the system. The number of busiest interfaces displayed will depend upon the space available on the screen.
w	The w key toggles the WorkLoad Management (WLM) classes subsection on and off. The number of busiest WLM classes displayed will depend upon the space available on the screen.
p	The p key toggles the hot processes subsection on and off. The number of busiest processes displayed will depend upon the space available on the screen.
P	The uppercase P key replaces the default display with the full-screen process display. This display provides more detailed information about processes running on the system than the process section of the main display. When the P key is pressed again, it toggles back to the default main display.
W	The uppercase W key replaces the default display with the full-screen WLM class display. This display provides more detailed information about WLM classes and processes assigned to classes. When the W key is pressed again, it toggles back to the default main display.
L	The uppercase L key replaces the current display with the logical partition display.
f	Moving the cursor over a WLM class and pressing the f key displays the list of top processes in the class at the bottom of the WLM screen. This key is valid only when topas is in the full-screen WLM display (by using the W key or the -wlms flag).
q	Quit the program.
r	Refresh the display.
Arrow and Tab keys	Subsections from the main display such as the CPU, Network, Disk, WLM Classes, and the full-screen WLM and Process displays can be sorted by different criteria. Positioning the cursor over a column activates sorting on that column. The entries are always sorted from highest to lowest value. The cursor can be moved by using the Tab key or the arrow keys. Sorting is only valid for 128 disks and 16 network adapters.

Exit Status

See Exit status for Virtual I/O Server commands.

Examples

To display up to twenty "hot" disks every five seconds and omit network interface, WLM classes, and process information, type:
```
topas -interval 5 -nets 0 -procs 0 -wlms 0
```
To display the five most active processes and up to twenty most active WLM classes (which is the default when omitting the -w flag) but no network or disk information, type:
```
topas -procs 5 -nets 0 -disks 0
```
To run the program with default options, type:
```
topas
```
To go directly to the process display, type:
```
topas -procsdisp
```
To go directly to the WLM classes display, type:
```
topas -wlmdisp
```
To display the top two file systems, type:
```
topas -filesys 2
```
To go directly to the WLM classes display, type:
```
topas -wlms 2
```
To go directly to the tape device display, type:
```
topas -tape
```
To go directly to the full screen WLM classes display, type:
```
topas -fullscreen WLM
```
To go directly to the full screen CEC display, type:
```
topas -fullscreen CEC
```
To go directly to the full screen volume group display, type:
```
topas -fullscreen vg
```

Last updated: Wed, November 18, 2020