Monitoring process memory/CPU usage with top and plotting it with gnuplot

October 17, 2018

If you want to monitor the memory and CPU usage of a particular Linux process for a few minutes, perhaps during a performance test, you can capture the data with top and plot them with gnuplot. Here is how:

Run this script (perhaps via nohup) to capture the data:

#!/bin/sh
# Usage: ./monitor-usage.sh <PID of the process>
# Output: top.dat with lines such as `1539689171 305m 2.0`, i.e. unix time - memory with m/g suffix - CPU load in %
# To plot the output, see https://gist.github.com/jakubholynet/931a3441982c833f5f8fcdcf54d05c91
export PID=$1
rm top.dat
while true; do top -p $PID -bMn 1 | egrep '^ *[0-9]+' | awk -v now=$(date +%s.%N) '{print now,$6,$9}' >> top.dat; done



  

view raw monitor-usage.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

then plot them via ./usage-plot.gp top.dat top.png:

#!/usr/bin/env gnuplot --persist -c
# Plot memory and CPU usage over time. Usage:
#  usage-plot.gp <input file> [<output .png file>]
# where the input file has the columns `<unix time> <memory, with m/g suffix> <% cpu>`
# To create the input file, see https://gist.github.com/jakubholynet/931a3441982c833f5f8fcdcf54d05c91
# Arguments:
infile=ARG1
outfile=ARG2
set term x11
set title 'Memory, CPU usage from' . infile
set xdata time
set timefmt "%s"
set xlabel "Time [[hh:]mm:ss]"
set ylabel "Memory usage"
set format y '%.1s%cB'
set y2label 'CPU usage'
set format y2 '%.0s%%'
set y2tics nomirror
set tics out
set autoscale y
set autoscale y2
# Credit: Christoph @ https://stackoverflow.com/a/52822256/204205
resolveUnit(s)=(pos=strstrt("kmgtp",s[strlen(s):*]), real(s)*(1024**pos))
if (exists("outfile") && strlen(outfile) > 0) {
    print "Outputting to the file ", outfile
    set term png # 640,480
    set output outfile
}
# Styling
set style line 1 linewidth 2 linecolor 'blue'
set style line 2 linecolor 'light-green'
#set xtics font ", 10"
set tics font ", 10"
set xtics rotate 60 # put label every 60s, make vertical so they don't clash in .png if too many
plot infile u 1:3 with lp axes x1y2 title "cpu" linestyle 2, \
    infile using 1:(resolveUnit(stringcolumn(2))) with linespoints title "memory" linestyle 1



  

view raw plot-usage.gp hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Tags: monitoring performance

	#!/bin/sh
	# Usage: ./monitor-usage.sh <PID of the process>
	# Output: top.dat with lines such as `1539689171 305m 2.0`, i.e. unix time - memory with m/g suffix - CPU load in %
	# To plot the output, see https://gist.github.com/jakubholynet/931a3441982c833f5f8fcdcf54d05c91
	export PID=$1
	rm top.dat
	while true; do top -p $PID -bMn 1 \| egrep '^ *[0-9]+' \| awk -v now=$(date +%s.%N) '{print now,$6,$9}' >> top.dat; done

	#!/usr/bin/env gnuplot --persist -c
	# Plot memory and CPU usage over time. Usage:
	# usage-plot.gp <input file> [<output .png file>]
	# where the input file has the columns `<unix time> <memory, with m/g suffix> <% cpu>`
	# To create the input file, see https://gist.github.com/jakubholynet/931a3441982c833f5f8fcdcf54d05c91

	# Arguments:
	infile=ARG1
	outfile=ARG2
	set term x11
	set title 'Memory, CPU usage from' . infile
	set xdata time
	set timefmt "%s"
	set xlabel "Time [[hh:]mm:ss]"
	set ylabel "Memory usage"
	set format y '%.1s%cB'

	set y2label 'CPU usage'
	set format y2 '%.0s%%'
	set y2tics nomirror
	set tics out
	set autoscale y
	set autoscale y2

	# Credit: Christoph @ https://stackoverflow.com/a/52822256/204205
	resolveUnit(s)=(pos=strstrt("kmgtp",s[strlen(s):]), real(s)(1024**pos))

	if (exists("outfile") && strlen(outfile) > 0) {
	print "Outputting to the file ", outfile
	set term png # 640,480
	set output outfile
	}

	# Styling
	set style line 1 linewidth 2 linecolor 'blue'
	set style line 2 linecolor 'light-green'
	#set xtics font ", 10"
	set tics font ", 10"
	set xtics rotate 60 # put label every 60s, make vertical so they don't clash in .png if too many

	plot infile u 1:3 with lp axes x1y2 title "cpu" linestyle 2, \
	infile using 1:(resolveUnit(stringcolumn(2))) with linespoints title "memory" linestyle 1