3 virt-top - 'top'-like utility for virtualization stats
11 virt-top is a L<top(1)>-like utility for showing stats of virtualized
12 domains. Many keys and command line options are the same as for
15 It uses libvirt so it is capable of showing stats across a variety of
16 different virtualization systems.
24 Display physical CPUs by default (instead of domains).
25 When virt-top is running, use the I<1> key to toggle
26 between physical CPUs and domains display.
30 Display network interfaces by default (instead of domains).
31 When virt-top is running, use the I<2> key to toggle
32 between network interfaces and domains display.
36 Display block devices (virtual disks) by default (instead of domains).
37 When virt-top is running, use the I<3> key to toggle
38 between block devices and domains display.
42 Batch mode. In this mode keypresses are ignored.
44 =item B<-c uri> or B<--connect uri>
46 Connect to URI given. The default is to connect to the Xen
49 To connect to QEMU/KVM you would normally do I<-c qemu:///system>
51 To connect to libvirtd on a remote machine you would normally do
54 Full details on connection URIs is available at
55 L<http://libvirt.org/uri.html>
59 Set the delay between screen updates in seconds.
60 The default is 3.0 seconds. You can change this
61 while virt-top is running by pressing either I<s> or I<d> key.
63 =item B<-n iterations>
65 Set the number of iterations to run. The default
66 is to run continuously.
70 Set the sort order to one of:
71 B<cpu> (sort by %CPU used),
72 B<mem> (sort by total memory),
73 B<time> (sort by total time),
74 B<id> (sort by domain ID),
75 B<name> (sort by domain name),
76 B<netrx> (sort by network received bytes),
77 B<nettx> (sort by network transmitted bytes),
78 B<blockrdrq> (sort by block device [disk] read requests),
79 B<blockwrrq> (sort by block device [disk] write requests).
81 While virt-top is running you can change the sort
82 order using keys I<P> (cpu), I<M> (memory),
83 I<T> (total time), I<N> (domain ID),
84 I<F> (interactively select the sort field).
88 Secure mode. Currently this does nothing.
90 =item B<--hist-cpu secs>
92 Set the time in seconds between updates of the historical
93 %CPU at the top right of the display.
95 =item B<--csv file.csv>
97 Write the statistics to file I<file.csv>. First a header is written
98 showing the statistics being recorded in each column, then one line is
99 written for each screen update. The CSV file can be loaded directly
100 by most spreadsheet programs.
102 Currently the statistics which this records vary between releases of
103 virt-top (but the column headers will stay the same, so you can use
104 those to process the CSV file).
106 Not every version of virt-top supports CSV output - it depends how the
107 program was compiled (see I<README> file in the source distribution
110 To save space you can compress your CSV files (if your shell supports
111 this feature, eg. I<bash>):
113 virt-top --csv >(gzip -9 > output.csv.gz)
115 You can use a similar trick to split the CSV file up. In this example
116 the CSV file is split every 1000 lines into files called
117 I<output.csv.00>, I<output.csv.01> etc.
119 virt-top --csv >(split -d -l 1000 - output.csv.)
121 =item B<--no-csv-cpu>
123 Disable domain CPU stats in CSV output.
125 =item B<--no-csv-block>
127 Disable domain block device stats in CSV output.
129 =item B<--no-csv-net>
131 Disable domain network interface stats in CSV output.
133 =item B<--debug filename>
135 Send debug and error messages to I<filename>.
136 To send error messages to syslog you can do:
138 virt-top --debug >(logger -t virt-top)
140 See also REPORTING BUGS below.
142 =item B<--init-file filename>
144 Read I<filename> as the init file instead of the default which is
145 I<$HOME/.virt-toprc>. See also INIT FILE below.
147 =item B<--no-init-file>
149 Do not read any init file.
153 Script mode. There will be no user interface. This is most useful
154 when used together with the I<--csv> and I<-n> options.
158 Stream mode. All output is sent to stdout. This can be used from
159 shell scripts etc. There is no user interface.
161 =item B<--block-in-bytes>
163 Show I/O statistics in Bytes. Default is shown in the number of Requests.
165 =item B<--end-time time>
167 The program will exit at the I<time> given.
169 The time may be given in one of the following formats:
173 =item I<YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS>
175 End time is the date and time given.
179 End time is the time given, today.
183 End time is HH hours, MM minutes, SS seconds in the future (counted
184 from the moment that program starts).
188 End time is I<secs> seconds in the future.
192 For example to run the program for 3 minutes you could do:
194 virt-top --end-time +00:03:00
198 virt-top --end-time +180
200 Not every version of virt-top supports this option - it depends how the
201 program was compiled (see I<README> file in the source distribution
206 Display usage summary.
210 Display version number and exit.
216 Note that keys are case sensitive. For example use upper-case I<P>
217 (shift P) to sort by %CPU. I<^> before a key means a Ctrl key, so
222 =item I<space> or I<^L>
236 Change the delay between screen updates.
240 Toggle Block I/O statistics so they are shown in either bytes or requests.
242 =item I<0> (number 0)
244 Show the normal list of domains display.
246 =item I<1> (number 1)
248 Toggle into showing physical CPUs. If pressed
249 again toggles back to showing domains (the normal
254 Toggle into showing network interfaces. If pressed
255 again toggles back to showing domains.
259 Toggle into showing block devices (virtual disks). If pressed again
260 toggles back to showing domains.
268 Sort by total memory. Note that this shows the total memory
269 allocated to the guest, not the memory being used.
281 Select the sort field interactively (there are other
282 sort fields you can choose using this key).
286 This creates or overwrites the init file with the current settings.
288 This key is disabled if I<--no-init-file> was specified on the
289 command line or if I<overwrite-init-file false> is given in
296 When virt-top starts up, it reads initial settings from the
297 file I<.virt-toprc> in the user's home directory.
299 The name of this file may be overridden using the I<--init-file
300 filename> command line option or may be disabled entirely using
303 The init file has a simple format. Blank lines and comments
304 beginning with I<#> are ignored. Everything else is a set of
305 I<key value> pairs, described below.
309 =item B<display> I<task|pcpu|block|net>
311 Sets the major display mode to one of I<task> (tasks, the
312 default), I<pcpu> (physical CPUs), I<block> (block devices),
313 or I<net> (network interfaces).
315 =item B<delay> I<secs>
317 Sets the delay between display updates in seconds.
319 =item B<hist-cpu> I<secs>
321 Sets the historical CPU delay in seconds.
323 =item B<iterations> I<n>
325 Sets the number of iterations to run before we exit. Setting
326 this to I<-1> means to run continuously.
328 =item B<sort> I<cpu|mem|time|id|name|...>
330 Sets the sort order. The option names are the same as for
331 the command line I<-o> option.
333 =item B<connect> I<uri>
335 Sets the default connection URI.
337 =item B<debug> I<filename>
339 Sets the default filename to use for debug and error messages.
341 =item B<csv> I<filename>
343 Enables CSV output to the named file.
345 =item B<csv-cpu> I<true|false>
347 Enable or disable domain CPU stats in CSV output.
349 =item B<csv-block> I<true|false>
351 Enable or disable domain block device stats in CSV output.
353 =item B<csv-net> I<true|false>
355 Enable or disable domain network interface stats in CSV output.
357 =item B<batch> I<true|false>
361 =item B<secure> I<true|false>
365 =item B<script> I<true|false>
369 =item B<stream> I<true|false>
373 =item B<block-in-bytes> I<true|false>
375 Show block device statistics in bytes.
377 =item B<end-time> I<time>
379 Set the time at which the program exits. See above for the
380 time formats supported.
382 =item B<overwrite-init-file> I<false>
384 If set to I<false> then the I<W> key will not overwrite the
389 Note that in the current implementation, options specified in
390 the init file override options specified on the command line.
391 This is a bug and this behaviour may change in the future.
395 =head2 Block I/O statistics
397 This I/O value is the amount of I/O since the previous iteration
398 of virt-top. To calculate speed of I/O, you should divide
399 the number by delay secs.
401 =head2 NETWORK RX BYTES AND PACKETS
403 Libvirt/virt-top has no way to know that a packet transmitted to a
404 guest was received (eg. if the guest is not listening). In the
405 network RX stats, virt-top reports the packets transmitted to the
406 guest, on the basis that the guest might receive them.
408 In particular this includes broadcast packets. Because of the way
409 that Linux bridges work, if the guest is connected to a bridge, it
410 will probably see a steady "background noise" of RX packets even when
411 the network interface is idle or down. These are caused by STP
412 packets generated by the bridge.
418 L<http://www.libvirt.org/ocaml/>,
419 L<http://www.libvirt.org/>,
420 L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/>,
421 L<http://caml.inria.fr/>
425 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
429 (C) Copyright 2007-2011 Red Hat Inc., Richard W.M. Jones
432 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
433 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
434 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
435 (at your option) any later version.
437 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
438 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
439 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
440 GNU General Public License for more details.
442 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
443 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
444 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
446 =head1 REPORTING BUGS
448 Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page:
449 L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>.
451 If you find a bug in virt-top, please follow these steps to report it:
455 =item 1. Check for existing bug reports
457 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs.
458 Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even
461 =item 2. Capture debug and error messages
465 virt-top --debug virt-top.log
467 and keep I<virt-top.log>. It contains error messages which you
468 should submit with your bug report.
470 =item 3. Get version of virt-top and version of libvirt.
476 If you can get the precise version of libvirt you are using
477 then that too is helpful.
479 =item 4. Submit a bug report.
481 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug.
482 Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible.
484 Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug
485 messages file (step 2).
487 =item 5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com
489 Assign or reassign the bug to B<rjones @ redhat.com> (without the
490 spaces). You can also send me an email with the bug number if you
491 want a faster response.