How to check system resources in Linux?

Checking System Resources in Linux

In the world of Linux, understanding and monitoring system resources is crucial for efficient system management, troubleshooting, and optimizing performance. As a technical expert and mentor, I'll guide you through the various tools and techniques you can use to check system resources in Linux.

CPU Utilization

To check the CPU utilization on your Linux system, you can use the top or htop commands. These tools provide real-time information about the running processes, their CPU and memory usage, and other system-level metrics.

graph TD A[Linux System] --> B[CPU Utilization] B --> C[top] B --> D[htop] C --> E[Process Information] D --> E

The top command displays a list of running processes, sorted by their CPU usage. You can press the 1 key to see the utilization of individual CPU cores. The htop command provides a more user-friendly interface, with the ability to sort and filter processes, as well as view system-level information such as CPU, memory, and network usage.

Example:

# Run the top command
top

# Run the htop command
htop

Memory Usage

To check the memory usage on your Linux system, you can use the free command. This command displays the total, used, and available memory on your system, as well as the swap space usage.

graph TD A[Linux System] --> B[Memory Usage] B --> C[free] C --> D[Total Memory] C --> E[Used Memory] C --> F[Available Memory] C --> G[Swap Usage]

Example:

# Run the free command
free -h

This will display the memory usage in a human-readable format, making it easier to understand.

Disk Usage

To check the disk usage on your Linux system, you can use the df (disk free) command. This command displays the total, used, and available space on your file systems.

graph TD A[Linux System] --> B[Disk Usage] B --> C[df] C --> D[File System] C --> E[Total Space] C --> F[Used Space] C --> G[Available Space]

Example:

# Run the df command
df -h

This will display the disk usage in a human-readable format, showing the file system, total space, used space, and available space.

Network Usage

To check the network usage on your Linux system, you can use the iftop or nethogs commands. These tools provide real-time information about the network traffic, including the bandwidth usage of individual processes.

graph TD A[Linux System] --> B[Network Usage] B --> C[iftop] B --> D[nethogs] C --> E[Network Traffic] D --> E

Example:

# Run the iftop command
iftop

# Run the nethogs command
nethogs

These tools can help you identify which processes are consuming the most network bandwidth and troubleshoot network-related issues.

By using these tools and techniques, you can effectively monitor and manage the system resources on your Linux system, ensuring optimal performance and troubleshooting any issues that may arise.