How do I configure the ATOP and SAR monitoring tools for my Amazon EC2 instance that runs Amazon Linux, RHEL, CentOS, or Ubuntu?

Short description

Install ATOP and SAR monitoring based on the operating system (OS) that your distribution runs.

Note: You can't install ATOP and SAR monitoring tools on standard Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). By default, ATOP and SAR monitoring tools collect metrics in 10-minute intervals and retain history for 30 days. To collect more granular data, you can configure the collection time to 1-minute intervals.

Resolution

AL2023

By default, Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) includes the sysstat package that provides SAR and ATOP.

However, if your system doesn't have the sysstat package, then complete the following steps to manually install the tools:

1. To install the monitoring tools, run the following command:

   sudo yum -y install sysstat atop

2. To change the log collection interval, run the following commands:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo mkdir -v /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/
   sudo bash -c "sed -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|g' -e '/^OnCalendar=/ s|/10$|/1|' /usr/lib/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer > /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/override.conf"
   sudo sed -i 's|^SADC_OPTIONS=.*|SADC_OPTIONS=" -S XALL"|' /etc/sysconfig/sysstat

3. To activate and restart services, run the following commands:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service sysstat.service

AL2

To install ATOP and SAR on instances that run Amazon Linux 2 (AL2), complete the following steps:

1. To install the Extra Packages for Linux (EPEL) release package, run the following command:

   sudo amazon-linux-extras install epel

2. To install the monitoring tools, run the following command:

   sudo yum -y install sysstat atop --enablerepo=epel

3. To change the log collection interval, run the following commands:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/cron.d/sysstat

4. To activate and restart services, run the following commands:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service crond.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service crond.service sysstat.service

Amazon Linux AMI

Note: Amazon Linux AMIs have the EPEL repository installed by default.

To install ATOP and SAR, complete the following steps:

1. To install the monitoring tools and change the log collection interval, run the following commands:

   sudo yum -y install sysstat atop --enablerepo=epel
   sudo sed -i 's/^INTERVAL=600.*/INTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/cron.d/sysstat

2. To activate and restart services, run the following commands:

   for _service in atop crond sysstat; do sudo chkconfig ${_service} on; sudo service ${_service} start; done

RHEL and CentOS

Note: The following configuration steps are the same for each major release of RHEL and CentOS.

To install ATOP and SAR, complete the following steps:

1. To install the EPEL release package, run the following command based on your RHEL or CentOS version.
   RHEL 8, RHEL 9, CentOS 8, and CentOS Stream 9:

   source /etc/os-release
   sudo dnf -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-${VERSION_ID%.*}.noarch.rpm -y

   RHEL 7 and CentOS 7:

   sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

   RHEL 6 and CentOS 6:

   sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

2. To install the monitoring tools, run the following command:

   sudo dnf -y install sysstat atop --enablerepo=epel

3. To change the log collection interval, run the following commands based on your RHEL or CentOS version.
   RHEL 8, RHEL 9, CentOS 8, and CentOS Stream 9:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo mkdir -v /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/
   sudo bash -c "sed -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|g' -e '/^OnCalendar=/ s|/10$|/1|' /usr/lib/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer > /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/override.conf"
   sudo sed -i 's|^SADC_OPTIONS=.*|SADC_OPTIONS=" -S XALL"|' /etc/sysconfig/sysstat

   RHEL 7 and CentOS 7:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/cron.d/sysstat

   RHEL 6 and CentOS 6:

   sudo sed -i 's/^INTERVAL=600.*/INTERVAL=60/' /etc/sysconfig/atop
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/cron.d/sysstat

4. To activate and restart services, run the following commands based on your RHEL or CentOS version.
   RHEL 8, RHEL 9, CentOS 8, and CentOS Stream 9:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service sysstat.service

   RHEL 7 and CentOS 7:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service crond.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service crond.service sysstat.service

   RHEL 6 and CentOS 6:

   for _service in atop crond sysstat; do sudo chkconfig ${_service} on; sudo service ${_service} start; done

Ubuntu

To install ATOP and SAR, complete the following steps:

1. To install the monitoring tools, run the following command:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get -y install atop sysstat

2. To change the log collection interval, run the following commands based on your Ubuntu version
   Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 22.04:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/default/atop
   sudo mkdir -v /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/
   sudo bash -c "sed -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|g' -e '/^OnCalendar=/ s|/10$|/1|' /usr/lib/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer > /etc/systemd/system/sysstat-collect.timer.d/override.conf"
   sudo bash -c "echo 'SA1_OPTIONS=\"-S XALL\"' >> /etc/default/sysstat"
   sudo sed -i 's|ENABLED="false"|ENABLED="true"|' /etc/default/sysstat

   Ubuntu 20.04:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /usr/share/atop/atop.daily
   sudo sed -i -e 's|5-55/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' -e 's|debian-sa1|debian-sa1 -S XALL|g' /etc/cron.d/sysstat
   sudo bash -c "echo 'SA1_OPTIONS=\"-S XALL\"' >> /etc/default/sysstat"
   sudo sed -i 's|ENABLED="false"|ENABLED="true"|' /etc/default/sysstat

   Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04:

   sudo sed -i 's/^INTERVAL=600.*/INTERVAL=60/' /usr/share/atop/atop.daily
   sudo sed -i -e 's|5-55/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' -e 's|debian-sa1|debian-sa1 -S XALL|g' /etc/cron.d/sysstat
   sudo bash -c "echo 'SA1_OPTIONS=\"-S XALL\"' >> /etc/default/sysstat"

3. To activate and restart the services, run the following commands based on your Ubuntu version.
   Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 22.04:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service sysstat.service

   Ubuntu 20.04:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service cron.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service cron.service sysstat.service

   Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04:

   sudo sed -i 's|ENABLED="false"|ENABLED="true"|' /etc/default/sysstat
   sudo systemctl enable atop.service cron.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service cron.service sysstat.service

SLES and SLES for SAP

To install ATOP and SAR on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and SLES for SAP, complete the following steps:

1. To activate PackageHub, run the following command based on your SLES version.
   SLES15:

   source /etc/os-release
   sudo SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/$VERSION_ID/x86_64
   sudo zypper ref -s

   SLES12:

   source /etc/os-release
   sudo SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/$VERSION_ID/x86_64
   sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:monitoring/SLE_12_SP5/server:monitoring.repo
   sudo zypper ref -s

2. To install SAR and ATOP, run the following command:

   sudo zypper in sysstat atop atop-daemon

3. To change the log collection interval, run the following commands based on your SLES version.
   SLES15:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /etc/default/atop
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/sysstat/sysstat.cron
   sudo sed -i 's/^SADC_OPTIONS=.*/SADC_OPTIONS=" -S XALL"/' /etc/sysstat/sysstat

   SLES12:

   sudo sed -i 's/^LOGINTERVAL=600.*/LOGINTERVAL=60/' /usr/share/atop/atop.daily
   sudo sed -i -e 's|*/10|*/1|' -e 's|every 10 minutes|every 1 minute|' /etc/sysstat/sysstat.cron
   sudo sed -i 's/^SADC_OPTIONS=.*/SADC_OPTIONS=" -S XALL"/' /etc/sysstat/sysstat

4. To activate and restart services, run the following commands:

   sudo systemctl enable atop.service cron.service sysstat.service
   sudo systemctl restart atop.service cron.service sysstat.service

Related information

Add repositories on an AL2 instance

Amazon Linux 2 FAQs

Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) on the Fedora Project website