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Iotop tool is free open source free tool that monitor Disk Input/Output usage. Its helps system
administrator to find specific process that consume more disk usage and helps in performance
analysis. Iotop tool is supported from 2.6.20 kernel. This article explains how to install iotop and
how to use it.
What do you need before starting to use the iotop tool?
Python >= 2.7
Linux kernel 2.6.20
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/ioprio.py
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/version.py
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/data.py
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/ui.py
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/genetlink.py
iotop-0.4.4/iotop/vmstat.py
iotop-0.4.4/.gitignore
iotop-0.4.4/iotop.py
iotop-0.4.4/ChangeLog
iotop-0.4.4/setup.py
iotop-0.4.4/README
iotop-0.4.4/iotop.1
iotop-0.4.4/setup.cfg
iotop-0.4.4/THANKS
iotop-0.4.4/bin/
iotop-0.4.4/bin/iotop
# cd iotop-0.4.4/
# ./setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7
creating build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/iotop
copying iotop/vmstat.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/iotop
copying iotop/genetlink.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/iotop
copying iotop/netlink.py -> build/lib.linux-i686-2.7/iotop
---Output Truncated---
iotop Usage
The iotop command must be run as root user. As normal user, when you run this command,
following error appears:
$ iotop
Netlink error: Operation not permitted (1)
iotop requires root or the NET_ADMIN capability.
By default, iotop is an interactive command like top. A sample output is
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
1 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % init
2 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kthreadd]
3 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ksoftirqd/0]
2052 be/4 rtkit 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rtkit-daemon
2053 be/4 rtkit 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rtkit-daemon
6 rt/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [migration/0]
7 rt/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [watchdog/0]
8 rt/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [migration/1]
2057 be/4 raghu 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % gconfd-2
10 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ksoftirqd/1]
11 rt/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [watchdog/1]
12 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [cpuset]
13 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [khelper]
14 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kdevtmpfs]
15 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [netns]
17 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [sync_supers]
18 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [bdi-default]
19 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kintegrityd]
20 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kblockd]
21 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ata_sff]
22 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [khubd]
23 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [md]
25 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kworker/1:1]
26 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [khungtaskd]
27 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kswapd0]
28 be/5 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ksmd]
29 be/7 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [khugepaged]
30 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [fsnotify_mark]
31 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ecryptfs-kthrea]
32 be/0 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [crypto]
In this output, at the very top, the first line is divided into two columns. The first column shows
the total DISK READ and the second column shows total DISK WRITE per second. Lines
following this line correspond to each process performing I/O. It lists the process ID, user
ownership, disk read, disk write, process name etc. for each process.
If you want to list only active processes, which are actually performing any disk I/O operation,
press o while iotop is running (to toggle), or alternatively, run iotop with -o option.
Total DISK READ: 124.51 K/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
2919 be/4 raghu 19.45 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % transmission-gtk
5567 be/4 raghu 124.51 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % totem /home/raghu/Downloads/01 Harjinder Singh - Mere Ram Rai.mp3
You can quit from iotop like top by pressing 'q'.
Following output is when running any io intense process, such as iozone
Total DISK READ: 123.96 K/s | Total DISK WRITE: 14.16 M/s
TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
468 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 104.59 K/s 0.00 % 56.66 % [jbd2/sda8-8]
7083 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 13.80 M/s 0.00 % 36.45 % ./iozone -a
5568 be/4 raghu 123.96 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % totem /home/raghu/Downloads/01 Harjinder Singh - Mere Ram Rai.mp3
TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
350 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.01 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
1 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % init
2 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kthreadd]
3 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ksoftirqd/0]
2052 be/4 rtkit 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rtkit-daemon
2053 be/4 rtkit 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rtkit-daemon
6 rt/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [migration/0]
Finally, the --version option prints the version number for iotop
# iotop --version
iotop 0.4.4