What is iostat?

‘Iostat’ is a computer monitoring system that is short for “input/output statistics.”  As it name suggests, iostat is used to get statistical data regarding a computer’s input and output devices like disk drives, for example.  With the iostat command, one will be able to get the actual status of system drives in terms of their performance.

Through iostat, one will be able to check if there are performance-related issues on the storage disks or devices that are part of a computer network.  Aside from transfer rates, details on boot times and intervals are provided through a report generated by the system.  Having this report will help system administrators and IT managers, for example, to properly configure or re-configure their computer systems to ensure that all storage devices are working properly and efficiently.  By getting data from the iostat reports, network support systems will be enhanced, and the efficiency of the whole system will be boosted because of a more balanced load between the input and output devices.

Typical iostat reports indicate various details about the input/output load of devices and file systems.  The standard layout of the report involves one line for one device.  This is the general and standard rule as this will do away with the confusion of seeing too many figures and details on the iostat report.  The first column on the iostat report typically displays the name of the devices that are part of the network. The other columns will then display various statuses including details on transfer rates, boot intervals, and service times among many other details.

The iostat command or function is common in computers running under the Linux, UNIX, and Solaris platforms.  Although the syntax may differ slightly in these different platforms, the command basically gives the same response, and that is to provide the status of the network’s input and output devices.