System Check

Supported OS Linux Mac OS Windows

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Overview

Get metrics from your base system about the CPU, IO, load, memory, swap, and uptime. The following checks are also system-related:

Setup

Installation

The System check is included in the Datadog Agent package. No additional installation is needed on your server.

Data Collected

Metrics

system.cpu.context_switches
(count)
Count of the number of context switches
system.cpu.guest
(gauge)
The percent of time the CPU spent running the virtual processor. Only applies to hypervisors.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.idle
(gauge)
Percent of time the CPU spent in an idle state.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.interrupt
(gauge)
The percentage of time that the processor is spending on handling Interrupts.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.iowait
(gauge)
The percent of time the CPU spent waiting for IO operations to complete.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.stolen
(gauge)
The percent of time the virtual CPU spent waiting for the hypervisor to service another virtual CPU. Only applies to virtual machines.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.system
(gauge)
The percent of time the CPU spent running the kernel.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.user
(gauge)
The percent of time the CPU spent running user space processes.
Shown as percent
system.cpu.num_cores
(gauge)
The number of CPU cores
system.fs.file_handles.allocated
(gauge)
Number of allocated file handles over the system.
Shown as file
system.fs.file_handles.allocated_unused
(gauge)
Number of allocated file handles unused over the system.
Shown as file
system.fs.file_handles.in_use
(gauge)
The amount of used allocated file handles over the system max.
Shown as fraction
system.fs.file_handles.max
(gauge)
Maximum of allocated files handles over the system
Shown as file
system.fs.file_handles.used
(gauge)
Number of allocated file handles used over the system.
Shown as file
system.fs.inodes.free
(gauge)
The number of free inodes.
Shown as inode
system.fs.inodes.in_use
(gauge)
The number of inodes in use as a fraction of the total.
Shown as fraction
system.fs.inodes.total
(gauge)
The total number of inodes.
Shown as inode
system.fs.inodes.used
(gauge)
The number of inodes in use.
Shown as inode
system.io.avg_q_sz
(gauge)
The average queue size of requests issued to the device.
Shown as request
system.io.avg_rq_sz
(gauge)
The average size of requests issued to the device (Linux only).
Shown as sector
system.io.await
(gauge)
The average time for I/O requests issued to the device to be served. This includes the time spent by the requests in queue and the time spent servicing them (Linux only).
Shown as millisecond
system.io.block_in
(gauge)
The amount of I/O block read per second.
Shown as block
system.io.block_out
(gauge)
The amount of I/O block written per second.
Shown as block
system.io.bytes_per_s
(gauge)
Byte transfer rate for this device (Datadog Agent v5 on Darwin-Mac only).
Shown as byte
system.io.r_await
(gauge)
The average time for read requests issued to the device to be served. This includes the time spent by the requests in queue and the time spent servicing them (Linux only).
Shown as millisecond
system.io.r_s
(gauge)
The number of read requests issued to the device per second.
Shown as request
system.io.rkb_s
(gauge)
The number of kibibytes read from the device per second.
Shown as kibibyte
system.io.rrqm_s
(gauge)
The number of read requests merged per second that were queued to the device (Linux only).
Shown as request
system.io.svctm
(gauge)
The average service time for requests issued to the device (Linux only).
Shown as millisecond
system.io.util
(gauge)
The percent of CPU time during which I/O requests were issued to the device (Linux only).
Shown as percent
system.io.w_await
(gauge)
The average time for write requests issued to the device to be served. This includes the time spent by the requests in queue and the time spent servicing them (Linux only).
Shown as millisecond
system.io.w_s
(gauge)
The number of write requests issued to the device per second.
Shown as request
system.io.wkb_s
(gauge)
The number of kibibytes written to the device per second.
Shown as kibibyte
system.io.wrqm_s
(gauge)
The number of write requests merged per second that were queued to the device (Linux only).
Shown as request
system.load.1
(gauge)
The average system load over one minute. (Linux only)
system.load.15
(gauge)
The average system load over fifteen minutes. (Linux only)
system.load.5
(gauge)
The average system load over five minutes. (Linux only)
system.load.norm.1
(gauge)
The average system load over one minute normalized by the number of CPUs. (Linux only)
system.load.norm.15
(gauge)
The average system load over fifteen minutes normalized by the number of CPUs. (Linux only)
system.load.norm.5
(gauge)
The average system load over five minutes normalized by the number of CPUs. (Linux only)
system.mem.buffered
(gauge)
The amount of physical RAM used for file buffers.
Shown as byte
system.mem.cached
(gauge)
The amount of physical RAM used as cache memory.
Shown as byte
system.mem.commit_limit
(gauge)
The total amount of memory currently available to be allocated on the system, based on the overcommit ratio. (Linux only)
Shown as byte
system.mem.committed
(gauge)
The amount of physical memory for which space has been reserved on the disk paging file in case it must be written back to disk.
Shown as byte
system.mem.committed_as
(gauge)
The amount of memory presently allocated on the system, even if it has not been "used" by processes as of yet. (Linux only)
Shown as byte
system.mem.free
(gauge)
The amount of free RAM.
Shown as byte
system.mem.nonpaged
(gauge)
The amount of physical memory used by the OS for objects that cannot be written to disk, but must remain in physical memory as long as they are allocated.
Shown as byte
system.mem.page_free
(gauge)
The amount of the page file that's free. Reported by Windows Agents in versions < 5.12.
Shown as byte
system.mem.page_pct_free
(gauge)
The amount of the page file in use as a fraction of the total. Reported by Windows Agents in versions < 5.12.
Shown as fraction
system.mem.page_tables
(gauge)
The amount of memory dedicated to the lowest page table level. Reported by Windows Agents in versions < 5.12.
Shown as byte
system.mem.page_total
(gauge)
The total size of the page file. Reported by Windows Agents in versions < 5.12.
Shown as byte
system.mem.page_used
(gauge)
The amount of the page file in use. Reported by Windows Agents in versions < 5.12.
Shown as byte
system.mem.paged
(gauge)
The amount of physical memory used by the OS for objects that can be written to disk when they are not in use.
Shown as byte
system.mem.pagefile.free
(gauge)
The maximum amount of memory the Agent process can commit, in bytes. This value is equal to or smaller than the system-wide available commit value. See MEMORYSTATUSEX::ullAvailPageFile. Reported by Windows Agents from version 5.12 to 6.0 and 6/7.14 onwards.
Shown as byte
system.mem.pagefile.pct_free
(gauge)
The maximum amount of memory the Agent process can commit as a fraction of the current committed memory limit. Reported by Windows Agents from version 5.12 to 6.0 and 6/7.14 onwards.
Shown as fraction
system.mem.pagefile.total
(gauge)
The current committed memory limit for the system or the Agent process, whichever is smaller, in bytes. See MEMORYSTATUSEX::ullTotalPageFile. Reported by Windows Agents from version 5.12 to 6.0 and 6/7.14 onwards.
Shown as byte
system.mem.pagefile.used
(gauge)
The current committed memory limit minus the maximum amount of memory the Agent process can commit. Reported by Windows Agents from version 5.12 to 6.0 and 6/7.14 onwards.
Shown as byte
system.mem.pct_usable
(gauge)
The amount of usable physical RAM as a fraction of the total.
Shown as fraction
system.mem.shared
(gauge)
The amount of physical RAM used as shared memory.
Shown as byte
system.mem.slab
(gauge)
The amount of memory used by the kernel to cache data structures for its own use.
Shown as byte
system.mem.slab_reclaimable
(gauge)
The part of slab memory that might be reclaimed (i.e. caches)
Shown as byte
system.mem.total
(gauge)
The total amount of physical RAM.
Shown as byte
system.mem.usable
(gauge)
Value of MemAvailable from /proc/meminfo if present, but falls back to adding free + buffered + cached memory if not.
Shown as byte
system.mem.used
(gauge)
The amount of RAM in use.
Shown as byte
system.proc.count
(gauge)
The number of processes (Windows only).
Shown as process
system.proc.queue_length
(gauge)
The number of threads that are observed as delayed in the processor ready queue and are waiting to be executed (Windows only).
Shown as thread
system.swap.cached
(gauge)
The amount of swap used as cache memory.
Shown as byte
system.swap.free
(gauge)
The amount of free swap space.
Shown as byte
system.swap.pct_free
(gauge)
The amount of swap space not in use as a fraction of the total.
Shown as fraction
system.swap.swapped_in
(gauge)
Bytes of memory swapped in
system.swap.swapped_out
(gauge)
Bytes of memory swapped out
system.swap.total
(gauge)
The total amount of swap space.
Shown as byte
system.swap.used
(gauge)
The amount of swap space in use.
Shown as byte
system.swap.swap_in
(gauge)
The amount of memory swapped in.
Shown as byte
system.swap.swap_out
(gauge)
The amount of memory swapped out.
Shown as byte
system.uptime
(gauge)
The amount of time the system has been working and available.
Shown as second

Events

The System check does not include any events.

Service checks

The System check does not include any service checks.

Tags

All system metrics are automatically tagged with host:<HOST_NAME>. Additionally, the following namespaces are tagged with device:<DEVICE_NAME>.

  • system.disk.*
  • system.fs.inodes.*
  • system.io.*
  • system.net.*

System Core

This check collects the number of CPU cores on a host and CPU times, such as system, user, idle, etc.

Setup

Installation

The system core check is included in the Datadog Agent package. No additional installation is needed on your server.

Configuration

  1. Edit the system_core.d/conf.yaml file in the conf.d/ folder at the root of your Agent’s configuration directory. See the sample system_core.d/conf.yaml for all available configuration options. Note: At least one entry is required under instances to enable the check, for example:

    init_config:
    instances:
        - foo: bar
        tags:
            - key:value
    
  2. Restart the Agent.

Validation

Run the Agent’s status subcommand and look for system_core under the Checks section.

Data Collected

Metrics

system.core.count
(gauge)
The number of CPU cores on the host
Shown as core
system.core.user
(gauge)
The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in user mode
Shown as percent
system.core.user.total
(gauge)
The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in user mode
Shown as percent
system.core.system
(gauge)
The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in kernel mode
Shown as percent
system.core.system.total
(gauge)
The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in kernel mode
Shown as percent
system.core.idle
(gauge)
The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent idle
Shown as percent
system.core.idle.total
(gauge)
The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent idle
Shown as percent
system.core.nice
(gauge)
[Unix] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in niced (prioritized) processes in user mode
Shown as percent
system.core.nice.total
(gauge)
[Unix] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in niced (prioritized) processes in user mode
Shown as percent
system.core.guest
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel
Shown as percent
system.core.guest.total
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel
Shown as percent
system.core.iowait
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent waiting for I/O to complete
Shown as percent
system.core.iowait.total
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent waiting for I/O to complete
Shown as percent
system.core.irq
(gauge)
[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing hardware interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.irq.total
(gauge)
[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing hardware interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.softirq
(gauge)
[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing software interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.softirq.total
(gauge)
[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing software interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.guest_nice
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a niced guest
Shown as percent
system.core.guest_nice.total
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent running running a niced guest
Shown as percent
system.core.steal
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel
Shown as percent
system.core.steal.total
(gauge)
[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel
Shown as percent
system.core.interrupt
(gauge)
[Windows] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing hardware interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.interrupt.total
(gauge)
[Windows] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing hardware interrupts
Shown as percent
system.core.dpc
(gauge)
[Windows] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs)
Shown as percent
system.core.dpc.total
(gauge)
[Windows] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs)
Shown as percent
system.core.frequency
(gauge)
The frequency or clock speed a given CPU
Shown as megahertz

Depending on the platform, the check may collect other CPU time metrics, such as system.core.interrupt on Windows, system.core.iowait on Linux, etc.

Events

The System Core check does not include any events.

Service checks

datadog.agent.up
Returns OK if the Agent is running properly. Alerts are created if the host does not respond.
Statuses: ok, critical

System Swap

This check monitors the number of bytes a host has swapped in and out.

Setup

Installation

The system swap check is included in the Datadog Agent package. No additional installation is needed on your server.

Configuration

  1. Edit the system_swap.d/conf.yaml file in the conf.d/ folder at the root of your Agent’s configuration directory. See the sample system_swap.d/conf.yaml for all available configuration options. Note: This check takes no initial configuration.

  2. Restart the Agent.

Validation

Run the Agent’s status subcommand and look for system_swap under the Checks section.

Data Collected

Metrics

system.swap.swapped_in
(gauge)
Bytes of memory swapped in
system.swap.swapped_out
(gauge)
Bytes of memory swapped out

Events

The System Swap check does not include any events.

Service checks

The System Swap check does not include any service checks.

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