Admins are obsessed with statistics. It makes sense, given that knowing those stats can mean the difference between a smoothly running server and one that cannot handle the necessary load or traffic. To that end, IT pros go to great lengths to gather the statistics of their servers. And Linux admins have a vast array of tools for that task. One such tool is the curses-based Saidar. 

Saidar is an easy-to-use command line tool that can present stats for CPU, processes, load, memory, swap, network and disk I/O, and file systems information. That’s all important information–especially when you’re tasked with keeping those servers running well. 

So let’s get Saidar installed on both Ubuntu- and Red Hat-based distributions. 

First I’ll demonstrate on Ubuntu Server. To install Saidar on this debian-based distribution, log in to the server and issue the command: 

sudo apt-get install saidar -y

To do the same on a Red Hat-based distribution, you must first enable the EPEL repository with the command: 

sudo dnf install epel-release -y

With the repository enabled, install Saidar with the command: 

sudo dnf install saidar -y

Note: At this moment, Saidar isn’t available for RHEL 8 and CentOS 8, so if you’re using either of those distributions, you’re out of luck, for now. 

Once Saidar is installed, you can start it with the command:  

saidar

You should see a real-time listing of all the stats Saidar can present. You can also have Saidar display stats using color with the command:  

saidar -c

This command might make it easier for some to view the output. 

This is a great tool for any Linux admin who needs to keep tabs on Linux server stats. Give Saidar a whirl and see if it doesn’t become your go to Linux server stat tool.

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