Writing afsmonitor Statistics to a File
| Chapter 8. Monitoring and Auditing AFS Performance |

## Writing afsmonitor Statistics to a File

All of the statistical information collected and displayed by the afsmonitor program can be preserved by writing it to an output file. You can create an output file by using the -output argument when you startup the afsmonitor process. You can use the output file to track process performance over long periods of time and to apply post-processing techniques to further analyze system trends.

The afsmonitor program output file is a simple ASCII file that records the information reported by the File Server and Cache Manager screens. The output file has the following format:

       time   host_name CM|FS   list_of_measured_values

and specifies the time at which the list_of_measured_values were gathered from the Cache Manager (CM) or File Server (FS) process housed on host_name. On those occasion where probes fail, the value `-1` is reported instead of the list_of_measured_values.

This file format provides several advantages:

- It can be viewed using a standard editor. If you intend to view this file frequently, use the -detailed flag with the -output argument. It formats the output file in a way that is easier to read.

- It can be passed through filters to extract desired information using the standard set of UNIX tools.

- It is suitable for long term storage of the afsmonitor program output.

Configuring the afsmonitor Program |  | To start the afsmonitor Program