The "sar" command on Unix can be used to trigger the operating system to periodically collect and log CPU metrics from a Unix host. The SarCpuTest (run by an internal agent) exports metrics collected by sar into eG Enterprise.

The parameters of this test are as follows:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, the host name of the server for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• By default, the OUTFILE text box displays none. In this case, the test will execute the sar command (sar -u) and collect the CPU usage statistics. On the other hand, if the administrator is already executing the 'sar' command in the background, then, you can specify the name of the file containing the command output in the OUTFILE text box, and thus enable the test to read the usage metrics from that file. If need be, you can also specify a pattern in the OUTFILE text box. In such a case, the test will look for all file names that match this pattern and from among the files that match, choose the file with the latest timestamp as the one to collect the sar output from.

• Finally, click the Update button.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.