Systems Performance, 2nd Edition

Appendix A

USE Method: Linux

This appendix contains a checklist for Linux derived from the USE method [Gregg 13d]. This is a method for checking system health, and identifying common resource bottlenecks and errors, introduced in Chapter 2, Methodologies, Section 2.5.9, The USE Method. Later chapters (5, 6, 7, 9, 10) described it in specific contexts and introduced tools to support its use.

Performance tools are often enhanced, and new ones are developed, so you should treat this as a starting point that will need updates. New observability frameworks and tools can also be developed to specifically make following the USE method easier.

Physical Resources

Component	Type	Metric
CPU	Utilization	Per CPU: mpstat -P ALL 1, sum of CPU-consuming ...