Parse Old Sys-snap Data

Here, we outline how to parse old data in Sys-snap, which is used to track down the causes of resource shortages, whether CPU or memory-related, even when no one is looking.

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Install Sys-snap
Using Sys-snap

Parse Old Data

IMPORTANT: This solution will require root access. If this needs to be obtained, follow the guide on requesting root access.
TIP: Take a look at GitHub's article about Sys-snap for more information.

1. SSH into the server as root
2. Ensure that Sys-snap is installed by running sys-snap.pl --check
   TIP: If Sys-snap is not installed, install it.
3. Create a new directory to extract the archived file
   IMPORTANT: Extracting the archived file directly will overwrite the current system-snapshot directory. To avoid this, a new directory should be created.
   
   1. Run the command mkdir <new directory>
      REPLACE: <new directory> with the archived file name without the tar.gz extension.
   2. Extract the archived system-snapshot file into the newly created directory by running the command tar -xf <archived file> -C <new directory>
      1. REPLACE: <archived file> with the name of the tar.gz file and <new directory> with the name of the newly created directory
4. Use the --dir flag by running sys-snap.pl --print <start-time end-time> --dir=PATH/TO/UNARCHIVEDDIR to parse the old data
   REPLACE: PATH/TO/UNARCHIVEDDIR with the path of the unarchived system-snapshot directory.
   EXAMPLE:

   ~# mkdir system-snapshot.20240304.1342 && tar -xf \
   > system-snapshot.20240304.1342.tar.gz -C system-snapshot.20240304.1342
   ~# sys-snap.pl --print 10:00 11:00 \
   > --dir=system-snapshot.20240304.1342/root/system-snapshot | head -9
   user: root
   cpu-score: 2.60
   memory-score: 629.20
   user: login
   cpu-score: 2.30
   memory-score: 0.40
   user: dovecot
   cpu-score: 1.00
   memory-score: 4.30