Storage system information and the stats command

The stats command provides access, through the command line or scripts, to a set of predefined data collection tools in Data ONTAP called counters. These counters provide you with information about your storage system, either instantaneously or over a period of time.

Stats counters are grouped by what object they provide data for. Stats objects can be physical entities such as system, processor or disk; logical entities such as volume or aggregate; protocols such as iscsi or fcp, or other modules on your storage system. To see a complete list of the stat objects, you can use the stats list objects command.

Each object can have zero or more instances on your storage system, depending on your system configuration. Each instance of an object has its own name. For example, for a system with two processors, the instance names are processor0 and processor1.

Counters have an associated privilege mode; if you are not currently running with sufficient privilege for a particular counter, it is not recognized as a valid counter.

When you use the stats command to get information about your storage system, you need to make the following decisions:

What counters do you want to collect information from, on what object instances?
Do you want to specify the counters on the command line or do you want to use a predetermined set of counters called a preset file?
Some preset files are provided with Data ONTAP. You can also create your own.
How do you want the information to be returned and formatted?
You can control where the information is returned (to the console or to a file) and how it is formatted.
How do you want to invoke the stats command?
You can invoke the stats command using the following methods:
- A single invocation
  This method retrieves information from the specified counters once and stops.
- A periodic invocation
  For this method, information is retrieved from the specified counters repeatedly, at a time interval of your choice. You can specify a number of iterations to be performed, or the stats command can run until you stop it explicitly.
- As a background process
  This method enables you to initiate a stats command process that runs in the background until you terminate it explicitly, when the average values for the specified counters are returned.

Viewing the list of available counters
You can display the list of counters for a particular object on the command line.
Getting detailed information about a counter
Getting detailed information about a counter helps you understand and process the information you get from a stats command.
Using the stats command interactively in singleton mode
Using the stats command in singleton mode enables you to see a set of information about the system's current state at the command line.
Using the stats command interactively in repeat mode
Using the stats command in repeat mode enables you to see a statistic every few seconds.
Collecting system information by using the stats command in background mode
You can collect system information from a specified set of counters over time in the background.
Changing the output of a stats command
Data ONTAP enables you to control the format and destination of the output of the stats command. This could be useful if you are processing the information with another tool or script, or if you want to store the output in a file so you can process it at a later time.
About the stats preset files
Data ONTAP provides some XML files that output a predetermined set of statistics that you can use without having to construct a script or type in a complicated command on the command line.

Parent topic: System Information