How to set up the sadc cron job on SLES12

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (SLES 12)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 2 (SLES 12 SP2)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 3 (SLES 12 SP3)

Situation

An event occurred on a systemd-based SLE system which needs analysis but the problem is no longer present. No relevant data nor logs from the time of the event are available.

Resolution

Start the sysstat.service unit so system activity statistics are periodically recorded by the System Activity Data Collector (sadc) cron job.

This cron job can be enabled permanently in two steps:

1. Start the service to begin data collection:

hostname:~ # systemctl start sysstat.service

2. Enable the service so it is started automatically on next boot:

hostname:~ # systemctl enable sysstat.service

Cause

Additional Information

Starting the sysstat.service systemd unit sets up a symlink named sysstat in the /etc/cron.d directory which points to the /etc/sysstat/sysstat.cron file. This link is removed when the service is stopped.

By default, system activity data are collected every ten minutes and written to /var/log/sa/sa## data files, where ## corresponds to the day of the month. These data files can be read with the "sar" program. This is the sa1 component of sadc.

A daily report is run every six hours which parses the sa## data files and outputs the activity information into to text files. These text reports are written to /var/log/sa/sar##. This is the sa2 component of sadc.

The frequency of either one of these crons can be changed in the /etc/sysstat/sysstat.cron file.

More details about these features are available in their respective man pages.

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