UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

We have created a crontab to output the sar result as below:
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /usr/lib/sa/sa1

However, the sar output was being truncated off, meaning, rather than capturing the output in an interval of 5 minutes, it stopped at certain hour and will not be resumed. The sar output will only be resumed in the next day.

Any advice on how to prevent the sar output from being truncated off? Please advise. Thanks

Version of unix?

1) Check disc space in /usr/adm/sa - or wherever your sa1 is writing sa* data files. Important to cd to the directory and do a disc space enquiry there. Some systems have links to /var though the scripts refer to /usr .
System accounting will stop if disc space is low.

2) Consider maintaining the sa* data files. This is usually done in the reporting script /usr/adm/sa/sa2 . Read the script before executing because default behaviour can be to delete sar* and sa* after only 7 days.

3) I assume that your truncation is visible with "sar -f /usr/adm/sa/sa.. " command rather than when reading a /usr/adm/sa/sar.. report. If it is in the sar report, try looking at the time parameters in the sa2 cron.

Our server is running on Solaris version 9 platform.

I have used du -h to check the utilisation of /usr/adm/sa and found that it is only using 27M. This directory only contain the output of sa (from sa01 to sa31).

Was unable to locate the /usr/adm/sa/sa2 script.

The output of "sar -f /usr/adm/sa/sa.." is also being truncated off even though its file size is same as other days

Kindly advise. Thanks

See "man sadc" for location of the sa1/sa2 etc. scripts and example crons.
I suspect that you need to maintain the /usr/adm/sa/saxx files such that you are not trying to append to them the next month.
Beware that the sa1 and sa2 scripts are really just examples and you can make your own to suit your requirements. Beware that most versions of sa2 delete sa data files after only 7 days.