Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04: Free Troubleshooting Tool

This guide will walk you through how to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04. Sysdig is a powerful open-source, cross-platform system exploration, diagnosis, and troubleshooting tool designed for Linux environments. Written in the Lua programming language, Sysdig offers a comprehensive suite of features for capturing, saving, filtering, and analyzing system state and activity in real-time. It also comes equipped with Csysdig, a user-friendly curses-based UI, which is fully customizable. In essence, Sysdig consolidates the functionalities of various essential Linux troubleshooting commands – such as htop, iftop, lsof, strace, iostat, ps, netstat, and tcpdump – into a single, convenient application. This makes it an invaluable asset for any troubleshooting task, eliminating the need to juggle multiple command-line utilities.

Sysdig Features:

• Real-time System Monitoring: Capture and analyze system events as they occur.
• Container Visibility: Gain deep insights into container behavior and performance.
• Extensive Filtering: Filter events based on various criteria, such as process ID, user, or file.
• Customizable Output: Tailor the output format to suit your specific needs.
• Powerful Analysis: Analyze system behavior using built-in or custom chisels (scripts).
• User-Friendly Interface: The Csysdig interface provides a visual and interactive way to explore system data.
• Open Source: Benefit from the flexibility and community support of an open-source tool.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04 and demonstrate some of its basic usage. Before you begin, ensure you are logged in to your Ubuntu 22.04 server as a non-root user with sudo privileges. If you haven’t already, you can set this up by following a guide like the Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 22.04 guide, which covers the best practices for server setup.

Let’s proceed with the steps to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04.

1. Sysdig Tool Setup on Ubuntu 22.04

First, update your local package index using the following command:

sudo apt update

Next, install the necessary prerequisite packages by executing the following command:

sudo apt install gnupg software-properties-common -y

Now, use the following curl command to download Sysdig from the official repository and execute the installation script:

sudo curl -s https://s3.amazonaws.com/download.draios.com/stable/install-sysdig | sudo bash

Once the installation is complete, verify it by checking the installed Sysdig version:

sysdig --version

**Output**
sysdig version 0.30.2

Note: The version number may vary depending on the latest release.

2. How To Use Sysdig Tool on Ubuntu 22.04?

With Sysdig successfully installed, you can now start using it for system monitoring and troubleshooting.

Important Note: Sysdig requires root privileges to access critical system resources such as the /proc file system, /dev/sysdig* devices, and to auto-load the sysdig-probe kernel module. Therefore, you must run Sysdig commands with sudo.

To launch the Csysdig interface, execute the following command:

sudo csysdig

Note: If you encounter issues opening Sysdig, refer to the troubleshooting section at the end of this tutorial.

Within the Csysdig interface, press the F2 button to access the view selection menu.

Use the arrow keys to navigate through the available views and select the desired monitoring option.

Press the F2 button key again to return to the previous menu. The selection menu offers a comprehensive list of monitoring options.

Let’s explore some additional Sysdig command examples for Ubuntu 22.04.

Sysdig Commands

To display the top processes ranked by CPU utilization percentage, execute the following command:

sudo sysdig -c topprocs_cpu

The output will resemble the following:

To view the system’s network connections, use the following command:

sudo sysdig -c netstat

To list all system processes, run the following command:

sudo sysdig -c ps

Troubleshooting Sysdig

If you encounter the error message (Error opening terminal: xterm-256color) when attempting to use csysdig for the first time, it’s usually due to a missing terminal definition. You can resolve this by installing the ncurses-term package:

sudo apt install ncurses-term

Note: Only install (ncurses-term) if you encounter the specified error message.

Conclusion

This guide has demonstrated how to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04 and covered some of its basic usage. Sysdig is a very helpful tool.

Alternative Solutions for System Monitoring on Ubuntu 22.04

While Sysdig offers a powerful and comprehensive solution for system monitoring and troubleshooting, alternative tools exist that may be more suitable depending on your specific needs and preferences. Here are two alternative approaches:

1. Using htop and atop for Resource Monitoring

htop and atop are command-line tools that provide real-time resource monitoring capabilities. They offer a simpler and more lightweight alternative to Sysdig, particularly useful for quick system checks and resource usage analysis.

• htop: An interactive process viewer that displays a dynamic, real-time list of processes running on the system. It provides information about CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, and process IDs (PIDs). Unlike the standard top command, htop allows you to scroll vertically and horizontally, making it easier to view all processes and their details.

  To install htop on Ubuntu 22.04, use the following command:

  sudo apt install htop

  Once installed, run htop by simply typing htop in the terminal. You can use the F keys to sort processes by different criteria (e.g., CPU usage, memory usage).

• atop: An advanced system and process monitor that logs system activity for long-term analysis. It provides a detailed overview of system resources, including CPU, memory, disk, and network usage. Unlike htop, atop can log historical data, allowing you to analyze system performance over time.

  To install atop on Ubuntu 22.04, use the following command:

  sudo apt install atop

  After installation, atop starts logging system activity automatically. You can view the current system state by running atop in the terminal. To view historical data, use the atop -r command followed by the date and time of the log file you want to examine.

  For example:

  sudo atop -r /var/log/atop/atop_20240101 -b 08:00 -e 09:00

  This command will display the system activity logged on January 1, 2024, between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM.

These tools are great for checking on resource usage.

2. Utilizing netdata for Real-Time Performance Monitoring

netdata is a free, open-source, real-time performance monitoring tool designed for Linux systems. It provides detailed metrics about CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and more. What sets netdata apart is its web-based interface, which offers an intuitive and interactive way to visualize system performance data.

To install netdata on Ubuntu 22.04, you can use the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install netdata

After installation, netdata automatically starts collecting system metrics. To access the netdata web interface, open your web browser and navigate to http://your_server_ip:19999. Replace your_server_ip with the actual IP address of your Ubuntu 22.04 server.

The netdata web interface provides a comprehensive overview of system performance, with real-time charts and graphs that display various metrics. You can easily drill down into specific areas of interest, such as CPU usage per core, memory usage per process, or network traffic per interface.

These solutions don’t require root access by default.