sysdig Examples - draios/sysdig GitHub Wiki

This is an ever growing list of cool things you can do with sysdig commands.

Got another interesting idea? Anything that you would find useful and that isn't here? Feel free to add to this list, or send a message to the sysdig mailing list to discuss!

Note: Make sure you also take a look at csysdig, which packs a lot of useful functionality into a simple to use UI.
Note: The command lines on this page return live data. However, you can use them with trace files too by just adding the -r switch.
Note: If you need a list of basic sysdig commands, for instance to learn how to create a trace file, see the quick reference guide

Networking

  • See the top processes in terms of network bandwidth usage

      sysdig -c topprocs_net
    
  • Show the network data exchanged with the host 192.168.0.1

    • As binary:

        sysdig -s2000 -X -c echo_fds fd.cip=192.168.0.1  
      
    • As ASCII:

        sysdig -s2000 -A -c echo_fds fd.cip=192.168.0.1
      
  • See the top local server ports

    • In terms of established connections:

        sysdig -c fdcount_by fd.sport "evt.type=accept"  
      
    • In terms of total bytes:

        sysdig -c fdbytes_by fd.sport
      
  • See the top client IPs

    • In terms of established connections

        sysdig -c fdcount_by fd.cip "evt.type=accept"  
      
    • In terms of total bytes

        sysdig -c fdbytes_by fd.cip
      
  • List all the incoming connections that are not served by apache.

      sysdig -p"%proc.name %fd.name" "evt.type=accept and proc.name!=httpd"
    

Containers

  • View the list of containers running on the machine and their resource usage

      sudo csysdig -vcontainers
    
  • View the list of processes with container context

      sudo csysdig -pc
    
  • View the CPU usage of the processes running inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c topprocs_cpu container.name=wordpress1
    
  • View the network bandwidth usage of the processes running inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c topprocs_net container.name=wordpress1
    
  • View the processes using most network bandwidth inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c topprocs_net container.name=wordpress1
    
  • View the top files in terms of I/O bytes inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c topfiles_bytes container.name=wordpress1
    
  • View the top network connections inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c topconns container.name=wordpress1
    
  • Show all the interactive commands executed inside the wordpress1 container

      sudo sysdig -pc -c spy_users container.name=wordpress1
    

Application

  • See all the GET HTTP requests made by the machine

      sudo sysdig -s 2000 -A -c echo_fds fd.port=80 and evt.buffer contains GET
    
  • See all the SQL select queries made by the machine

      sudo sysdig -s 2000 -A -c echo_fds evt.buffer contains SELECT 
    
  • See queries made via apache to an external MySQL server happening in real time

      sysdig -s 2000 -A -c echo_fds fd.sip=192.168.30.5 and proc.name=apache2 and evt.buffer contains SELECT
    

Disk I/O

  • See the top processes in terms of disk bandwidth usage

      sysdig -c topprocs_file
    
  • List the processes that are using a high number of files

      sysdig -c fdcount_by proc.name "fd.type=file"
    
  • See the top files in terms of read+write bytes

      sysdig -c topfiles_bytes
    
  • Print the top files that apache has been reading from or writing to

      sysdig -c topfiles_bytes proc.name=httpd
    
  • Basic opensnoop: snoop file opens as they occur

      sysdig -p "%12user.name %6proc.pid %12proc.name %3fd.num %fd.typechar %fd.name" evt.type=open
    
  • See the top directories in terms of R+W disk activity

      sysdig -c fdbytes_by fd.directory "fd.type=file"
    
  • See the top files in terms of R+W disk activity in the /tmp directory

      sysdig -c fdbytes_by fd.filename "fd.directory=/tmp/"
    
  • Observe the I/O activity on all the files named 'passwd'

      sysdig -A -c echo_fds "fd.filename=passwd"
    
  • Display I/O activity by FD type

      sysdig -c fdbytes_by fd.type
    

Processes and CPU usage

  • See the top processes in terms of CPU usage

      sysdig -c topprocs_cpu
    
  • Observe the standard output of a process

      sysdig -s4096 -A -c stdout proc.name=cat
    

Performance and Errors

  • See the files where most time has been spent

      sysdig -c topfiles_time
    
  • See the files where apache spent most time

      sysdig -c topfiles_time proc.name=httpd
    
  • See the top processes in terms of I/O errors

      sysdig -c topprocs_errors
    
  • See the top files in terms of I/O errors

      sysdig -c topfiles_errors
    
  • See all the failed disk I/O calls

      sysdig fd.type=file and evt.failed=true
    
  • See all the failed file opens by httpd

      sysdig "proc.name=httpd and evt.type=open and evt.failed=true"
    
  • See the system calls where most time has been spent

      sysdig -c topscalls_time
    
  • See the top system calls returning errors

      sysdig -c topscalls "evt.failed=true"
    
  • snoop failed file opens as they occur

      sysdig -p "%12user.name %6proc.pid %12proc.name %3fd.num %fd.typechar %fd.name" evt.type=open and evt.failed=true
    
  • Print the file I/O calls that have a latency greater than 1ms:

      sysdig -c fileslower 1
    

Security

  • Show the directories that the user "root" visits

      sysdig -p"%evt.arg.path" "evt.type=chdir and user.name=root"
    
  • Observe ssh activity

      sysdig -A -c echo_fds fd.name=/dev/ptmx and proc.name=sshd
    
  • Show every file open that happens in /etc

      sysdig evt.type=open and fd.name contains /etc
    
  • Show the ID of all the login shells that have launched the "tar" command

      sysdig -r file.scap -c list_login_shells tar
    
  • Show all the commands executed by the login shell with the given ID

      sysdig -r trace.scap.gz -c spy_users proc.loginshellid=5459
    
  • Applied use of sysdig for forensics analysis:

Tracing

  • Create a trace to measure website latency:

      echo ">::website-latency::" > /dev/null
    
      curl -s http://sysdig.org > /dev/null	
    
      echo "<::website-latency::" > /dev/null
    
  • Measure a span defined by a login attempt, identified by the thread:

      echo ">:t:login:username=loris:" > /dev/null
    
      echo "<:t:login::" > /dev/null
    
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