iostat: See current usage rather than average

Question

I need to log disk statistics (MB/read, MB/write) of block devices. As I understand, iostat shows an average value. This is not exactly what I want when I'm about to monitor a server. Is there a way to show current values rather than the average?

Thanks

Answer 1

Use the -y option to suppress the first print being averages:

iostat -y 1 1

Answer 2

Try

iostat 1

or for more detailed view

iostat -x 1

You should also check out command sar. Actually, in your case sar is probably what you want since you need the actual readings instead of averages. For example, sar -d 1 1 shows you I/O statistics.