To monitor system resource usage over a period of time using atop, you can follow these steps:

1. Install atop if it's not already installed:

   On many Linux distributions, you can install atop using your package manager. For example, on Ubuntu or Debian, you can use:

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   sudo apt-get install atop

   On CentOS or Red Hat:

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   sudo yum install atop

2. Start the atop service:

   Once atop is installed, you can start it by running:

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   sudo systemctl start atop

   If you want it to start on boot:

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   sudo systemctl enable atop

3. Open atop to view real-time data:

   To view real-time system resource usage, simply run:

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   atop

   This will open an interactive interface showing various metrics.

4. Navigate the atop interface:

   • Use the arrow keys to navigate through different metrics.
   • Press t to toggle between various views (CPU, memory, disk, etc.).
   • Press h for help and q to quit.

5. Record Data to a File:

   To record data over a period of time, you can run atop in daemon mode and save the output to a log file:

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   sudo atop -a -w /path/to/save/logfile 600
   • -a stands for archive mode (daemon mode).
   • -w specifies the path to the log file.
   • 600 indicates the interval in seconds (in this example, it's set to 10 minutes).

   The above command will record data to the specified log file in 10-minute intervals.

6. View Recorded Data:

   You can view the recorded data by running:

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   atop -r /path/to/save/logfile

   This allows you to view historical data.

7. Exiting the atop Interface:

   To exit the atop interface, press q.

Remember to replace /path/to/save/logfile it with the actual path where you want to save the log file.

By using the atop utility, you can gather valuable insights into system resource usage over time, which can be helpful for troubleshooting and optimizing system performance.