Extending vmplot

Taking the work already done with vmplot.sh, a useful tool for MySQL performance tuning by Yves and Matt at BigDBAHead, and in true Open Source fashion I’ve enhanced and modified for my own purposes.

These changes include:

  • Error checking for ‘gnuplot’ command on the system
  • Eliminate the first row of sample data, as this is often not a complete sample for the vmstat duration.
  • Created a HTML output file for easy browser viewing
  • Changed Memory scale values from Kilobytes to Megabytes
  • Resizing png’s for optimal 1024×768 display output (2 per row)

Download vmplot

And I get:

So more specifics of what I did.

Install gnuplot.

$ yum install gnuplot

Create vmstat sample file.

vmstat 1 100 > vmstat.out

Generate output graphs (need to work out those warnings)

./vmplot -i vmstat.out -o tmp
Warning: empty y range [0:0], adjusting to [-1:1]
Warning: empty y range [0:0], adjusting to [0:1]

And then I can view via a browser, in this case http://localhost/tmp/vmplot.htm

Some worthwhile references include Gnuplot Reference Manual , Gnuplot Examples and Gnuplot in Action

Tagged with: Databases Linux MySQL Open Source

Related Posts

MySQL and Heatwave Summit Presentation

MySQL and Heatwave Summit Presentation

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the MySQL and Heatwave Summit in San Francisco. I discussed the impact of the new MySQL 8.0 default caching_sha2_password authentication, replacing the mysql_native_password authentication that was the default for approximately 20 of the 30 years that MySQL has existed.

Read more
Readyset QueryPilot Announcement

Readyset QueryPilot Announcement

At the MySQL and Heatwave Summit 2025 today, Readyset announced a new data systems architecture pattern named Readyset QueryPilot . This architecture which can front a MySQL or PostgreSQL database infrastructure, combines the enterprise-grade ProxySQL and Readyset caching with intelligent query monitoring and routing to help support applications scale and produce more predictable results with varied workloads.

Read more
More CPUs or Newer CPUs

More CPUs or Newer CPUs

In a CPU-bound database workload, regardless of price, would you scale-up or scale-new? What if price was the driving factor, would you scale-up or scale-new? I am using as a baseline the first available AWS Graviton2 processor for RDS (r6g).

Read more