PHP script to log server load (top, ps aux) into files for a period of time

Monitor and log server load

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Here's a simple PHP script that you can execute that logs top and ps aux outputs in files every 30 seconds.
Useful if you know your server is offline at night and you want to know what happens and what services run.

<?php
/**
 * logs 'top' and 'ps -aux' server loads
 * 
 * (c) 2019 24hoursmedia - www.24hoursmedia.com
 */

$output_dir = '~/tmp-logs';
$interval = 30;         // interval between probing
$duration = 3600;       // seconds


exec('mkdir -p ' . $output_dir);
$expires = time() + $duration;
while (time() < $expires) {
        echo 'polling..' . PHP_EOL;     
        $basename = date('Ymd-His');
        
        $path = $output_dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'psaux-' . $basename . '.txt';
        $cmd = "ps aux > " . $path;

        exec($cmd);
        $path = $output_dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'top-' . $basename . '.txt';
        $cmd = "top -b -n 1 > " . $path;
        exec($cmd);
        echo 'sleeping..';
        sleep($interval);
}
echo 'done';

PHP script to log server load (top, ps aux) into files for a period of time

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