diff --git a/stack.sh b/stack.sh
index 7da41a98c8..382b75e7fc 100755
--- a/stack.sh
+++ b/stack.sh
@@ -860,11 +860,17 @@ init_service_check
 # -------
 
 # If enabled, systat has to start early to track OpenStack service startup.
-if is_service_enabled sysstat;then
+if is_service_enabled sysstat; then
+    # what we want to measure
+    # -u : cpu statitics
+    # -q : load
+    # -b : io load rates
+    # -w : process creation and context switch rates
+    SYSSTAT_OPTS="-u -q -b -w"
     if [[ -n ${SCREEN_LOGDIR} ]]; then
-        screen_it sysstat "cd ; sar -o $SCREEN_LOGDIR/$SYSSTAT_FILE $SYSSTAT_INTERVAL"
+        screen_it sysstat "cd $TOP_DIR; ./tools/sar_filter.py $SYSSTAT_OPTS -o $SCREEN_LOGDIR/$SYSSTAT_FILE $SYSSTAT_INTERVAL"
     else
-        screen_it sysstat "sar $SYSSTAT_INTERVAL"
+        screen_it sysstat "./tools/sar_filter.py $SYSSTAT_OPTS $SYSSTAT_INTERVAL"
     fi
 fi
 
diff --git a/tools/sar_filter.py b/tools/sar_filter.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ed8c19687c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/sar_filter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# Copyright 2014 Samsung Electronics Corp. All Rights Reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import re
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+
+def is_data_line(line):
+    timestamp, data = parse_line(line)
+    return re.search('\d\.d', data)
+
+
+def parse_line(line):
+    m = re.search('(\d\d:\d\d:\d\d \w\w)(\s+((\S+)\s*)+)', line)
+    if m:
+        date = m.group(1)
+        data = m.group(2).rstrip()
+        return date, data
+    else:
+        return None, None
+
+
+process = subprocess.Popen(
+    "sar %s" % " ".join(sys.argv[1:]),
+    shell=True,
+    stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+    stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+
+# Poll process for new output until finished
+
+start_time = ""
+header = ""
+data_line = ""
+printed_header = False
+current_ts = None
+while True:
+    nextline = process.stdout.readline()
+    if nextline == '' and process.poll() is not None:
+        break
+
+    date, data = parse_line(nextline)
+    # stop until we get to the first set of real lines
+    if not date:
+        continue
+
+    # now we eat the header lines, and only print out the header
+    # if we've never seen them before
+    if not start_time:
+        start_time = date
+        header += "%s   %s" % (date, data)
+    elif date == start_time:
+        header += "   %s" % data
+    elif not printed_header:
+        printed_header = True
+        print header
+
+    # now we know this is a data line, printing out if the timestamp
+    # has changed, and stacking up otherwise.
+    nextline = process.stdout.readline()
+    date, data = parse_line(nextline)
+    if date != current_ts:
+        current_ts = date
+        print data_line
+        data_line = "%s   %s" % (date, data)
+    else:
+        data_line += "   %s" % data
+
+    sys.stdout.flush()