Get OS-level system information

You can get some limited memory information from the Runtime class. It really isn't exactly what you are looking for, but I thought I would provide it for the sake of completeness. Here is a small example. Edit: You can also get disk usage information from the java.io.File class. The disk space usage stuff requires Java 1.6 or higher.

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    /* Total number of processors or cores available to the JVM */
    System.out.println("Available processors (cores): " + 
        Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());

    /* Total amount of free memory available to the JVM */
    System.out.println("Free memory (bytes): " + 
        Runtime.getRuntime().freeMemory());

    /* This will return Long.MAX_VALUE if there is no preset limit */
    long maxMemory = Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory();
    /* Maximum amount of memory the JVM will attempt to use */
    System.out.println("Maximum memory (bytes): " + 
        (maxMemory == Long.MAX_VALUE ? "no limit" : maxMemory));

    /* Total memory currently available to the JVM */
    System.out.println("Total memory available to JVM (bytes): " + 
        Runtime.getRuntime().totalMemory());

    /* Get a list of all filesystem roots on this system */
    File[] roots = File.listRoots();

    /* For each filesystem root, print some info */
    for (File root : roots) {
      System.out.println("File system root: " + root.getAbsolutePath());
      System.out.println("Total space (bytes): " + root.getTotalSpace());
      System.out.println("Free space (bytes): " + root.getFreeSpace());
      System.out.println("Usable space (bytes): " + root.getUsableSpace());
    }
  }
}

The java.lang.management package does give you a whole lot more info than Runtime - for example it will give you heap memory (ManagementFactory.getMemoryMXBean().getHeapMemoryUsage()) separate from non-heap memory (ManagementFactory.getMemoryMXBean().getNonHeapMemoryUsage()).

You can also get process CPU usage (without writing your own JNI code), but you need to cast the java.lang.management.OperatingSystemMXBean to a com.sun.management.OperatingSystemMXBean. This works on Windows and Linux, I haven't tested it elsewhere.

For example ... call the get getCpuUsage() method more frequently to get more accurate readings.

public class PerformanceMonitor { 
    private int  availableProcessors = getOperatingSystemMXBean().getAvailableProcessors();
    private long lastSystemTime      = 0;
    private long lastProcessCpuTime  = 0;

    public synchronized double getCpuUsage()
    {
        if ( lastSystemTime == 0 )
        {
            baselineCounters();
            return;
        }

        long systemTime     = System.nanoTime();
        long processCpuTime = 0;

        if ( getOperatingSystemMXBean() instanceof OperatingSystemMXBean )
        {
            processCpuTime = ( (OperatingSystemMXBean) getOperatingSystemMXBean() ).getProcessCpuTime();
        }

        double cpuUsage = (double) ( processCpuTime - lastProcessCpuTime ) / ( systemTime - lastSystemTime );

        lastSystemTime     = systemTime;
        lastProcessCpuTime = processCpuTime;

        return cpuUsage / availableProcessors;
    }

    private void baselineCounters()
    {
        lastSystemTime = System.nanoTime();

        if ( getOperatingSystemMXBean() instanceof OperatingSystemMXBean )
        {
            lastProcessCpuTime = ( (OperatingSystemMXBean) getOperatingSystemMXBean() ).getProcessCpuTime();
        }
    }
}

I think the best method out there is to implement the SIGAR API by Hyperic. It works for most of the major operating systems ( darn near anything modern ) and is very easy to work with. The developer(s) are very responsive on their forum and mailing lists. I also like that it is GPL2 Apache licensed. They provide a ton of examples in Java too!

SIGAR == System Information, Gathering And Reporting tool.