Im trying to automate a long list of database experiments. I would like to save vmstat output while specific parts of the experiments are running.

Does something exist along the lines of time(1) or script(1) that I could use to say: " While this command is running, save vmstat 2(or similar) output to a file "

I am aware that vmstat gives my vmstat for the complete system including other processes, but that is OK for my usage.

(Running Ubuntu 9.10 if that makes a difference)