[rhn-users] CPU usage problem on the Enterprise AS4.0

[Jesse Becker]

On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 02:03:15PM -0500, Gary Wilson Jr wrote:
> I have seen many different types of top outputs.  In your case, it seems
> that top is reporting the total %CPU usage.  So...

I've had a lot of users confused about this.  Under 'top', there is something
called "Irix mode" (presumably because Irix has this behavior).  This mode
allows for "100%" on all CPUs, so your "total CPU usage" can exceed 100%, up
to the number of CPUs you have. 

> If a process is using 25% in a 4 processor machine, that means that the
> process is using 100% of one processor.  A single process cannot use
> more than one processor at a time.  This is also why the process on your
> Sun v20z with 2 processors tops out at 50% CPU usage, meaning it is
> using 100% of one processor.

Turning off Irix mode will give this behavior in top.

I'm not sure if it is possible to change how sar behaves.

-- 
Jesse Becker
GPG-fingerprint: BD00 7AA4 4483 AFCC 82D0  2720 0083 0931 9A2B 06A2
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/rhn-users/attachments/20050518/a46e6953/attachment.sig>