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AIX Versions 3.2 and 4 Performance Tuning Guide

Using vmstat to Monitor CPU Use

As a CPU monitor, vmstat is superior to iostat in that its one-line-per-report output is easier to scan as it scrolls. vmstat also gives you general information about memory use, paging, and ordinary disk I/O at a glance. The following example can help you identify situations in which a program has run away or is too CPU intensive to run in a multiuser environment.

$ vmstat 2
procs    memory             page              faults        cpu     
----- ----------- ------------------------ ------------ -----------
 r  b   avm   fre  re  pi  po  fr   sr  cy  in   sy  cs us sy id wa 
 1  0 22478  1677   0   0   0   0    0   0 188 1380 157 57 32  0 10
 1  0 22506  1609   0   0   0   0    0   0 214 1476 186 48 37  0 16
 0  0 22498  1582   0   0   0   0    0   0 248 1470 226 55 36  0  9
 
 2  0 22534  1465   0   0   0   0    0   0 238  903 239 77 23  0  0
 2  0 22534  1445   0   0   0   0    0   0 209 1142 205 72 28  0  0
 2  0 22534  1426   0   0   0   0    0   0 189 1220 212 74 26  0  0
 3  0 22534  1410   0   0   0   0    0   0 255 1704 268 70 30  0  0
 2  1 22557  1365   0   0   0   0    0   0 383  977 216 72 28  0  0
 
 2  0 22541  1356   0   0   0   0    0   0 237 1418 209 63 33  0  4
 1  0 22524  1350   0   0   0   0    0   0 241 1348 179 52 32  0 16
 1  0 22546  1293   0   0   0   0    0   0 217 1473 180 51 35  0 14

This output shows the effect of introducing a program in a tight loop to a busy multiuser system. The first three reports (the summary has been removed) show the system balanced at 50-55% user, 30-35% system, and 10-15% I/O wait. When the looping program begins, all available CPU cycles are consumed. Since the looping program does no I/O, it can absorb all of the cycles previously unused because of I/O wait. Worse, it represents a process that is always ready to take over the CPU when a useful process relinquishes it. Since the looping program has a priority equal to that of all other foreground processes, it will not necessarily have to give up the CPU when another process becomes dispatchable. The program runs for about 10 seconds (five reports), and then the activity reported by vmstat returns to a more normal pattern.


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