Spotlight on SQL Server 10.0.3 - Getting Started Guide

CPU Drilldown

The CPU tab displays details of recent processor activity as measured by Windows.

To see the CPU drilldown

1. Select a Spotlight on Windows connection from the Spotlight browser.

2. Click Monitor | CPU.

   

To investigate...	Look at the...
Performance details for each CPU on the current system	CPU page	Show all CPU Utilization chart Shows the CPU utilization for all the processors on the system. Each processor is represented by a single line on the chart, and by an item in the legend at the top right of the chart. Tip: To view CPU utilization analyzed according to processing mode, see the Total CPU Utilization chart on the Processing page in the CPU drilldown. Server Work Queues chart Shows the number of threads (program execution units) that are waiting to run on each processor. A sustained queue length greater than four may indicate processor congestion. Interrupts chart Shows the number of interrupts per second per CPU on the Windows system. Each CPU is represented by a single graph on the chart, and by an item in the legend at the top right of the chart. The Interrupts chart is designed to show if any CPUs on the system are bearing a disproportionate level of the I/O load. Kilobytes Transferred chart Shows the number of kilobytes per second transferred per CPU on the Windows system. Each CPU is represented by a single graph on the chart, and by an item in the legend at the top right of the chart.
Overall performance details across all CPUs on the current system	Processing page	Total CPU Utilization chart Shows the combined CPU utilization for all processors on the system. The following are displayed: User - The percentage of CPU time that is being consumed in User mode. (User mode is a restricted processing mode designed for applications, environment subsystems, and integral subsystems.) Kernel - The percentage of CPU time that is being consumed in privileged mode. (Privileged mode is designed for operating system components and allows direct access to hardware and all memory.) Processor Queue Length chart Shows the total number of threads (program execution units) that are waiting to be run on ALL processors. A sustained processor queue length greater than ten can indicate processor congestion. Tip: To view Server Work Queues for the individual CPUs in the system, see the CPU Utilization chart on the CPU page in the CPU drilldown. Total Process and Thread Count chart Shows the total number of Windows processes and threads that exist. A process is one instance of an application program or system service that is currently executing on the server. Each process will have one or more threads which are the basic entity that can be scheduled. Sophisticated application processes such as SQL Server or Exchange can have dozens of threads running concurrently. Context Switching chart Shows the rate at which Windows has been processing context switches. A Context Switch occurs when a processor switches from one thread to another. Context switches occur when a running thread voluntarily relinquishes the processor, is preempted by a higher priority ready thread, or switches between user-mode and privileged (kernel) mode to use an Executive or subsystem service.
CPU usage for the virtual machine	Virtualized CPU page	CPU Usage Percent Shows usage statistics for the CPU of the virtual machine as percentages of the theoretical maximum CPU available to the virtual machine. Overhead % - Percentage of CPU that is being consumed by other virtual machines or by VMware itself. Idle % - Percentage of CPU that is idle. Used % - Percentage of CPU being used by this virtual machine. A low idle percentage indicates that the virtual machine may not be getting the CPU time it requires. This can be seen in the chart when the overhead and used percentages meet. CPU Usage MHz Shows how much CPU the virtual machine is using, in megahertz.
Tip: When looking at charts, click an item in the legend to highlight its series (line) in the chart.

Related Topics

Spotlight on Windows Drilldowns (page 1)

About Spotlight Charts (page 1)

About Spotlight Grids (page 1)