Processes
Spotlight is a powerful diagnostic and problem-resolution tool for Windows operating systems. Its unique user interface provides you with an intuitive, visual representation of the activity on the host machine.
For information on Spotlight on Windows, see these sections
| Section |
Description |
|---|---|
| Background Information |
Introductory material to Spotlight on Windows. |
| Connect to a Windows System | Create / Modify / Delete connections to Windows systems. |
| Home Page | The Spotlight home page shows the flow of information and commands between various sub-components and the size and status of internal resources such as processes, disk files and memory structures. |
| Alarms |
Spotlight alerts you to problems with your system by issuing an alarm. You can configure Spotlight in the level of severity that constitutes an alarm, to disable an alarm, and the actions Spotlight takes on raising the alarm. |
| Drilldowns | When you have isolated a problem, you can display a drilldown page, whose charts and tables provide a detailed breakdown of the underlying statistics. |
| View | Options | Customize Spotlight. |
| Troubleshooting | Solve problems using Spotlight. |
For information on using Spotlight applications See
Processes Page
The Processes page contains a table (grid) that lists all Windows processes that are currently running on the system. (A process is one instance of an application program that is currently executing on the Windows machine.)
To open the Processes page
- Select the Spotlight connection in the Spotlight Browser.
-
Click Processes | Processes.
Note: Not all of these columns will be visible by default. To view hidden columns, right-click a column heading and choose Organize Columns... from the shortcut menu. See Show, Hide & Order Columns for more information.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
|
Process |
The image name of the application. This can be used as a parameter in system programs, such as the TASKKILL.EXE command on Windows XP or Windows 2003 systems. Notes:
|
|
PID |
Process ID. This is unique to each process running on the system. This can be used as a parameter in system programs, such as the TASKKILL.EXE command on Windows XP or Windows 2003 systems. |
|
% CPU |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming. This is an instantaneous result. |
|
Memory Usage (MB) |
The current size of the working set of the process. |
|
Virtual Memory Size (MB) |
The current memory allocated to the process that cannot be shared with other processes. |
|
Elapsed time |
How long it has been since the process was started. |
|
Handles |
The overall number of resources that the process currently has open. A handle is a value used to uniquely identify a resource so that a process can access it. |
|
Threads |
The number of active threads in the process. A thread is a process execution unit. |
|
Page Faults/sec |
An instantaneous view of how many page faults are occurring for the process. |
|
IO/sec |
Shows the number of IO accesses (such as hard disk reads and writes and memory reads and writes) being performed by the process. |
|
% Kernel |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming in privileged mode. (Privileged mode is designed for operating system components and allows direct access to hardware and all memory.) |
|
% User |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming in user mode. (User mode is a restricted processing mode designed for applications, environment subsystems, and integral subsystems. |
|
Affinity |
For systems with multiple CPUs, the process affinity, which can be set via the Windows Task Manager, specifies the CPUs that are permitted to run the current process. Use the Configure affinity option to tell Spotlight on Windows about the CPUs where the specified process is permitted to run. This enables Spotlight to report the CPU usage for that process with accuracy. Right click on the process and select Configure Affinity (if enabled). Process Affinity Dialog Note: Spotlight itself CANNOT set process affinity. The Processes Page And Process Affinity |
|
IO data bytes/sec |
The rate at which the process is reading and writing bytes in all its I/O operations. |
|
IO other bytes/sec |
The rate at which the process is issuing bytes to I/O operations that do not involve data (control operations, for example). |
|
IO other operations/sec |
The rate at which the process is issuing I/O operations that do not involve data (control operations, for example). |
|
IO read bytes/sec |
The rate at which the process is reading bytes from I/O operations. |
|
IO Reads/sec |
Shows the number of IO reads (such as hard disk reads and memory reads) being performed by the process. |
|
IO write bytes/sec |
The rate at which the process is writing bytes to I/O operations. |
|
IO Writes/sec |
Shows the number of IO writes (such as hard disk writes and memory writes) being performed by the process. |
|
Page file bytes |
The current number of bytes that this process has used in the paging file(s). |
|
Page file bytes peak |
The maximum number of bytes that this process has used in the paging file(s). |
|
Parent ID |
The ID of the process that created the current process. |
|
Peak Address Space (MB) |
The peak size of the total address space of the process since it was started. |
|
Peak Memory Usage (MB) |
The peak size of the working set of the process since it was started. |
|
Pool nonpaged bytes |
The number of bytes of memory currently used by the server that cannot be paged out. |
|
Pool paged bytes |
The number of bytes of memory currently used by the server that can be paged out. |
|
Priority |
The priority of the process. Program priorities range from 1 to 31, and are dependant upon what the process is currently executing. Processes started in "Real Time" mode run with a priority of 16 to 31, whereas processes with "High", "Normal" or "Low" settings run in a priority range of 1 to 15. |
|
Services |
The services (if any) associated with the current process permitted to run the current process. |
|
User |
The owner of the process on a Windows Server machine (for example, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows Server 2003). |
|
Virtual Address Space (MB) |
The current size of the total address space of the process. Note: A process is limited to 2GB of address space no matter how much free RAM may be available. |
Process Details
Spotlight is a powerful diagnostic and problem-resolution tool for Windows operating systems. Its unique user interface provides you with an intuitive, visual representation of the activity on the host machine.
For information on Spotlight on Windows, see these sections
| Section |
Description |
|---|---|
| Background Information |
Introductory material to Spotlight on Windows. |
| Connect to a Windows System | Create / Modify / Delete connections to Windows systems. |
| Home Page | The Spotlight home page shows the flow of information and commands between various sub-components and the size and status of internal resources such as processes, disk files and memory structures. |
| Alarms |
Spotlight alerts you to problems with your system by issuing an alarm. You can configure Spotlight in the level of severity that constitutes an alarm, to disable an alarm, and the actions Spotlight takes on raising the alarm. |
| Drilldowns | When you have isolated a problem, you can display a drilldown page, whose charts and tables provide a detailed breakdown of the underlying statistics. |
| View | Options | Customize Spotlight. |
| Troubleshooting | Solve problems using Spotlight. |
For information on using Spotlight applications See
Process Details Page
The Process Details subpage contains a detailed list of properties for a selected process
To open the Process Details subpage
- Select the Spotlight connection in the Spotlight Browser.
-
Click Processes | Processes.
- Select a process to view its details
You can view the information that follows:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
|
Process name |
The image name of the application. This can be used as a parameter in system programs, such as the TASKKILL.EXE command on Windows XP or Windows 2003 systems. |
|
Process ID |
This is unique to each process running on the system, and can be used as a parameter in system programs, such as the TASKKILL.EXE command on Windows XP or Windows 2003 systems. |
|
Memory Usage (MB) |
The current size of the working set of the process. |
|
Virtual Memory Size (MB) |
The current memory allocated to this process that cannot be shared with other processes. |
|
Virtual Address Space (MB) |
The current size of the total address space of the process. Note: A process is limited to 2GB of address space no matter how much free RAM may be available. |
|
Processor % |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming. This is an instantaneous result. |
|
CPU User Mode % |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming in user mode. (User mode is a restricted processing mode designed for applications, environment subsystems, and integral subsystems.) |
|
CPU Kernel Mode % |
The percentage of CPU time that the process is currently consuming in privileged mode. (Privileged mode is designed for operating system components and allows direct access to hardware and all memory.) |
|
Elapsed Time |
How long it has been since the process was started. |
|
User |
The owner of the process on a Windows Server machine (for example, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows Server 2003). |
|
Process Affinity |
For systems with multiple CPUs, this shows the CPUs that are permitted to run the current process. Process Affinity Dialog |
|
Services |
The services (if any) associated with the current process. |
|
Handles |
The overall number of resources that the process currently has open. A handle is a value used to uniquely identify a resource so that a process can access it. |
|
Threads |
The number of active threads in the process. A thread is a process execution unit. |
|
Priority |
The priority of the process. Process priorities range from 1 to 31, and are dependant upon what the process is currently executing. Processes started in "Real Time" mode run with a priority of 16 to 31, whereas processes with "High", "Normal" or "Low" settings run in a priority range of 1 to 15. |
|
Page Faults/s |
An instantaneous view of how many page faults are occurring for the process. |
|
Reads/s |
Shows the number of IO reads (such as hard disk reads and memory reads) being performed by the process. |
|
Writes/s |
Shows the number of IO writes (such as hard disk writes and memory writes) being performed by the process. |
|
IO/s |
Shows the number of IO accesses (such as hard disk reads and writes and memory reads and writes) being performed by the process. |