Is total CPU usage for sar %user+%system+%iowait?


 
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# 1  
Old 03-29-2012
Is total CPU usage for sar %user+%system+%iowait?

Hi all

Can anyone advise/confirm whether total CPU usage when running sar is %user+%system+%iowait or is it %user+%system only?

I want to confirm whether I am having a CPU-bound problem or not.

This is a single-CPU VMware machine.

Code:
[oracle@prod01 bdump]$ sar 5 20
Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5 (prod01.globe.local)     03/27/2012

08:00:55 AM       CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait    %steal     %idle
08:01:00 AM       all     99.20      0.00      0.80      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:05 AM       all     99.20      0.00      0.80      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:10 AM       all     99.80      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:15 AM       all     98.20      0.00      1.80      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:20 AM       all     99.40      0.00      0.60      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:25 AM       all     99.80      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:30 AM       all     99.60      0.00      0.40      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:35 AM       all     98.80      0.00      1.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:40 AM       all     98.00      0.00      2.00      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:45 AM       all    100.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:50 AM       all    100.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:01:55 AM       all     63.93      0.00      1.20     34.87      0.00      0.00
08:02:00 AM       all     92.03      0.00      0.80      7.17      0.00      0.00
08:02:05 AM       all     99.80      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:10 AM       all     99.60      0.00      0.40      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:15 AM       all     99.80      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:20 AM       all     99.40      0.00      0.60      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:25 AM       all     99.40      0.00      0.60      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:30 AM       all     99.20      0.00      0.80      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:02:35 AM       all     98.80      0.00      1.20      0.00      0.00      0.00
Average:          all     97.20      0.00      0.70      2.10      0.00      0.00
[oracle@prod01 bdump]$ sar 5 20
Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5 (prod01.globe.local)     03/27/2012

08:03:50 AM       CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait    %steal     %idle
08:03:55 AM       all      6.00      0.00      0.60     93.40      0.00      0.00
08:04:00 AM       all      8.42      0.00      0.80     90.78      0.00      0.00
08:04:05 AM       all     13.35      0.00      0.80     85.86      0.00      0.00
08:04:10 AM       all     27.51      0.00      0.20     72.29      0.00      0.00
08:04:15 AM       all      2.79      0.00      1.60     95.61      0.00      0.00
08:04:20 AM       all     58.80      0.00      1.20     40.00      0.00      0.00
08:04:25 AM       all     92.02      0.00      0.60      7.39      0.00      0.00
08:04:30 AM       all     99.20      0.00      0.80      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:04:35 AM       all     32.06      0.00      0.40     67.54      0.00      0.00
08:04:40 AM       all     77.64      0.00      1.20     21.16      0.00      0.00
08:04:45 AM       all     53.69      0.00      1.00     45.31      0.00      0.00
08:04:50 AM       all     40.40      0.00      0.80     58.80      0.00      0.00
08:04:55 AM       all     98.00      0.00      2.00      0.00      0.00      0.00
08:05:00 AM       all     70.34      0.00      1.20     28.46      0.00      0.00
08:05:05 AM       all     85.46      0.00      4.38     10.16      0.00      0.00
08:05:10 AM       all     69.46      0.00      0.60     29.94      0.00      0.00
08:05:15 AM       all     46.00      0.00      3.60     50.40      0.00      0.00
08:05:20 AM       all     71.34      0.00      1.00     27.66      0.00      0.00
08:05:25 AM       all     32.34      0.00      0.80     66.87      0.00      0.00
08:05:30 AM       all     18.40      0.00      1.20     80.40      0.00      0.00
Average:          all     50.16      0.00      1.24     48.60      0.00      0.00
[oracle@prod01 bdump]$ uname -a
Linux prod01.globe.local 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5 #1 SMP Mon Feb 21 05:52:39 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[oracle@prod01 bdump]$

# 2  
Old 03-31-2012
Tools yes - the math says it all

yes - as per your 'sar' output, the algebric sum of these 3 values will give you 100% ;

HTH
_____________
alexandre botao
# 3  
Old 03-31-2012
Total CPU is %user + %system. %iowait is idle time during which there happens to be IO activity.
# 4  
Old 03-31-2012
The very high %user figures can be caused by running sar with much to small a time interval on a system with only one or two cpu's. Try say 20 minutes sample interval not 5 seconds.

The %iowait is the percentage of i/o operations which had to wait for disc transfers. Worth looking at sar -d to see if you have a bottleneck on one or more of your discs.

Based on the statistics posted for just 4 minutes non-core time and knowing nothing about your hardware or software there appears to be a disc bottleneck not a cpu bottleneck ... but that's nothing unusual when Oracle is involved.
# 5  
Old 04-01-2012
@methyl, %iowait measures CPU time, not I/O time. It shows when a CPU is idle, while waiting for I/O to complete. There is only an indirect relation to I/O performance, and you can have a healthy system performing at high percentages of iowait.
# 6  
Old 04-01-2012
Thanks Scrutinizer, you are correct. I automatically read the column heading with its more usual meaning.
My unix sar has CPU idle% as a heading and a largely unrelated figure for I/O wait.
This version of sar is very strange because the figures in the sample always add up to 100% and there is no stated figure for genuine idle time ... unless perhaps this computer only has one CPU ?
# 7  
Old 04-01-2012
It is a "single-CPU vmware machine", I presume OP means a virtual machine. In the 3rd column it says, all CPU, so I think it would not matter if there were more vCPUs.

There is a %idle column, but apparently there has not been an idle period without I/O activity. The three columns on the left are busy time, the three on the right are idle time..

So I think it is like this:
TOTAL USER = %user + %nice
TOTAL CPU = %user + %nice + %system
TOTAL IDLE = %iowait + %steal + %idle

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 04-01-2012 at 09:10 AM..
 
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