Knowledge Base

Recommended CPU Related SNMP Helper Sensors

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A selection of recommended CPU related sensors provided for Windows Systems by SNMP Helper that you should monitor using PRTG Traffic Grapher and/or IPCheck Server Monitor.

Processor Time

?Processor: _Total CPU percent Processor Time? provides you with the total overall CPU utilization for your server (even for multi processor systems) and is a good overall indicator of how busy your server is. Generally speaking, if the total CPU utilization of your server exceeds 80% for continuous periods (over 10 minutes or so), then you may have a CPU bottleneck. Some potential solutions to a CPU bottleneck are to reduce the server load (e.g. tune your SQL queries for SQL servers), get faster CPUs, or get more CPUs.

Processor Queue Length

If the ?System processor queue length? (SNMP Helper Pro only) exceeds a value of 2 per CPU for continuous periods (over 10 minutes or so), then you probably have a CPU bottleneck. A sustained processor queue of greater than two threads generally indicates processor congestion. This value is an indication of how different threads are fighting for the attention of the processors on your machine. Note that this is not always a hard and fast indicator however, for some services like IIS 6 pool and manage their own worker threads. Furthermore, the larger the number of active services and applications running on your server, the busier the processor queue will normally be.

Context Switches

The value of ?system context switches per sec? (SNMP Helper Pro only) is the combined rate at which all processors on the computer are switched from one thread to another. Heavy context switching hurts performance and should be minimized. The value should be fairly constant over time, if this counter suddenly starts increasing however, it may be an indicating of a malfunctioning device, especially if you are seeing a similar jump in the Processor(_Total)\Interrupts/sec counter on your machine.

Total Privileged Time

The time the processor performs kernel mode tasks can be measured using the ?Processor: _Total CPU percent Processor Privileged Time?. If kernel mode utilization is high, your machine is likely to have a configuration problem or it is underpowered as it's too busy handling basic OS housekeeping functions to be able to effectively run other applications. Values of more than 20% can be an indication that your server's I/O may be bottlenecked. Almost all I/O processes run in kernel mode, so a high value can indicate performance issues for the disk and network I/O.

Total User Time

?_Total CPU percent Processor User Time? shows processor utilization for user-mode processes on your machine. And if user mode utilization is high, it may be you have your server running too many specific roles and you should either beef hardware up by adding another processor or migrate an application or role to another box.

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