Cpu Usage: Top and Mpstat Shows Different Results

top

%Cpu(s): 10.9 us,  3.1 sy,  0.0 ni, 85.2 id,  0.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.7 si,  0.0 st

31426 www-data  20   0  309088  21276  14600 S  22.3  0.1   0:07.36 php-fpm: pool www
31431 www-data  20   0  308980  21232  14568 S  22.3  0.1   0:01.69 php-fpm: pool www
31423 www-data  20   0  308992  21376  14664 S  21.6  0.1   0:08.38 php-fpm: pool www
31437 www-data  20   0  308988  21224  14568 R  20.9  0.1   0:00.66 php-fpm: pool www

and mpstat

04:05:29 PM  CPU    %usr   %nice    %sys %iowait    %irq   %soft  %steal  %guest  %gnice   %idle
04:05:29 PM  all    1.06    0.00    0.29    0.02    0.00    0.06    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.57
04:05:29 PM    0    0.81    0.00    0.32    0.03    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.84
04:05:29 PM    1    1.40    0.00    0.37    0.02    0.00    0.07    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.14
04:05:29 PM    2    1.39    0.00    0.36    0.02    0.00    0.07    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.16
04:05:29 PM    3    1.35    0.00    0.35    0.02    0.00    0.07    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.21
04:05:29 PM    4    0.98    0.00    0.25    0.01    0.00    0.08    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.68
04:05:29 PM    5    0.86    0.00    0.22    0.01    0.00    0.06    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.85
04:05:29 PM    6    0.81    0.00    0.21    0.02    0.00    0.06    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.90
04:05:29 PM    7    0.87    0.00    0.22    0.02    0.00    0.06    0.00    0.00    0.00   98.83

Is the server overloaded already?

4

2 Answers

top:

100% means 1 CPU is fully used. So what you see for php-fpm is 87.1% of one CPU out of 8 i.e. less than 11% of your total CPU power.

mpstat:

If you do not give an interval to mpstat it gives you the average CPU utilization since startup. mpstat -P ALL 2 5 gives you five results of 2-second-intervals.

0

Not at 85.2% idle. By default, top displays a single cpu. Press "1" to display a breakdown of CPU usage per CPU.

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James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist

James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.

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