Monitoring Linux/UNIX CPU load
- Use the vmstat utility to monitor CPU usage.
- In the vmstat output: Add the us and sy CPU columns to get the total percentage of the CPU that is being used for user tasks and system tasks. Consistently non-zero wa indicates there are processes waiting for IO. You need to check the disk service time with iostat when seeing consistently high wa values.
Note:
The sar, mpstat, and top commands are useful tools for monitoring CPU usage