Process Attributes

The Process Attributes Group refer to process operations such as command executed, CPU utilization, real memory usage, and execution state.

Special information about the Flag field (Solaris only)

The Flag field of the UNIX Process report contains hexadecimal and additive flags. These flags are available for historical purposes only, and contain no information regarding the current status of your monitored process. These fields are not relevant on Solaris systems. For additional information about the Flag field, please refer to the man pages for your operating system.


Child User CPU Time The time spent in user mode by the child of this process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Child System CPU Time The time spent in system and user mode by the child of this process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to determine which processes have children consuming a large amount of CPU time and take corrective action.

Command The command that initiated a process. Valid entry is a simple text string, alphanumeric with a maximum 32 characters. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated a process.

Command (Unicode) The command that initiated a process. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated a process.

Example
An example of a command that initiates a process would be run.

Context Switch The number of CPU context switches for this process. A context switch occurred when a process voluntarily giving up the processor before its time slice was completed. This usually occurs while the process waits for a resource. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999. Use this attribute to monitor for context switches. Excessive context switches may indicate too many waits for resources. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

CPU ID The ID of the processor on which the process is running. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 999. Use this attribute to determine the processor on which a process is running. Available on Solaris, Digital, and
HP-UX only.

CPU Pct The percentage of CPU used by this process. Valid entries: numeric values in the range 0 to 100.00 to two decimal places. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using the most CPU time. High CPU percent may indicate a runaway or long running process.

Example
Enter
50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%.

CPU Time The time the CPU has been utilized. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 999999.

CPU Utilization The numerical value indicating the relative CPU intensity of a process. The CPU Utilization attribute represents the number of times a process uses the CPU over a period of 20 system clock ticks. The system decays this value after each 20 clock-tick period by dividing the number by 2. The system uses CPU Utilization to determine process priority. Large values indicate a CPU intensive process and result in lower process priority. Small values indicate an I/O intensive process and result in a more favorable priority. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 9999. Use this attribute to check process if you suspect it is using the CPU so much that the CPU is not available to anything else. This can cause network response time to be sluggish.

Example
A high value indicates a CPU-intensive process. A low value indicates an I/O-intensive process.

Effective Group ID The effective GROUP ID. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999999. Use this attribute to determine the effective group ID for this process. Available on all platforms.

Effective User ID The effective USER ID. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999999. Use this attribute to determine the effective user ID for this process. Available on all platforms

Elapsed Time The elapsed time for the process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Use this attribute to determine how long this process has been running.

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Entry Address The virtual memory address of a process. This address corresponds to the segment number of the process stack. Valid entry is a hexidecimal string. Check with you local System Administrator for information on how to use this attribute. Note: On 64-bit systems, only the low-order part of the address is used.

Example
The virtual memory address of a process varies from process to process.

Event Waited On The memory address of an event (if any) on which a process is waiting. A process must have this information before it can execute. Valid entry is a simple text string or hexadecimal value depending on the operating system with a maximum string length of 8. This information is specific to your particular network.

Example
On AIX, the word EVENT is an example of what is displayed for this attribute.

Execution State The execution state of a process. For valid entries, use one of the following codes to indicate an execution state:

0

= Non-existent

A

= Active

I

= Intermediate

O

= Running

R

= Runable

S

= Sleeping

T

= Stopped

W

= Waiting

X

=Growing

Z

= Zombie

Use this process to determine the state of a particular process. If a process is waiting, there may be an excessive amount of network traffic, or a process may be taking a long time to complete. Further investigation may be needed. Check with your local system administrator to determine what corrective action to take.

Flag The hexadecimal value associated with a process. Valid entry is a hexadecimal value with a maximum string length of 8. The meaning of a flag depends upon the type of UNIX system you are monitoring. The Flag field of the UNIX Process report contains hexadecimal and additive flags. These flags are available for historical purposes only, and contain no information regarding the current status of your monitored process. These fields are not relevant on Solaris systems. For additional information about the Flag field, please refer to the man pages for your operating system.

Heap Size The size of the heap for this process expressed in bytes. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 9999999. Use this attribute to determine the heap size for a process. Excessive heap size may indicate a memory leak. Available on Solaris only.

Involuntary Context Switches The number of involuntary context switches for the process. An involuntary context switch occurs when a higher priority process ran or because the current process exceeded its time slice. Valid entry is a numeric values in the range 0 to 9999. Use this attribute to monitor for involuntary context switches. Excessive involuntary context switches may indicate function problems in a process. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

Major Fault The number of major fault requested by this process. A major fault requires disk access. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999999. Use this attribute to monitor for major faults. Excessive major faults may indicate memory shortage. Not available on Digital Unix.

Mem Pct The percentage of system memory used by this process. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 100.00 to two decimal places. Use this attribute to monitor memory usage by a process. Processes with high memory percent will lead to memory shortage and cause system performance problems.

Example
Enter
50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%.

Minor Fault The number of page reclaims for the process. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999999. Use this attribute to determine the number of minor faults occurred in any processes. Not available on Digital Unix.

Nice Value The requested execution priority of a process, in relation to other processes. The higher the nice value, the lower the priority of the command. The nice value, plus the minimum user process priority level equals the priority of the process. The range of nice values varies among UNIX systems. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-99. The range of nice values varies among UNIX systems. Check with your local system administrator for information concerning the range of nice values for your system.

Parent Process ID The unique numerical identifier of a process. The process that invoked the forked system call is the parent process, and the newly created process is the child process. Every process has one parent process, but a process can have several children. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999999. Use this attribute to determine the PPID for this process.

Priority The current execution priority value. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999. The priority equals the nice value of the process plus the minimum priority value assigned to all user processes. The higher the priority value, the lower the priority of the command.

Example
A value of 245 indicates the process is scheduled to be the 245th process executed. This is usually considered to be a low scheduling priority.

Process Command A command string including the arguments up to 100 characters in length. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 100 characters. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated this process.

Process Command (Unicode) A command string including the arguments up to 100 bytes in length. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated this process.

Process Group Leader ID The process group leader PID. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999999. Use this attribute to determine the process group leader ID for this process. Available on all platforms

Process ID The numerical process ID assigned to a process. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 999999. Use this attribute to determine the process ID for this process. Process ID values vary from system to system.

Read/Write The number of characters read and write by this process. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999999. Use this attribute to determine the number of read and write completed by this process. Not available on Digital Unix

Real Group ID The real group ID for this process. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 999999. Use this attribute to determine the real group id for this process. Not available on HP-UX.

Reptype The reptype.

Scheduling Class The scheduling class for this process. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 8 characters. Use this attribute to determine the scheduling class of this process. Not available on AIX and HP-UX.

Session ID The real session ID for this process. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 999999.

Size The resident set size of the process, in kilobytes. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using too much memory. Excessive resident set size may lead to memory shortage and cause system performance problems.

Stack Size The size of the stack for this process. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0 to 9999999. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using too much stack size.

StartTime The time when the process was started. Valid entries in the format CYYMMDDHHMMSSmmm, where:

C

= Century (0=20th)

YY

= Year

MM

= Month of the Year (01-12)

DD

= Day of the Month (01-31)

HH

= Hour, in 24-hour time (00-23)

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

mmm

= Millisecond

Example
A value of 0951009130500000 indicates the agent collected the data on October 9, 1995 at 1:05 p.m.

System CPU Time The system time spent executing this process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Use this attribute to monitor the system CPU time spent by any processes. Excessive system CPU time may indicate a runaway or long running process.

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

System Name The host name of a monitored system. Valid entry is a simple text string, alphanumeric with a maximum length 64 characters.

Terminal Device The name of the terminal device that started a process. Valid entry is a simple text string with a maximum 8 characters. Terminal names vary from system to system. Check with your local system administrator for a complete list of all terminals in your system.

Thread Count The total number of threads for the process. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 99999999. Use this attribute to determine the number of threads in this process for information only. Not available on HP-UX.

Time The total amount of CPU time that a process has consumed. Should this value become large, it may indicate a runaway or long-running process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of MMMMM:SS where:

MMMMM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 00065:30

Use this attribute to identify runaway or long-running processes.

Timestamp The date and time the agent collects information as set on the monitored system. The timestamp format for SCAN and STR functions is CYYMMDDHHMMSSmmm (as in 1020315064501000 for 03/15/02 06:45:01) where:

C = Century (0 for 20th, 1 for 21st)

Y = Year

M = Month

D = Day

H = Hour

M = Minute

S = Second

m = millisecond

Total Child CPU Time The sum of the children's CPU time (user + system) spent executing the process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Total CPU Percent The percentage of CPU used since the process was started. Valid entry is a numeric valuein the range 0 to 100.00 to two decimal places. Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive total CPU percent may indicate a runaway or long running process.

Example
Enter 50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%

Total CPU Time The total CPU time (user + system) spent on the process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive CPU time may indicate a runaway or a long running process.

User CPU Time The user CPU time spent executing the process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive CPU time may indicate a runaway or a long running process.

User ID The numerical user ID of the owner of a process. Valid entry is an integer in the range 0-999999. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

Example
The numeric identification number varies from system to system and user to user. An example of a user ID could be 48765.

User Name The user's login name based on UID. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 32 characters. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

User Name (Unicode) The user's login name based on UID. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

Virtual Size The size of the virtual memory used by this process, in kilobytes. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 999999. Use this attribute to determine the size of the virtual memory used by a process. Excessive virtual memory size may indicate a memory leak.

Wait CPU Time The time spent waiting for the CPU. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to determine the time spent waiting for CPU. Excessive wait for CPU time may indicate a system problem. Available on Solaris only.

Wait Lock Time The time spent waiting for locks to release. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

DDD

= Days to a maximum of 999

HH

= Hours

MM

= Minute

SS

= Second

Example
To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to determine the time spent waiting for a lock. Excessive wait for lock time may indicate a resource concurrence problem. Available on Solaris only.