Chapter 1
System Management
Course: Comptia Linux Xk0 006
Subject: Comptia Linux Xk0 006
Chapter: Troubleshooting
Performance degradation on Linux systems is often caused by excessive CPU or memory consumption. System administrators must monitor resource usage, identify bottlenecks, and take corrective actions to maintain system stability.
1. Runaway processes
A runaway process is one that consumes abnormally high amounts of CPU or memory, usually due to a software bug, infinite loop, or recursive function that never exits. If left unchecked, it can degrade system performance, cause crashes, or trigger the Out-of-Memory (OOM) killer.
Diagnosis:
Use top for real-time observation:
bash
top
In top, watch the %CPU and %MEM columns to find processes that are overutilizing system resources. You can press P to sort by CPU usage or M for memory.
To get a snapshot from the command line:
bash
ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head
This lists the top 10 CPU-consuming processes.