
CPU Usage on an 8-Core EC2 Instance: Interpretation and Performance Optimization
This guide explains how to interpret CPU usage on an 8-core EC2 instance, including how to analyze multi-core utilization, monitor system performance, and optimize resource allocation. It covers key metrics, monitoring tools, and best practices to ensure efficient workload management on AWS EC2
- 100% CPU usage: This means one core is fully utilized.
- 800% CPU usage: This means all eight cores are fully utilized.
- If a process is using 365.2% CPU, it means that the process is utilizing approximately 3.65 cores out of the available 8 cores.
- This is calculated as:
365.2% ÷ 100% per core = 3.652 cores.
- 365.2% CPU Usage:
- The
RW
process is utilizing about 3.65 cores. - On an 8-core system, this means
RW
is using approximately 45.65% of the total CPU capacity (3.65 cores out of 8).
- Verify if the high CPU usage by
RW
is expected behavior and in this case it is expected behavior
- Monitor overall system performance to ensure that other processes are not being negatively impacted.
- Use tools like:
top
htop
vmstat
to get a real-time view of CPU usage and system load.
- Check the load average to see if the system is handling the load effectively.
- Ideally, the load average should be below the number of CPU cores.
- In your case, the load average values are: 5.27, 5.43, and 5.28, which are below 8, indicating that the system is managing the load but is under significant usage.
- If necessary, adjust the resource allocation for
RW
or other processes to ensure balanced resource usage. - This can be done using tools like cgroups or other resource management tools.
# Check the total number of CPU cores
lscpu | grep '^CPU(s):'
# Monitor system performance using top
top
# Monitor system performance using htop (if installed) to install yum install htop
htop
# Monitor system performance using vmstat
vmstat 1