Troubleshooting CPU Utilization

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Troubleshooting CPU Utilization

The ability to diagnose and resolve issues on a Linux system is a skill that every administrator needs to cultivate. In this lab, we cover using various reporting and monitoring utilities to troubleshoot issues with CPU utilization on the system.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 24, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Install the Monitoring and Reporting Utilities (`sysstat`)
Install the sysstat package using the following commands:
```
sudo -i
yum install -y sysstat
```

Challenge

Use the Monitoring and Reporting Utilities to Diagnose the Issue

This is a list of possible steps to take to find the source of the issue. Not all of them are required.

free -h
df -h
vmstat 1 4
iostat -y 1 3
iostat -cy 1 3
top <-- locate PID(s) that are taking up a large amount of CPU (gzip and cat)

Use the PIDs to discover the parent process ID (PPID) that spawned them and copy the offending script to /home/cloud_user/.

ps -ef | egrep "PID|PID" <-- You can grep for each individual PID (egrep saves a step) 
pstree -p (PID of kaladin.sh) <-- shows process tree in a visual format
cp /root/kaladin.sh /home/cloud_user/

Challenge

Terminate the Offending Process
Once the PID of the offending process has been located (kaladin.sh), use the kill command to terminate it.
```
kill -15 PID
```

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Pluralsight Skills

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