CentOS - Mar 2009 - question about top output

hi all,

below is the output of top off a machine i have, sorted by CPU utilization.  

my question is, how can all 8 CPUs say they're pegged at 100% user
utilization, when there are just these 8 processes saying they're using 25%
of a CPU each, and no other processes showing up taking any resources?  i have
run this test on other machines and they act as expected.  i found this b/c this
node was running a lot slower for some reason, and i can't figure out why. 
there are no error messages anywhere...

top - 00:16:34 up 8 days,  2:05,  1 user,  load average: 8.40, 8.31, 8.24
Tasks: 156 total,   9 running, 147 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu0  : 97.2%us,  1.4%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  1.4%si,  0.0%st
Cpu1  :100.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu2  :100.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu3  : 98.6%us,  1.4%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu4  :100.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu5  : 98.6%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  1.4%si,  0.0%st
Cpu6  :100.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu7  :100.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:  16424052k total, 13900392k used,  2523660k free,    10560k buffers
Swap:   499988k total,      152k used,   499836k free,    28700k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 8568 jgreen    25   0 2089m 1.7g 4184 R   23 10.5 109:06.90 xhpl
 8572 jgreen    25   0 2080m 1.6g 4184 R   23 10.5 109:12.40 xhpl  
 8574 jgreen    25   0 2079m 1.6g 4220 R   23 10.5 109:07.43 xhpl
 8575 jgreen    25   0 2063m 1.6g 4168 R   23 10.4 109:08.12 xhpl
 8570 jgreen    25   0 2084m 1.6g 4188 R   23 10.5 109:07.52 xhpl
 8571 jgreen    25   0 2067m 1.6g 4188 R   23 10.4 109:08.51 xhpl
 8569 jgreen    25   0 2072m 1.6g 4196 R   22 10.4 109:07.77 xhpl
 8573 jgreen    25   0 2062m 1.6g 4204 R   22 10.4 109:08.23 xhpl
 4457 root      15   0 12056 1424  992 S    0  0.0   8:01.62 pbs_mom
    1 root      15   0 10316  792  660 S    0  0.0   0:02.74 init
    2 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 migration/0
    3 root      34  19     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 ksoftirqd/0
    4 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.02 watchdog/0
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/1
    6 root      34  19     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/1

thanks,
--Joe
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Greenseid, Joseph M (IS) wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> below is the output of top off a machine i have, sorted by CPU
> utilization.
> 
> my question is, how can all 8 CPUs say they're pegged at 100% user
> utilization, when there are just these 8 processes saying they're
> using 25% of a CPU each, and no other processes showing up taking any
> resources?  i have run this test on other machines and they act as
> expected.  i found this b/c this node was running a lot slower for
> some reason, and i can't figure out why.  there are no error messages
> anywhere...
What happens if you stop, say half, of the xhpl processes?

Mogens
-- 
Mogens Kjaer, Carlsberg A/S, Computer Department
Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, DK-2500 Valby, Denmark
Phone: +45 33 27 53 25, Mobile: +45 22 12 53 25
Email: mk at crc.dk Homepage: http://www.crc.dk