The Top Processes report displays a list of processes that have surpassed a defined resource usage threshold. These processes are logged and displayed in a user-friendly format, providing detailed information on CPU and memory usage, the command being executed, and the user associated with each process.

This feature allows you to monitor and analyze the top-running processes on your server, helping you identify resource-intensive processes that could affect your server’s performance.

Uses And Benefits

  • Performance Optimization: By identifying resource-intensive processes, you can take steps to optimize or manage these processes, ensuring better overall server performance.
  • Resource Management: Understanding which processes use the most CPU and memory allows for more effective resource allocation and server management.
  • Proactive Monitoring: Regularly monitoring top processes helps in detecting and resolving potential issues before they impact your server’s performance.

Enabling (and Disabling) Top Processes

By default, RunCloud does not enable monitoring on your servers, this is because the monitoring agent consumes resources on your server and it is only meant for troubleshooting performance issues. To start logging the top running processes, click on the “Configure” button on the top right of the screen, switch on/off the Top Running Processes toggle, agree to the terms of service, and click Save Configuration.

Configuring Thresholds

RunCloud uses sensible default values for the threshold, but if you want to change these parameters, then you can do so by following the given steps:

  1. Access the Threshold Settings: In the screen displayed above, click on “Update Threshold” to set custom thresholds for CPU and memory usage.
  2. Set the CPU Load Threshold: Define the CPU load percentage that triggers logging.
  3. Set the Memory Usage Threshold: Define the memory usage percentage that triggers logging.
  4. Save the Configuration: Apply the changes to start monitoring based on the new thresholds.

That’s it! RunCloud will now automatically monitor and log the processes when the threshold limit is reached and the Top Processes toggle is turned on.

Elements on the Top Processes Page

Event Duration: On the top of the tab, you can see the time range during which the process data was captured. In the given example, the data was captured between 21 May 2024 07:20:00 – 21 May 2024 07:29:00.

    Process List: Each row in the log has several values – let’s break them down one-by-one:

      • Process ID (PID): The unique identifier for each process on your server. You can use this value to forcefully stop the process via command line
      • Command: The command or executable file that initiated the process.
      • CPU (%): The percentage of CPU resources used by the process.
      • Memory (%): The percentage of memory resources used by the process.
      • User: The system account under which the process is running.

      Filtering Options: The Top Processes tab provides options to filter the logged processes based on timestamps. This allows you to select specific time ranges to view process data for particular periods.