What is CPU utilization in Data ONTAP: Scheduling and Monitoring?

Applies to

• ONTAP 9
• Data ONTAP 8 7-Mode 

Answer

Note:     

To determine if CPU utilization is a concern, see KB: How do I know if CPU is causing a performance issue?

• Each storage controller contains one or more multi-core CPUs.
• These physical CPU cores are the primary compute resource available to Data ONTAP for processing work.
• In addition to CPU cores, Data ONTAP interacts with other physical hardware such as Ethernet ports, FC ports, disks, and NVRAM.
• The use of all these physical resources occurs in a highly optimized and parallel manner, taking into account active requests, resource availability, and the overall activity level of the system. 
• As the interaction between physical resources can be complex and inter-dependent, a measure of CPU being busy (CPU utilization) does not increase linearly with an increase in incoming requests from clients, nor can it be used alone as a measure of the overall system utilization.
• CPU resources have several unique characteristics thatare useful while analyzing the system

For more detailed information on CPU utilization, see KBs below:

• CPU as a computing resource

• CPU as a metric of system performance

• Measuring CPU utilization

Additional Information

N/A