Why is system time high?
 

We have 2 mail servers that are basically "idle" unless there is an email campaign being sent to our customers. Can someone tell me why system time would be >25% when the servers are idle? These are Dell 2550 servers running RAID and Linux 9. Here is some top output:


top - 14:32:45 up 11 days, 21:05, 4 users, load average: 0.09, 0.10, 0.04
Tasks: 92 total, 1 running, 90 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.8% user, 27.7% system, 0.0% nice, 70.4% idle
Mem: 2322988k total, 1126104k used, 1196884k free, 126428k buffers
Swap: 4192956k total, 23160k used, 4169796k free, 644240k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3351 root 15 0 2680 2512 1664 S 4.7 0.1 0:00.39 sendmail
475 root 15 0 15052 748 228 S 1.7 0.0 73:10.17 X
10080 root 15 0 2676 2636 552 S 1.3 0.1 39:36.21 syslog-ng
3483 root 15 0 1096 1096 752 S 1.0 0.0 0:16.97 top
29861 root 15 0 1884 1824 1468 S 0.3 0.1 0:12.31 sshd
4526 root 16 0 952 952 740 R 0.3 0.0 0:00.22 top
1 root 15 0 112 84 56 S 0.0 0.0 22:19.44 init
2 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1
4 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.33 keventd
5 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:32.59 ksoftirqd_CPU0
6 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:33.20 ksoftirqd_CPU1
10 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 66:14.07 kscand/HighMem
9 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 8:41.29 kscand/Normal
8 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.29 kscand/DMA
7 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 4:01.81 kswapd
11 root 25 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.34 bdflush
12 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 1:09.09 kupdated
13 root 25 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mdrecoveryd
19 root 25 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_0
21 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aacraid
22 root 21 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_1
25 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 3:02.92 kjournald
642 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 kjournald
1029 root 15 0 164 156 116 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.41 klogd
1047 #32 15 0 80 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 portmap
1066 rpcuser 25 0 76 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rpc.statd
1162 root 19 0 480 352 236 S 0.0 0.0 1:37.36 sshd
1177 root 15 0 116 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 xinetd
1217 root 15 0 64 28 12 S 0.0 0.0 0:05.88 gpm
1226 root 15 0 156 140 88 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.63 crond
1237 root 15 0 708 328 236 S 0.0 0.0 1:00.56 cupsd
1310 #43 15 0 2512 124 64 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.52 xfs
1328 bin 15 0 180 160 120 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.15 atd
1337 root 19 0 48 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mingetty
1338 root 19 0 44 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 mingetty
1339 root 19 0 44 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mingetty
1340 root 20 0 44 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mingetty
1341 root 20 0 44 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mingetty
1342 root 20 0 44 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 mingetty
1343 root 15 0 636 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.12 gdm-binary
1502 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 kjournald
15627 root 15 0 1168 688 480 S 0.0 0.0 94:54.72 sendmail
15636 smmsp 15 0 920 492 388 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.95 sendmail
15730 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 33:54.07 kjournald
15768 root 16 0 48 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 agetty
28716 root 15 0 228 204 148 S 0.0 0.0 46:52.47 syslogd
474 root 16 0 704 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 gdm-binary
1349 #42 15 0 12220 2484 1364 S 0.0 0.1 31:07.18 gdmgreeter
10081 root 23 0 0 0 0 Z 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sh <defunct>
10100 ntp 15 0 2392 2392 2152 S 0.0 0.1 0:13.51 ntpd
4478 root 16 0 2352 2344 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 sendmail
4482 root 16 0 2356 2348 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.07 sendmail
4486 root 15 0 2356 2348 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 sendmail
1186 root 15 0 1844 1784 1448 S 0.0 0.1 0:53.01 sshd
1548 root 15 0 1196 1196 988 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.31 bash
20997 root 15 0 2356 2348 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.05 sendmail
21001 root 15 0 2348 2340 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.06 sendmail
21005 root 15 0 2352 2344 1724 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.07 sendmail
21012 root 15 0 500 500 428 S 0.0 0.0 0:58.45 tail
29863 root 18 0 1200 1200 988 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.06 bash
29881 root 15 0 2408 2400 1784 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.03 sendmail
29885 root 16 0 2412 2404 1784 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 sendmail
29889 root 15 0 2412 2404 1784 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 sendmail
3032 root 15 0 2712 2544 1672 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.20 sendmail
3253 root 15 0 3100 3096 2136 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.47 sendmail
3308 root 16 0 3116 3112 2144 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.97 sendmail
3418 root 15 0 3088 3084 2132 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.18 sendmail
3419 root 15 0 3068 3064 2132 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.15 sendmail
3420 root 16 0 3096 3092 2136 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.63 sendmail
3591 root 16 0 3056 3052 2128 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.15 sendmail
3644 root 15 0 3060 3056 2136 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.10 sendmail
3645 root 15 0 3036 3032 2128 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.14 sendmail
3646 root 15 0 2964 2960 2116 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.20 sendmail

I have installed the latest procps fileset. How do I determine and show what is producing the overhead? I am assuming that top represents user time. Is there a way to show what is constributing to system time? Thanks!

Paul
pomalley@bluefly.com