Solved: High CPU Utilisation

haidar_alm · ‎08-31-2010

Hello,

Users are reporting some lag issues when connecting to the network, upon running the sh processes command I noticed that Marvell wk-a Pow process is running at a 0.97%.

I've tried to look online and on the cisco site as to what this process does without any luck!

Can someone please advice or provide some info on this process please?

Many thanks.

Below is the output:

sh processes cpu sorted 5min

CPU utilization for five seconds: 7%/0%; one minute: 7%; five minutes: 7%

PID Runtime(ms) Invoked uSecs 5Sec 1Min 5Min TTY Process

184 29335958 5201982 5639 0.47% 0.95% 0.97% 0 Marvell wk-a Pow

105 6357851 56712192 112 0.31% 0.29% 0.29% 0 Hulc LED Process

7 2608224 7260941 359 0.31% 0.24% 0.25% 0 ARP Input

158 3281714 9012165 364 0.31% 0.20% 0.17% 0 Spanning Tree

125 2427682 2368348 1025 0.31% 0.16% 0.16% 0 PI MATM Aging Pr

113 4561691 476450 9574 0.15% 0.16% 0.15% 0 HQM Stack Proces

114 3620140 1902788 1902 0.15% 0.10% 0.11% 0 HRPC qos request

4 3521340 322493 10919 0.31% 0.12% 0.11% 0 Check heaps

76 2274131 4967334 457 0.15% 0.09% 0.10% 0 hpm counter proc

151 1169947 2917181 401 0.00% 0.04% 0.05% 0 CDP Protocol

77 1207975 5163700 233 0.00% 0.04% 0.04% 0 HRPC pm-counters

156 3697500 33067692 111 0.00% 0.01% 0.03% 0 IP Input

55 156264 70630510 2 0.15% 0.01% 0.00% 0 HLFM address lea

Peter Paluch · ‎08-31-2010

Hello,

About the PortFast being configured - very good. Regarding the PVST, I would personally suggest moving to RSTP (RPVST+) in some future maintenance window to increase the reconvergence speed of your network in case of topology changes, or even considering MSTP if you have many VLANs.

Regarding the lag issue, I suggest having a look on the interface counters on the ports connecting to these users - check for all error counters. Perhaps there is a physical problem. In any case, the user description of "lag" should be made more precise - whether the "lag" influences all communication or only some destinations, if only increased delays or also packet losses are detectable - we need to have some evidence for the "lag".

Regarding the Marvell wk-a Pow - I don't know for sure. I can only guess from the name that it is a process that somehow deals with PoE, as the Marvell is a manufacturer of networking chips, controllers and ASICs - but this is only a very rough guess.

Best regards,

Peter

View solution in original post

Peter Paluch · ‎08-31-2010

Hello,

I don't think that the lag your users are experiencing is related to a CPU, based on your current output. The CPU utilization is mere 7% which is normal.

What kind of "lags" do your users experience? Can you provide more detail? What is the device you have provided the output from? Is it a switch? If so, are the access ports configured with spanning-tree portfast? The STP is frequently the cause of "lags" when connecting to a network. In networks with RSTP, it is particularly important to have the access ports configured with this command to prevent them from being temporarily blocked in cases of topology changes.

Best regards,

Peter

haidar_alm · ‎08-31-2010

Port-fast configured, and spanning tree is on PVST and not RSTP.

Upon investigating only 3 -4 users are experiencing these issues and not all the users that connect to the same switch.

It's a 3750 48PS switch.

This doesn't sound like a network issue, could be down to old Pcs, i've rang our Desktops team to investigate. Initial log came in as all users experiencing problems, however, upon investigation, all are good except for 3-4.

Any idea what that process does by the way?

Peter Paluch · ‎08-31-2010

Hello,

About the PortFast being configured - very good. Regarding the PVST, I would personally suggest moving to RSTP (RPVST+) in some future maintenance window to increase the reconvergence speed of your network in case of topology changes, or even considering MSTP if you have many VLANs.

Regarding the lag issue, I suggest having a look on the interface counters on the ports connecting to these users - check for all error counters. Perhaps there is a physical problem. In any case, the user description of "lag" should be made more precise - whether the "lag" influences all communication or only some destinations, if only increased delays or also packet losses are detectable - we need to have some evidence for the "lag".

Regarding the Marvell wk-a Pow - I don't know for sure. I can only guess from the name that it is a process that somehow deals with PoE, as the Marvell is a manufacturer of networking chips, controllers and ASICs - but this is only a very rough guess.

Best regards,

Peter

haidar_alm · ‎09-15-2010

Hi Peter,

Cheers for your input, I agree with regards to RSTP, we do have it implemented on part of our network and are trying to have it across the board depending on maintenance window as per each location.

I did not hear anything back from the user with regards to slowness, no more. We usually get a bit of a lag when accessing the CLI on the switch due to SNMP high utilization, but i've never seen this Marvell wk-a Pow or able to find any information on it!

KR

Haidar