Process attributes

The Process Attributes Group refers to process operations such as command executed, CPU utilization, real memory usage, and execution state.

Special information about the Flag field (Solaris only)

The Flag field of the UNIX Process report contains hexadecimal and additive flags. These flags are available for historical purposes only, and contain no information regarding the current status of your monitored process. These fields are not relevant on Solaris systems. For additional information about the Flag field, see the man pages for your operating system.

Base Command The command that initiated a process.

Child System CPU Time The time spent in system and user mode by the child of this process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30. Note: Not Available indicates a value of 0.

Use this attribute to determine which processes have children consuming a large amount of CPU time and take corrective action.

Child User CPU Time The time spent in user mode by the child of this process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30. Note: Not Available indicates a value of 0.

Command The command that initiated a process. Valid entry is a simple text string, alphanumeric with a maximum 32 characters. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated a process.

Command (Unicode) The command that initiated a process. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated a process.

Example An example of a command that initiates a process would be run.

Context Switch The number of CPU context switches for this process. A context switch occurred when a process voluntarily giving up the processor before its time slice was completed. This usually occurs while the process waits for a resource. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 9223372036854775807 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -9223372036854775808 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for context switches. Excessive context switches might indicate too many waits for resources. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

Context Switch (Superseded) The number of CPU context switches for this process. A context switch occurred when a process voluntarily giving up the processor before its time slice was completed. This usually occurs while the process waits for a resource. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for context switches. Excessive context switches might indicate too many waits for resources. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

Count of Processes The count of processes with the same name. On systems with AIX WPARs or Solaris Zones where all processes from the containers are visible, the process count includes all processes from all virtual containers and the count is not respective to each WPAR or Zone. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, the value -2 indicates Not Collected, and the value 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum.

CPU ID The ID of the processor on which the process is running. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the processor on which a process is running. Available on Solaris and HP-UX only.

CPU Pct The percentage of CPU used by this process. This value may exceed 100 percent if more than one processor is installed. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available and -2 indicates Not Collected. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using the most CPU time. High CPU percent might indicate a runaway or long running process.

ExampleEnter 50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%.

CPU Time The time the CPU has been utilized. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.

CPU Utilization The numerical value indicating the relative CPU intensity of a process. The CPU Utilization attribute represents the number of times a process uses the CPU over a period of 20 system clock ticks. The system decays this value after each 20 clock-tick period by dividing the number by 2. The system uses CPU Utilization to determine process priority. Large values indicate a CPU intensive process and result in lower process priority. Small values indicate an I/O intensive process and result in a more favorable priority. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 999. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available and -2 indicates Not Collected. Use this attribute to check process if you suspect it is using the CPU so much that the CPU is not available to anything else. This can cause network response time to be sluggish.

Example A high value indicates a CPU-intensive process. A low value indicates an I/O-intensive process.

Effective Group ID The effective GROUP ID. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the effective group ID for this process. Available on all platforms.

Effective Group Name The effective group name of the process.

Effective User ID The effective USER ID. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the effective user ID for this process. Available on all platforms

Effective User Name The effective user name of the process.

Elapsed Time The elapsed time for the process. Note: the value -0 indicates Not Available. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Use this attribute to determine how long this process has been running.

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Entry Address The virtual memory address of a process. This address corresponds to the segment number of the process stack. Valid entry is a hexadecimal string. Check with you local System Administrator for information on how to use this attribute. Note: On 64-bit systems, only the low-order part of the address is used.

Example The virtual memory address of a process varies from process to process.

Event Waited On The memory address of an event (if any) on which a process is waiting. A process must have this information before it can run. Valid entry is a simple text string or hexadecimal value depending on the operating system with a maximum string length of 8. This information is specific to your particular network.

Example On AIX, the word EVENT is an example of what is displayed for this attribute.

Execution State The execution state of a process. For valid entries, use one of the following codes to indicate an execution state:

Use this process to determine the state of a particular process. If a process is waiting, there might be an excessive amount of network traffic, or a process might be taking a long time to complete. Further investigation might be needed. Check with your local system administrator to determine what corrective action to take.

Flag The hexadecimal value associated with a process. Valid entry is a hexadecimal value with a maximum string length of 8. The meaning of a flag depends on the type of UNIX system you are monitoring. The Flag field of the UNIX Process report contains hexadecimal and additive flags. These flags are available for historical purposes only, and contain no information regarding the current status of your monitored process. These fields are not relevant on Solaris systems. For additional information about the Flag field, please refer to the man pages for your operating system.

Group Name The group name of the process owner.

Heap Size The size of the heap for this process expressed in bytes. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the heap size for a process. Excessive heap size might indicate a memory leak. Available on Solaris only.

Involuntary Context Switch The number of involuntary context switches for the process. An involuntary context switch occurs when a higher priority process ran or because the current process exceeded its time slice. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 9223372036854775807 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -9223372036854775808 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for involuntary context switches. Excessive involuntary context switches might indicate function problems in a process. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

Involuntary Context Switch (Superseded) The number of involuntary context switches for the process. An involuntary context switch occurs when a higher priority process ran or because the current process exceeded its time slice. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for involuntary context switches. Excessive involuntary context switches might indicate function problems in a process. Available on Solaris and AIX only.

Major Fault The number of major faults requested by this process. A major fault requires disk access. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 9223372036854775807 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -9223372036854775808 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for major faults. Excessive major faults might indicate memory shortage.

Major Fault (Superseded) The number of major faults requested by this process. A major fault requires disk access. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to monitor for major faults. Excessive major faults might indicate memory shortage.

Mem Pct The percentage of system memory used by this process. Valid entry is a numeric value in the range 0 to 100.00 to two decimal places. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available and -2 indicates Not Collected. Use this attribute to monitor memory usage by a process. Processes with high memory percent leads to memory shortage and cause system performance problems.

Example Enter 50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%.

Minor Fault The number of page reclaims for the process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 9223372036854775807 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -9223372036854775808 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the number of minor faults occurred in any processes.

Minor Fault (Superseded) The number of page reclaims for the process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the number of minor faults occurred in any processes.

Nice Value The requested execution priority of a process, in relation to other processes. The higher the nice value, the lower the priority of the command. The nice value, plus the minimum user process priority level equals the priority of the process. The range of nice values varies among UNIX systems. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. The range of nice values varies among UNIX systems. Check with your local system administrator for information concerning the range of nice values for your system.

Parent Process ID The unique numerical identifier of a process. The process that invoked the forked system call is the parent process, and the newly created process is the child process. Every process has one parent process, but a process can have several children. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the PPID for this process.

Priority The current execution priority value. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. The priority equals the nice value of the process plus the minimum priority value assigned to all user processes. The higher the priority value, the lower the priority of the command.

Example A value of 245 indicates the process is scheduled to be the 245th process ran. This is usually considered to be a low scheduling priority.

Process Command A command string including the arguments up to 100 characters in length. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 100 characters. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated this process.

Process Command (Unicode) A command string including the arguments up to 768 bytes in length. Use this attribute to determine which command initiated this process.

Process Group Leader ID The process group leader PID. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the process group leader ID for this process. Available on all platforms

Process ID The numerical process ID assigned to a process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the process ID for this process. Process ID values vary from system to system.

Read/Write The number of characters read and write by this process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 9223372036854775807 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -9223372036854775808 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the number of read and write completed by this process.

Read/Write (Superseded) The number of characters read and write by this process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the number of read and write completed by this process.

Real Group ID The real group ID for this process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the real group id for this process. Not available on HP-UX.

Scheduling Class The scheduling class for this process. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 8 characters. Use this attribute to determine the scheduling class of this process. Not available on AIX and HP-UX.

Session ID The real session ID for this process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.

Size (KBytes) The resident set size of the process, in kilobytes. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using too much memory. Excessive resident set size might lead to memory shortage and cause system performance problems.

Stack Size The size of the stack for this process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using too much stack size.

Start Time The time when the process was started. Note: the value -0 indicates Not Available. Valid entries are in the format CYYMMDDHHMMSSmmm, where:

Example A value of 0951009130500000 indicates the agent collected the data on October 9, 1995 at 1:05 p.m.

System CPU Time The system time spent executing this process. Note: the value -0 indicates Not Available. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Use this attribute to monitor the system CPU time spent by any processes. Excessive system CPU time might indicate a runaway or long running process.

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

System Name The managed system name. The form should be hostname:agent_code.

Examples include spark:KUX or deux.raleigh.ibm.com:KUX.

In workspace queries, this attribute should be set equal to the value $NODE$ in order to populate the workspace with data. This attribute is generally not included in situations, unless there is a need to customize the situation for a specific managed system.

Terminal Device The name of the terminal device that started a process. Valid entry is a simple text string with a maximum 8 characters. Terminal names vary from system to system. Check with your local system administrator for a complete list of all terminals in your system.

Thread Count The total number of threads for the process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the number of threads in this process for information only. Not available on HP-UX.

Time The total amount of CPU time that a process has consumed. Should this value become large, it might indicate a runaway or long-running process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of MMMMM:SS where:

Example To express 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 00065:30

Use this attribute to identify runaway or long-running processes.

Timestamp The date and time the agent collects information as set on the monitored system. The timestamp for SCAN and STR functions is in the CYYMMDDHHMMSSmmm format (as in 1020315064501000 for 03/15/02 06:45:01) where:

Total Child CPU Time The sum of the child CPU time (user + system) spent executing the process. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30. Note: Not Available indicates a value of 0.

Total CPU Percent The percentage of CPU used since the process was started. This value might exceed 100 percent if more than one processor is installed. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available and -2 indicates Not Collected. Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive total CPU percent might indicate a runaway or long running process.

Example Enter 50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%

Total CPU Time The total CPU time (user + system) spent on the process. Note: the value -0 indicates Not Available. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive CPU time might indicate a runaway or a long running process.

Type The type of UNIX operating system residing on a monitored host.

User CPU Time The user CPU time spent executing the process. Note: the value -0 indicates Not Available. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30

Use this attribute to identify which processes are using the most CPU time. Excessive CPU time might indicate a runaway or a long running process.

User ID The numerical user ID of the owner of a process. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

Example The numeric identification number varies from system to system and user to user. An example of a user ID could be 48765.

Process Filter (Unicode) A regular expression to be applied to the Process Command (Unicode). Use this attribute in queries or situations to filter only specific rows and define the relevant parts of the process command line to return. This way you can overcome the limitation of 768 characters in the Process Command (Unicode) length.

User Name The login name of the user based on UID. Valid entry is a simple text sting with a maximum 32 characters. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

User Name (Unicode) The login name of the user based on UID. Use this attribute to identify the owner of a process.

Virtual Size The size of the virtual memory used by this process, in kilobytes. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum. Use this attribute to determine the size of the virtual memory used by a process. Excessive virtual memory size might indicate a memory leak.

Wait CPU Time The time spent waiting for the CPU. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30. Note: Not Available indicates a value of 0.

Use this attribute to determine the time spent waiting for CPU. Excessive wait for CPU time might indicate a system problem. Available on Solaris only.

Wait Lock Time The time spent waiting for locks to release. Valid entry is a numeric time string with a format of DDDdHH:MM:SS where:

Example To express 45 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 045d01:05:30. Note: Not Available indicates a value of 0.

Use this attribute to determine the time spent waiting for a lock. Excessive wait for lock time might indicate a resource concurrence problem. Available on Solaris only.

Zone ID (Solaris) The ID of the Solaris zone. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.

Zone Name (Solaris) The name of the Solaris zone. Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.