The metric we all use for CPU utilization is deeply misleading, and getting worse every year. What is CPU utilization? How busy your processors are? No, that’s not what it measures. Yes, I’m talking about the “%CPU” metric used everywhere, by everyone. In every performance monitoring product. In top(1).
What you may think 90% CPU utilization means:
What it might really mean:
Read more at Brendan Gregg’s blog
