[SlugBug] server health

[David Leadbeater]

Bill Best wrote:
[..]
> no doubt, it's gone 'rogue' - it does that from time to time - but then 
> why does top report that system processes are the hogs?
> 
> question:  how does top define system processes and user processes?

System CPU time is the time spent within the kernel, this is basically
the time spent on system calls and kernel housekeeping type tasks.

The only time I've seen it really high like this is when there has
been a problem with disks (IDE disks, DMA mode wasn't enabled so they
were really slow). If not it could be another hardware issue - dmesg
might provide some clues.