Objective

The administrator needs to keep a constant watch on the CPU utilization of the SX500 Series Stackable Switch. This is done so that excessive traffic does not burden the CPU which might slow the switch down. Different kinds of traffic that the switch handles are management traffic, protocol traffic, and snooping traffic. CPU Utilization is a way to monitor how much of the CPU of the switch is being utilized.

This article explains how to configure the Central Processing Unit (CPU) Utilization on the Sx500 Series Stackable Switches

Applicable Devices

• Sx500 Series Stackable Switches

Software Version

• 1.3.0.62

CPU Utilization Configuration

Step 1. Log in to the web configuration utility and choose Administration > Diagnostic > CPU Utilization. The CPU Utilization page opens:

Step 2. In the CPU Utilization field, check Enable to enable CPU Utilization monitoring. The default is checked.

Step 3. In the Refresh Rate field, click the radio button that corresponds to the desired refresh rate for the CPU Utilization graph. The data begins to stream after a refresh rate is chosen.

• No refresh — No CPU Utilization samples will be taken.

• 15 sec. — CPU Utilization samples are taken every 15 seconds.

• 30 sec. — CPU Utilization samples are taken every 30 seconds.

• 60 sec. — CPU Utilization samples are taken every 60 seconds.

Note: The CPU Input Rate field displays the number of frames per second that the CPU receives. The utilization is represented on a chart with the Y (vertical) axis as the percentage of the CPU used, and the X (horizontal) axis as the sample number. In small deployment, a normal percentage is anything below 50%, but in larger deployments, higher percentages can be normal. Processes such as Spanning Trees, IP Routing Table updates, Cisco IOS commands, and Broadcasting storms can cause high CPU Utilization to occur.

Step 4. Click Apply to save the settings.