What is CPU Usage?
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item What is CPU Usage?
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That's an easy one for me. We use the built-in Windows Performance Monitor. With a setup that captures both system metrics and our own software processes. It then persists the data to disk, and does a rolling file every day.
We or the customer can easily copy the file and view and analyze it on any other Windows machine. In combination with the log files from our software that is running on the machine, we have a pretty good idea of what is happening and why.
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Oh, and to your other point about what is meant when someone says, X, Y, or Z. Totally agree. Especially in technology, or probably for any profession for that matter. What I try to do, and tell others to do, is to always provided an example. Not only that, but to also provided an example of what you don't want.
So in this case, the customer should have asked for CPU usage, and then given an example of saying, "I want the CPU metrics from Performance Monitor or Task Manager. I don't want just a single point in time, or from a single process."
The other thing I say is that the more details they give me, the better I can answer it. If I'm going to take the time to answer it, then the least they can do is take some time to properly ask it. I can't read their mind.
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Communication is hard. What do you want? I know it's not a simple thing to decide, and even " metrics not for a single point of time" isn't clear. Is this a day? Week? what.
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I work with Snowflake, where the billing is based on compute per minute, with the increasing warehouse sizes having a higher multiplication factor.
If we double the warehouse size, the price per minute will double, but the extra power might complete the jobs in under 1/2 the time, resulting in a cost saving.
For me, a question such as "What is our CPU usage?" is where the 5 Whys tool comes in. That helps drill down into what the customer wants to achieve.
I'm always mindful that the customer has a problem they are trying to solve, but often doesn't tell you what the problem is, only the solution they have thought of. If you blindly comply, then you address a symptom rather than a cause.
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For sure, looking at symptoms or effects and not causes, is a regular issue
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