How do I identify which process spikes server load

Question

I am logging service activity to grafana and find that my linux based server shows a big spike in load exactly every 20 minutes.

Is there a simple way to identify which process is causing the spike. I would have thought it was a cron job, but since the machine runs lots of docker containers it is not quite as simple as it sounds to simply look at crontab. Identifying the process responsible would be better.

Start `top` or `htop` and watch carefully. – Thomas Oct 29 '16 at 13:32 — Thomas, Oct 29 '16 at 13:32
Use atop: https://linux.die.net/man/1/atop – dmourati Oct 29 '16 at 17:20 — dmourati, Oct 29 '16 at 17:20

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 29 '16 at 16:02

If you know how to log to or build a Grafana solution, and you have evidence of the reoccurrence of the resource spike on a regular interval, I think it would be easy to watch the server in realtime via top And view what's happening.

wait for system to spike
record the output of top and/or ps

How do I identify which process spikes server load

1 Answers1