How to diagnose high load with the "ps" command

Question

How do you diagnose high loads with the ps command?

Answer

The ps command will allow you to see all of the processes running on the server:

# ps faux

Here are a couple of practical examples:

• Sort processes by memory used and see the top 10 processes:

  # ps faux --sort -rss | head -10

• Sort processes by CPU and see the top 10 processes:

  # ps faux --sort -%cpu | head -10

If you are having trouble finding the process causing the high load, it is recommended that you reach out to your System Administrator or hire a qualified System Administrator. You can find many for hire on our website here:

System Administrator Services