Server Monitor using up a lot of CPU cycles
Posted by Pierre Igot in: MacintoshMay 28th, 2004 • 5:42 am
Now that I am responsible for an Xserve server running in a remote location, I use Server Monitor, which is a Mac OS X Server administration tool that lets me monitor the status of the server remotely. I’ve set it to check the status of the Xserve every half-hour and to send me various types of notifications for various problems, as needed. It seems to be working fairly well.
Fairly regularly (something like every other day), however, I notice that things are a bit sluggish on my G4. I look at the MenuMeters indicators for CPU usage and see that I am constantly over 150% (for 2 CPUs). A look at running processes with Activity Monitor shows me that Server Monitor is using up nearly 100%. (Normally it is using next to nothing when running in the background.)
Quitting and relaunching Server Monitor fixes the problem. I have no idea what causes it. All I can say is that I usually notice the problem when returning to the G4 in the morning after the computer displays have been asleep all night. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, or maybe something happens during the night, in particular when Mac OS X runs its various maintenance tasks. Who knows.
I reported the problem to Apple through Bug Reporter in early March, and got a reply in late March saying that it was a “known issue” currently being investigated.
I don’t know if it’s been fixed in any of the recent Mac OS X Server updates. The Mac OS X Server 10.3.4 update page does mention a slightly improved Server Admin application, but says nothing about Server Monitor. Of course, Apple always forgets to mention half of the fixes that it has included in any system software update, so who knows.
In any case, I am waiting for Apple to provide a separate download of the admin tools so that I can install them on my G4 running Mac OS X Client. The last update of that particular download dates back to November 20, 2003, and that’s the version I already have.