Appendix C. Probes 155
C.5.9. Linux::Process Count Total
The Linux::Process Count Total probe monitors a system and collects the following metric:
• Process Count — The total number of processes currently running on the system.
Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the moni-
tored system to execute this probe.
Field Value
Timeout* 15
Critical Maximum Process Count
Warning Maximum Process Count
Table C-23. Linux::Process Count Total settings
C.5.10. Linux::Process Health
The Linux::Process Health probe monitors user-specified processes and collects the following metrics:
• CPU Usage — The CPU usage rate for a given process in milliseconds per second. This metric
reports the time column of ps output, which is the cumulative CPU time used by the process. This
makes the metric independent of probe interval, allows sane thresholds to be set, and generates
usable graphs (i.e. a sudden spike in CPU usage shows up as a spike in the graph).
• Child Process Groups — The number of childprocesses spawned from the specified parent process.
A child process inherits most of its attributes, such as open files, from its parent.
• Threads — The number of running threads for a given process. A thread is the basic unit of CPU
utilization, and consists of a program counter, a register set, and a stack space. A thread is also
called a lightweight process.
• Physical Memory Used — The amount of physical memory (or RAM) in kilobytes being used by
the specified process.
• Virtual Memory Used — The amount of virtual memory in kilobytes being used by the specified
process, or the size of the process in real memory plus swap.
Specify the process by either command name or process I.D. (PID). Entering a PID will override the
entry of a command name. If no command name or PID is entered, the error Command not found
will be displayed and the probe will be set to a CRITICAL state.
Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the moni-
tored system to execute this probe.
Field Value
Command Name
Process ID (PID) file
Timeout* 15
Critical Maximum CPU Usage
Warning Maximum CPU Usage
