show processes command

If a Cisco device is suffering from high CPU usage, we can use the show processes command to list all running processes and determine the cause of problem. This command gives you a list of active processes, along with their corresponding process ID, priority, CPU time used, number of times invoked, and other information.

Here is an example output of this command invoked on a Cisco router:

R1#show processes
CPU utilization for five seconds: 0%/0%; one minute: 0%; five minutes: 0%
PID QTy PC Runtime (ms) Invoked uSecs Stacks TTY Process
1 Csp 602F3AF0 0 1627 0 2600/3000 0 Load Meter
2 Lwe 60C5BE00 4 136 29 5572/6000 0 CEF Scanner
3 Lst 602D90F8 1676 837 2002 5740/6000 0 Check heaps
4 Cwe 602D08F8 0 1 0 5568/6000 0 Chunk Manager
5 Cwe 602DF0E8 0 1 0 5592/6000 0 Pool Manager
6 Mst 60251E38 0 2 0 5560/6000 0 Timers
7 Mwe 600D4940 0 2 0 5568/6000 0 Serial Backgrou
8 Mwe 6034B718 0 1 0 2584/3000 0 OIR Handler
9 Mwe 603FA3C8 0 1 0 5612/6000 0 IPC Zone Manage
10 Mwe 603FA1A0 0 8124 0 5488/6000 0 IPC Periodic Ti
11 Mwe 603FA220 0 9 0 4884/6000 0 IPC Seat Manage
12 Lwe 60406818 124 2003 61 5300/6000 0 ARP Input
13 Mwe 60581638 0 1 0 5760/6000 0 HC Counter Time

The first line of the output shows the CPU utilization for the last 5 seconds, 1 minute, and 5 minutes. Here is a description of other fields in the output:

  • PID – the Process ID.
  • Q – the process queue priority. Possible values are: C (critical), H (high), M (medium), and L (low).
  • Ty – scheduler test (status). Possible values are: * (currently running), E (waiting for an event), S (ready to run, voluntarily relinquished processor), rd (ready to run, wakeup conditions have occurred), we (waiting for an event), sa (sleeping until an absolute time), si (sleeping for a time interval), sp (sleeping for a time interval (alternate call), st(sleeping until a timer expires), hg (hung; the process will never execute again), xx (dead: the process has terminated, but has not yet been deleted).
  • PC – current program counter.
  • Runtime – CPU time the process has used.
  • Invoked – number of times the process has been invoked.
  • microSecs – CPU time for each process invocation.
  • Stacks – low water mark or Total stack space available, shown in bytes.
  • TTY – terminal that controls the process.
  • Process – the name of the process.

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