User CPU          (Sun MTP Servers)

DESCRIPTION
"User CPU" shows the amount of time spent executing user application code that
does not require operating system calls. 


VALUES
The time is expressed in the format hh:mm:ss. With the precision only to the
second, this datapoint is not meant to be incredibly accurate. Instead, this 
datapoint gives a rough idea of the amount of "User CPU" consumed by a 
particular Server.


INTERPRETATION
CPU processing time comes in two flavors: "Kernel CPU" and "User CPU". The
"Kernel CPU" is the amount of time executing operating system calls on behalf of
a process. For example, a request to open a file or perform I/O requires at least
one system call. The amount of time required to perform this type of action
makes up "Kernel CPU". On the other hand, when user code does something like
add up members in an array, the processing consists only of "User CPU". This 
kind of computation requires no assistance from the operating system. "User CPU"
reflects the time spent executing user application code that doesn't require
operating system intervention.


CONCLUSIONS
The combination of "Kernel CPU" and "User CPU" gives an idea of the total amount
of CPU time consumed by a Sun MTP Server. The separate components, however, yield
an accurate profile of the computation. I/O heavy processing should display 
substantially more "Kernel CPU" than "User CPU". A Recovery Server falls into 
this category, whereas a compute-bound Transaction Server may easily consume 
an equal or even greater amount of "User CPU" as compared to "Kernel CPU".
