CPUBelastung

CPUBelastung, commonly referred to as CPU load, describes the degree to which the central processing unit is occupied by active workloads. It can be viewed as either the immediate utilization of CPU time, typically expressed as a percentage per core, or as a longer-term pressure indicator such as load averages that summarize queue length and scheduling delays over fixed intervals.

Operating systems expose different metrics. In Linux, the load average (1, 5, 15 minutes) reflects processes waiting to run rather than instantaneous usage, while per-core utilization can be read from tools such as top, mpstat, or sar. Windows reports CPU usage through Task Manager or Performance Monitor. macOS uses Activity Monitor or top. Across platforms, raw counters are accessible via system APIs and command-line utilities for deeper analysis.

High CPUBelastung can result from compute-heavy tasks, poorly optimized software, runaway processes, malware, or scheduling inefficiencies. It generally leads to increased response times, reduced throughput, and, in virtualized environments, longer CPU ready times or contention.

Management approaches include establishing baselines and alerts, distributing work via load balancing, tuning system and application parameters, optimizing code and algorithms, enabling caching, and offloading tasks to accelerators or other machines. In virtualized or containerized environments, resource limits, CPU pinning, and overcommitment policies help control CPUBelastung.

Important caveats include the difference between CPU utilization and CPU load; a high load average does not always imply high utilization if tasks are blocked on I/O. Similarly, CPUBelastung should be interpreted in the context of available cores and concurrent workloads.