resourceusage

Resource usage refers to the consumption of computing and energy resources by software and hardware components. It includes processor time, memory, storage I/O, network bandwidth, and electricity. Understanding resource usage helps optimize performance, plan capacity, and enforce quotas.

Key metrics include CPU utilization (percent of time the CPU is busy), memory usage (amount of RAM in use, including caches and buffers), disk I/O (read/write operations per second and throughput), and network usage (bandwidth and packet rates). Energy consumption and thermal output are also tracked in many environments.

Measurement is performed with tools and interfaces provided by operating systems and cloud platforms. Examples include Linux tools like top, vmstat, iostat, sar, and perf; Windows Task Manager and Performance Monitor; and cloud or container platforms that expose metrics through APIs. Time-series databases and visualization software (Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor) are common for long-term analysis.

Resource usage can be controlled through allocation and throttling. Linux containers use cgroups or Kubernetes resource requests and limits to constrain CPU, memory, and I/O. Scheduling and quality of service policies aim to provide fair access and prevent resource starvation.

Considerations include workload variability, caching effects, contention, context switching, and potential privacy concerns where usage patterns reveal sensitive information. Effective resource usage management supports better performance, reliability, and cost efficiency in servers, data centers, and edge devices.