1 post tagged with "system monitoring"

System performance matters—whether you're running a heavy-duty backend server on Linux, multitasking on Windows, or pushing Xcode to its limits on macOS. You don’t want your laptop sounding like a jet engine or your EC2 instance crashing from an out-of-memory error.

This guide walks you through how to check and analyze CPU and memory usage, interpret the data, and take practical actions across Linux, Windows, and macOS. Let’s dive in.

Linux Performance Monitoring with htop, vmstat & swap tuning#

Check CPU and Memory Usage#

Linux gives you surgical control via CLI tools. Start with:

• top or htop: Real-time usage metrics

  top

  sudo apt install htop

  htop

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• ps aux --sort=-%mem: Sorts by memory usage

  ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -n 10

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• free -h: View memory in a human-readable format

  free -h

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• vmstat: Shows memory, swap, and CPU context switching

  vmstat 1 5

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Learn more: Linux Memory Explained

Optimization Tips#

• Enable swap (if disabled) – Many VMs (like EC2) don’t enable swap by default:

  sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile

  sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

  sudo mkswap /swapfile

  sudo swapon /swapfile

  echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

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• Tune Java apps (JVM-based) — Limit memory usage:

  -Xmx512M -Xms512M

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Windows: Task Manager, Resource Monitor & PowerShell Tricks#

Check Resource Usage#

• Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc):

  • View CPU usage per core
  • Check memory consumption
  • Review app/resource breakdowns

• Resource Monitor:

  • From Task Manager > Performance > Open Resource Monitor
  • Monitor by process, network, disk, and more

• PowerShell:

  Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

  Get-Process | Sort-Object WS -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

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Learn more: Windows Performance Tuning

Optimization Tips#

• Disable startup apps — Uncheck unnecessary ones in the Startup tab
• Enable paging file (virtual memory)
• Remove bloatware — Pre-installed apps often hog memory

macOS: Activity Monitor, Terminal Tools & Optimization#

Check Resource Usage#

• Activity Monitor:

  • Open via Spotlight (Cmd + Space > “Activity Monitor”)
  • Tabs: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, Network

• Terminal Tools:

  top

  vm_stat

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  • Get free memory in MB:
    pagesize=$(pagesize)

    vm_stat | awk -v page_size=$pagesize '/Pages free/ {print $3 * page_size / 1024 / 1024 " MB"}'

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• ps + sort:

  ps aux | sort -nrk 3 | head -n 10 # Top CPU

  ps aux | sort -nrk 4 | head -n 10 # Top Memory

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Learn more: Apple Developer Performance Tips

Optimization Tips#

• Close idle Chrome tabs — Each one is a separate process
• Purge caches (dev use only):
  sudo purge

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• Reindex Spotlight (if mds is hogging CPU):
  sudo mdutil -E /

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Must-Know CPU & Memory Metrics Explained#

Best Cross-Platform Tools for Monitoring#

• Glances: All-in-one CLI monitor → pip install glances
  Glances GitHub
• Netdata: Live dashboards → Netdata Cloud
• Grafana + Prometheus: For full observability
  Grafana Docs
• Process Explorer: Windows power tool → Microsoft Sysinternals

Common Symptoms & Quick Fixes#

Final Thoughts#

System performance isn’t just about uptime — it’s about user experience, developer productivity, and infrastructure cost. The key is to observe patterns, know what “normal” looks like, and take action before things go south.

Whether you're debugging a dev laptop or running a multi-node Kubernetes cluster, these tools and tips will help you stay fast and lean.

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