# High system column (vmstat) on the web server

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/high-system-column-vmstat-on-the-web-server/2049>\
**Category:** LAMP Stack\
**Created:** [November 2, 2009, 10:49am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/high-system-column-vmstat-on-the-web-server/2049 "2009-11-02T10:49:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gansbrest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@gansbrest](https://forums.percona.com/u/gansbrest)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:49am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/high-system-column-vmstat-on-the-web-server/2049/1 "2009-11-02T10:49:18Z")

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Hi.

Here is the output from vmstat 5 command on our web server:

[URL][http://pastie.org/629672[/URL]](http://pastie.org/629672%5B/URL%5D)

Looks like system column (sy) is too high and I’m trying to figure out what could causing that…

Is there any tools I can look at to trace it?

I would really appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks

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**Author:** ![istvan.podor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/istvan.podor/32/16879_2.png) [@istvan.podor](https://forums.percona.com/u/istvan.podor)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/high-system-column-vmstat-on-the-web-server/2049/2 "2009-11-03T02:33:17Z")

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Hi there,

This could mean a lots of things.

At first I think you should try to run top -d1 to see which application of yours is eating up all your cpu.

Regards,  
Istvan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gansbrest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@gansbrest](https://forums.percona.com/u/gansbrest)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/high-system-column-vmstat-on-the-web-server/2049/3 "2009-11-03T16:04:57Z")

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Looks like it mostly httpd (Apache)…Is it possible for Apache to cause high system usage? I was thinking it should affect user column…