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I have a CentOS "development / testing" server that runs extremely slowly. It's running Apache and Mysql using PHP. Top reports that 98% of the CPU utilization is frequently spent on "st" - Steal Time. What could cause a server to spend so much CPU on steal time, and how can I diagnose the problem? I didn't notice the problem until after I granted a third party developer root access (for all I know it has a root kit running, though unlikely).

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  • Have you ruled out the basic scenario found in man top? The one about virtual machines & the hypervisor.
    – phemmer
    Mar 30, 2012 at 21:58
  • @Patrick I didn't find the info in man top you're talking about, but I wouldn't rule a hypervisor issue out. I'm pushing the processor to it's limit constantly, so there might be something in the core os throttling my environment.
    – JMC
    Mar 31, 2012 at 2:04
  • Steal time is defined as "The amount of CPU 'stolen' from this virtual machine by the hypervisor for other tasks (such as running another virtual machine)."
    – phemmer
    Mar 31, 2012 at 5:26

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The "steal time" is related to how much time your VPS is waiting for the underlying hardware. You might want to bug your hosting provider to check if they can see anything going on with that particular host.

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  • +1 - That makes sense since I'm over-utilizing the CPU
    – JMC
    Mar 31, 2012 at 2:09

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