A system administrator has been alerted to slow performance on a virtualized Linux server. After checking various system metrics, the administrator finds that a significant amount of processor time is categorized under 'st' when inspecting resource usage with monitoring tools. What does this category represent?
Time spent processing input/output operations waiting for external devices
Duration dedicated to running the kernel and its associated processes
Time allocated by the hypervisor to other virtual processors
This is the time spent performing calculations for user-initiated processes
The period during which the system is idle and waiting for user interaction
Time reserved for low-priority background tasks within the system
'st', or 'steal' time, is an important metric particularly in virtualized environments. It indicates the amount of time that the virtual processor wanted to execute, but the hypervisor allocated that time to another virtual processor. A high 'steal' time can be a sign of the virtualized server not getting enough processing power because the physical host's resources are heavily used by other virtual machines.
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