System Monitor
System Monitor shows you what programs are running and how much processor time, memory, and disk space are being used.
Monitoring the CPU
The amount of CPU being used tells you how much work the computer is trying to do.
If the computer is doing a lot of work, it will use more processor time and more memory.
Computers with more processors find it easier to run many programs at the same time.
Memory usage
The Resources tab tells you how much of your computer's
memory (RAM) is being used.
View the memory map of a process.
Swap memory allows your computer to run more applications at the same
time than will fit into the system memory (RAM).
The memory map of a process can help diagnose certain memory
issues.
Questions about processes
If a program stops working or freezes, you can force it to close.
The status of a process can be running, sleeping, stopped, or zombie.
A process can be manipulated from the process list.
Lots of system processes run automatically in the background.
Common tasks with processes
Decide whether a process should get a bigger or smaller share of the processor's time.
Search for a file that's open to display which process is using it.
View files being accessed by processes.
Refresh the information shown in the System Monitor with a longer or
shorter interval.
Sort the list of processes by % CPU to see which
application is using up the computer's resources.
Information about file systems
The File Systems tab shows how much space is being used on each hard disk.
Explanations of all of the fields shown in the File System tab.
There are hidden file systems that the operating system uses.
Each device corresponds to a partition on a hard disk.
Network information
Choose the units to display your network speed.
Miscellaneous
Information in System Monitor can also be found using command line
tools.
Units of measure for memory and disk space
Use Solaris mode to reflect the number of CPUs.