Figure 4-9. A sample Linux /proc/stat file that contains CPU consumption information since the system last booted. With a little creativity, you can write your own CPU monitoring script.

Figure 4-10. A /proc-based average CPU utilization report from a Linux system. Every 5 seconds, the average CPU utilization components are displayed.

Starting with Oracle Database 10g, some operating system statistics are being captured and available through the v$osstat performance view. The column names are not consistent from release to release, nor from one flavor of Linux or Unix to the next. However, with only a simple examination of the columns, you can easily understand their meanings.