7206 CPU load and 'sh proc cpu' output

[belaruskali]

I have 7206VXR equipped with NPE-300 processing module. It serves several BGP sessions and performs CBWFQ traffic shaping on outgoing FE interface simultaneously. CPU load in my implementation increases constantly and matches complexity of the policy that is used for outgoing traffic (number of classes and ACLs defined) and total bandwidth flowing through the router. Thus all is going according to my estimations. But does anybody know why I can't see IOS process(es) utilizing CPU resources?

This is sample 'sh proc cpu' output:

Cisco_7206#sh proc cpu | excl 0.00%

CPU utilization for five seconds: 39%/38%; one minute: 43%; five minutes: 43%

PID Runtime(ms) Invoked uSecs 5Sec 1Min 5Min TTY Process

21 14256924 3241838 4397 0.24% 0.10% 0.10% 0 Net Background

38 226229296 854805417 264 1.31% 1.13% 1.17% 0 IP Input

Question is - where are 40% of the load hiding?

At this moment policed traffic was about 20 Mbits.

P.S. I'm using IOS 12.2.6, flow switching, TurboACLs etc.

[donewald]

Looks like most all of your processing is being done via Interupt level processing (38% of it).

Here is a link that within explains some reasons for interupt level processing. Most commonly this can be caused by fast switching.

http://www.cisco.com/warp/customer/63/highcpu.html#2

See : High CPU Utilization due to Interrupts portion.

Hope this helps,

Don

[belaruskali]

Thanks for link, but I've read this document many times already trying to determine dependencies between my config and existing CPU load.

You mean that if I'm using fast switching, it can create this load?

Actually 3 types of switching are configured on the router - Fast Switching, CEF and flow switching. I see also that there are throttles on FE interface that is receiving all traffic coming to the router.

Cisco_7206#sh int fast 0/0 switching

FastEthernet0/0

Throttle count 13

Drops RP 13 SP 0

SPD Flushes Fast 77 SSE 0

SPD Aggress Fast 0

SPD Priority Inputs 0 Drops 0

Protocol Path Pkts In Chars In Pkts Out Chars Out

Other Process 543 607965 1190195 71411700

Cache misses 0

Fast 0 0 0 0

Auton/SSE 0 0 0 0

IP Process 543718302 2493051456 52562327 1210881018

Cache misses 1708

Fast 843181915 1287320062 1507704860 1594094104

Auton/SSE 0 0 0 0

DEC MOP Process 0 0 19811 1525447

Cache misses 0

Fast 0 0 0 0

Auton/SSE 0 0 0 0

And here is switching configuration on the same FastEthernet:

Cisco_7206#sh ip interface fast 0/0

FastEthernet0/0 is up, line protocol is up

Internet address is 194.52.0.98/30

Broadcast address is 255.255.255.255

Address determined by setup command

MTU is 1500 bytes

Helper address is not set

Directed broadcast forwarding is disabled

Outgoing access list is not set

Inbound access list is not set

Proxy ARP is enabled

Security level is default

Split horizon is enabled

ICMP redirects are always sent

ICMP unreachables are always sent

ICMP mask replies are never sent

IP fast switching is enabled

IP fast switching on the same interface is disabled

IP Flow switching is enabled

IP CEF switching is enabled

IP Flow switching turbo vector

IP Flow CEF switching turbo vector

IP multicast fast switching is enabled

IP multicast distributed fast switching is disabled

IP route-cache flags are Fast, Flow, CEF

Router Discovery is disabled

IP output packet accounting is disabled

IP access violation accounting is disabled

TCP/IP header compression is disabled

RTP/IP header compression is disabled

Probe proxy name replies are disabled

Policy routing is enabled, using route map kedr-by

Network address translation is disabled

WCCP Redirect outbound is disabled

WCCP Redirect inbound is disabled

WCCP Redirect exclude is disabled

BGP Policy Mapping is disabled

IP multicast multilayer switching is disabled

But incoming traffic never exceeds 30 megabits. Do you think it is already close to to maximum processing power of NPE-300? I had an idea that about 45 Mbit is possible to process on 7206VXR with NPE-300.