Question on cpu utilization

[spfister336]

We've got several remote sites that have a 3500XL switch running 12.0(5)WC17 as the core of their network. All of them are showing cpu utilization around 35-55% pretty much constantly.

- is this too high? Shouldn't it be more like <= 10% most of the time?

- how can I troubleshoot this? I've seen some steps on cisco.com, but they don't seem to indicate where the problem might be.

Thanks!

[glen.grant]

No its not too high , thats about normal for those switches . They will run 30% without anything attached to them . People are under the assumption that cpu utilization has to do with traffic etc.. This is generally not true in switches where most traffic is handled in hardware and the cpu has very little to do with forwarding traffic.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps607/products_tech_note09186a0080094e78.shtml#baseline