What is the best way to determine if a switch/uplink is being overwhelmed?  CPU performance?

Hello,I'm trying to learn more about switches, and I had some questions about the configuration on the following uplinks: First off should the 9500 also have a configuration including encapsulation dot1q, and should nonegotiate be added to disable DC...

I'm trying to understand how to tell if a Cisco port is using 10G as it is capable.  From what I can tell this port is using 1GB due to the media type.  It also appears to be having output drops.Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, link type is auto, media type is...

Can a Cisco 7811 IP Phone use a port running a 1000mbs connection?  Can this cause network stability issues with network performance on a computer that is using the PC Port?