windows_exporter/docs/runbooks/windowscpuhighusage.md

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WindowsCPUHighUsage

Meaning

Average non-idle CPU usage across logical processors exceeds the configured threshold for 15 minutes. The default is 90%, measured over a five-minute rate window. This measures CPU time; Task Manager's frequency-adjusted utility can show a different value.

Impact

The host has little CPU capacity for additional work. Applications may show increased latency, timeouts, or reduced throughput.

Diagnosis

1. Inspect windows:cpu_usage:ratio for the affected host and compare it with its workload and normal baseline.
2. Inspect windows:cpu_time:ratio_rate by mode. High user time points toward application work; high privileged, interrupt, or DPC time can indicate kernel or driver activity. DPC and interrupt modes overlap privileged time; do not sum all modes to estimate usage.
3. Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, or Performance Monitor to identify the busy processes. Compare individual core usage to detect a single-threaded bottleneck.
4. Check scheduled tasks, antivirus scans, recent deployments, and hypervisor CPU contention.

Mitigation

Reduce or redistribute the workload, reschedule expensive background tasks, or add CPU capacity. Investigate a process or driver consuming unexpected CPU before restarting it. Confirm CPU usage and application latency return to normal. For expected sustained workloads, tune the threshold against service objectives and available capacity.