any ideas on how to find out which user on a server is causing problem

[ppc1]

This has not happend to me yet, but i would like to pose the question as im sure it will occur at some point:

On a server, lets say you see system usage skyrocketing and pages barely loading, how does one deicpher which client on the server is causing all the problems,

Any ideas? I'm sure there is a way as big hosting companies have to find these problem customers every day,

Please be detailed as im a newbee...

Thanks

[lammert]

You have to be more specific before we can give any hints. I assume you have administrator access to the server(s) involved.

• Linux or Windows?
  
• Which applications involved, i.e. webserver, SQL server, other
  
• What is critical in your definition: bandwidth, CPU usage, RAM usage, disk usage, swap space usage, disk-I/O rate, etc
  
• What kind of server setup: shared, VPS
  

[ppc1]

Sorry about that:

Linux

As i said this has not happend to me yet, could you tell me what you would do if it invovled: Apache; mysql

I guess critical, really high CPU usage, RAM usage and/ or disk usage

It would be on a VPS

[physics]

SSH in and type top.
There are plenty of SSH tutorials out there so just search for one.

If you're on a virtual private server though then you should have a fixed percentage of the resources so I'm guessing you're actually in a shared hosting situation...