During this fifth week of the IT specialisation, we shall be dabbling into the processes of management. This has been recognized as a core competency for IT Support Specialists, both regarding the ability to read and interpret process statuses from Windows and Linux. We will see how processes are started and stopped, as well as use some of the available troubleshooting tools to pinpoint and remedy both process and resource issues. By the time this module is concluded, the students will be ready for practical process management on Windows and Linux systems.
Learning Outcomes:
- Format and partition a disk in Windows.
- Repair a filesystem or disk using typical utilities.
- View usage and remaining space on an external device.
- Format and partition a disk in Linux.
PRACTICE QUIZ: LIFE OF A PROCESS
1. True or false: Windows processes can operate independently of their parents.
- TRUE (CORRECT)
- FALSE
Great work! Windows processes can create a child process that inherits an environment from its parent, but the parent can terminate before the child goes on to function directly unaffected. A closure in Linux will perhaps affect the child process created, because it is usually much closer to its parent.
PRACTICE QUIZ: MANAGING PROCESSES
1. Which of the following tools can help you gather information about the processes running on a Windows operating system?
- The Task Manager
- The tasklist utility from a command prompt
- The Get-Process commandlet from a PowerShell prompt
- All of the above (CORRECT)
Nice job! All these appliances can help you gather information about processes currently in operation on the Windows operating system.
2. If you restart a process using the Process Explorer utility, what will the new parent of that process be?
- cmd.exe
- Process Explorer (CORRECT)
- windows.exe
- momanddad.exe
You nailed it! Since Process Explorer is the process that triggered the restart, it seems, by all logic, that Process Explorer will take over as parent of the process.
PRACTICE QUIZ: PROCESS UTILIZATION
1. Which of the following PowerShell commands will tell you which process on your system is using the most CPU resources?
- Get-Process | Sort CPU -descending | Select -first 1 -Property ID,ProcessName,CPU (CORRECT)
- Get-Process | Sort RAM -descending | Select -first 1 -Property ID,ProcessName,CPU
- cpu_usage.exe | top -1
Wohoo! That will do the job. It will filter the result of the Get-Process cmdlet to find out who the top CPU resource user is and then display the Process ID, name, and amount of CPU used.
2. If you have a slow computer, what are some possible culprits that could be causing this? Select all that apply.
- High CPU usage (CORRECT)
- Lots of I/O activity (CORRECT)
- High RAM usage (CORRECT)
- Too many processes running (CORRECT)
You nailed it! A slow computer may be symptomatic of a number of different malfunctions but would be generally advisable first to check the use of resources used by your computer system.
3. In a Linux machine, what command can you use to safely terminate a process with a PID of 342?
- kill 342 (CORRECT)
- kill -KILL 342
- kill -TSTP 342
- kill -CONT 342
Great work! Send a SIGTERM signal to stop one process from another. In this way, the process can terminate itself cleanly without suddenly stopping, giving it a chance to free resources.
4. In a Linux machine, what command can you use to absolutely kill a process with a PID of 342?
- kill 342
- kill -KILL 342 (CORRECT)
- kill -TSTP 342
- kill -CONT 342
You got it! To end a process right away, the appropriate signal is SIGKILL.
5. In a Linux machine, what command can you use to suspend a process with a PID of 342?
- kill 342
- kill -KILL 342
- kill -TSTP 342 (CORRECT)
- kill -CONT 342
Great work! One can invoke the SIGTSTP signal to stop or suspend the execution of a running process.