UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR KAMPUS KOTA

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Name of Course OPERATING SYSTEM

Course Code ITD13803
Lecturers Muhammad Rizal
Semester / Year Oct 2024
Week 2
Date 26Oct2024

Assessment Lab Activity 2: Basic Process Monitoring and Memory Management

on Windows

Submission Submit report via VLE per group of 4. Pdf format by week 4

Objectives:
Familiarize students with basic Windows OS tools for monitoring processes and system
resource usage.
Observe CPU and memory usage of different processes and understand the basics of
memory management.
Understand the relationship between system resource usage and performance.

Section 1: Introduction to Task Manager

1. Opening Task Manager:

 Instruct students to open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

 Guide them to navigate to the Processes tab, which displays running
applications and background processes.

2. Understanding Key Metrics:

 Explain the main columns:

 CPU: Shows the percentage of CPU usage by each process.
 Memory: Displays memory usage by each process.
 Disk: Shows disk activity generated by each process.
 Network: Displays network activity for each process.
Section 2: Observing CPU and Memory Usage
1. Experiment with Application Load:

 Have students open multiple applications, such as a browser with several

tabs, a document editor, and a media player.
 Instruct them to observe how CPU and memory usage change in real-time as
they open and close applications.

2. CPU and Memory Spike Observation:

 Ask students to identify which applications use the most CPU and memory.
 Discuss why certain types of applications (e.g., web browsers, games) tend to
use more resources than others.

3. Taking Notes:

 Students should note which applications are “heavy” on CPU or memory

and think about why that might be the case.

Section 3: Monitoring System Performance with Resource Monitor

1. Opening Resource Monitor:

 Guide students to open Resource Monitor from Task Manager by going to

the Performance tab and clicking Open Resource Monitor at the bottom.

2. Exploring Resource Monitor Tabs:

 Focus on the CPU and Memory tabs.

 Explain how Resource Monitor provides more detailed information about
which applications are using the CPU and memory.

3. Memory Hard Faults:

 Briefly introduce hard faults (data not immediately accessible in memory,

requiring access from disk).
 Students can observe this metric under the Memory tab, which helps
illustrate memory pressure.
Section 4: Basic System Performance Analysis
1. Simulate System Load:

 Instruct students to open a few resource-intensive applications to simulate a

heavy workload (e.g., multiple browser tabs, a media player).
 Ask them to observe how overall system performance changes with
increased load.

2. Discussion of Findings:

 Have students document and discuss any noticeable slowdown when the
system is under heavy load.
 Ask questions like: Which applications seemed to consume the most
resources? Did the system slow down, and if so, why?

Section 5: Creating a Summary Report

Report Content:

 Team should compile a short summary of their findings, including:

o Screenshots from Task Manager and Resource Monitor.
o Notes on which applications used the most resources.
o Observations on system performance under load.

2. Submission Format:

 Submit a report with your observations through the VLE in PDF format, listing
their name, student ID, lab no and date.

Conclusion
 Wrap up with a quick class discussion on the importance of monitoring
processes and managing system resources.
 Highlight how different applications affect CPU and memory usage, providing
insight into basic system performance management.
Appendix

Memory Hard Faults in an operating system occur when data that a program needs is
not found in physical RAM (main memory) and instead has to be retrieved from a
secondary storage location like the paging file on disk. Here's a breakdown of this
concept and how it appears in practical usage:

1. What is a Hard Fault?

 A hard fault happens when the data a process needs is not in RAM and must be
fetched from the disk (typically from the paging or swap file). This event is
different from a soft fault, where the data is simply in another area of RAM and
is quickly accessible without needing to access the disk.
 Hard faults are a normal part of memory management in Windows, but a high
rate of hard faults can indicate that the system’s RAM is too limited, forcing it to
rely on the much slower disk storage.

2. Why Hard Faults Matter

 Since disk access is significantly slower than RAM access, frequent hard faults
can lead to performance slowdowns. If too much data is paged out to the disk
and frequently needs to be paged back into RAM, the system may become
sluggish. This is often referred to as memory pressure.
 High memory pressure due to frequent hard faults usually occurs when running
memory-intensive applications or multitasking on systems with low physical
memory.

3. How to Observe Hard Faults

 Task Manager:
o In Task Manager, users can check overall memory usage and see which
applications consume the most memory.
o However, Task Manager does not specifically show hard faults, so this is
where Resource Monitor comes into play.
 Resource Monitor:
o Instruct students to go to Resource Monitor → Memory tab. Here, they
can see a detailed view of memory usage, including a counter for Hard
Faults/sec.
o This metric represents the rate of hard faults across all processes.
Watching it spike, especially when launching new applications or
switching between memory-heavy tasks, can indicate that the system is
experiencing high memory pressure.
4. Class Activity with Hard Faults

 Observation Exercise:
o Have students open multiple applications (e.g., several browser tabs,
video playback, and document editing) to increase memory demand.
o In Resource Monitor, under the Memory tab, they can watch the Hard
Faults/sec metric. High or frequent spikes may suggest that their
system's RAM is insufficient for the workload, causing the system to fall
back on slower storage options like the disk.

5. Interpreting Hard Fault Patterns

 If students notice frequent high values in Hard Faults/sec, this could mean:
o Their system is struggling with current memory capacity, causing more
data to be swapped to and from the disk.
o It might be beneficial to add more physical RAM or reduce the number of
open applications.
 Discuss with students that while occasional hard faults are normal, sustained
high hard fault rates can lead to reduced performance, especially with memory-
bound applications like games or video editors.