# 20min\_steal\_cpu

**URL:** <https://community.netdata.cloud/t/20min-steal-cpu/2179>\
**Category:** Alerts\
**Created:** [November 20, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://community.netdata.cloud/t/20min-steal-cpu/2179 "2021-11-20T17:26:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ancairon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/community.netdata.cloud/ancairon/32/1001_2.png) [@Ancairon](https://community.netdata.cloud/u/Ancairon)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://community.netdata.cloud/t/20min-steal-cpu/2179/1 "2021-11-20T17:26:44Z")

</div>

# 20min\_steal\_cpu

## OS: Linux

This alarm calculates average CPU `steal` time over the last 20 minutes.

`steal`, in a virtual machine, is the percentage of time that particular virtual CPU has to wait for an available host CPU to run on. If this metric goes up, it means that your VM is not getting the processing power it needs.

### Troubleshooting section:

> **Check for CPU quota and host issues**
>
> Generally, if `steal` is high, it could mean one of the following:
> 
> - Another VM on the host system is hogging the CPU.
> - System services on the host system are monopolizing the CPU (for example, system updates).
> - The host CPUs are over-committed (you have more virtual CPUs assigned to VMs than the host system has physical CPUs) and too many VMs need CPU time simultaneously.
> - The VM itself has a CPU quota that is too low.
> 
> So in the end you can increase the CPU resources of that particular VM, and if the alert persists, move the guest to a different _physical_ server.