Monitoring CPU usage is an essential task for any systems engineer, as it helps in identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing system resources. While CPU usage monitoring is commonly done on desktop or server environments, it is also possible to monitor CPU usage on a Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi is a small single-board computer that runs on ARM processors. Although it has limited computing power compared to desktop systems, it can still benefit from CPU usage monitoring to ensure optimal performance.

To monitor CPU usage on a Raspberry Pi, we can use the built-in command-line tools and a few additional packages. By monitoring CPU usage, we can identify processes that consume excessive resources and take appropriate actions to optimize the system.

Examples:

1. Using the top command:

   • Open the terminal on your Raspberry Pi.
   • Run the following command to launch the top command-line utility:

     top

   • The top utility provides real-time information about system processes, including CPU usage. You can observe the CPU usage percentage, load average, and other relevant information.

2. Using the htop package:

   • If the htop package is not already installed on your Raspberry Pi, you can install it using the following command:

     sudo apt-get install htop

   • After installation, run the following command to launch the htop utility:

     htop

   • Similar to top, htop provides an interactive and more user-friendly interface for monitoring CPU usage and system processes.

3. Using a Python script:

   • Create a new Python script using your preferred text editor:

     import psutil
     
     while True:
      cpu_percent = psutil.cpu_percent(interval=1)
      print(f"CPU Usage: {cpu_percent}%")

   • Save the script and run it using the following command:

     python3 cpu_monitor.py

   • The script uses the psutil package to retrieve CPU usage information at regular intervals and prints it to the console.