Process Log

[generalen]

Hi!

I'm looking for a simple application to create a log for when processes starts and ends. However it has to be very lightweight as it will run on a server already running above capacity. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

/Patrik

 

[Bruceification73]

I think you could probably just do that with command prompt. You wouldn't need an application. Maybe tasklist or some other cmd command.

However, I did find this:

http/technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

What OS do you have?

 

[generalen]

It's running Windows Server 2k3. Not allowed to go in to real details though.
Anyway, once or twice a day the CPU runs at 100%, but I have never been around when it happens. For instance, it can take up to 15 min to print an A4 page, and Process Explorer and Process Monitor will use 50-90% of the CPU thus it cannot be used to determine what is causing it. There are no scans, backups or anything of the sort scheduled either so we are really confused as to what is causing it.

/Patrik

 

[Bruceification73]

I found this, which has both an x64 version and x86, and I downloaded it to test it out. You have to change the settings to log all executed processes, which is in Options -> Log Settings, and then you can set it to remember more lines in the log (default is 100). I am still not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but it seemed to work for me. Let me know if you have any issues with it or if it doesn't do what you need it to do. It was only using about 3 or 4 percent of my CPU.

 

[generalen]

Thanks! I'll follow up with the results as soon as I've had a chance to take a closer look at it.

 

[generalen]

Back again =) Process Lasso solved part of the problem, atleast now we know that the problem lies within Services.exe which we didn't know for certain before, though we thought it might be so. Services.exe is using 90% or more of the CPU once a day, generally between 9:00am and 1:00pm. It will generally last for 5 to 30 minutes. Any ideas as to what it might be?

 

[generalen]

Best answer selected by Generalen.

 

[Bruceification73]

Is it running any updates around then?

 

[generalen]

Not that we have been able to find, not for the OS nor any other software. I suppose we could've missed something, but hardly likely as 3 people has looked it through several times without finding anything.

 

[Bruceification73]

Is it by any chance performing a background scan for viruses or malware? Sometimes that can take a lot of CPU depending on what kind of anti-virus software you use.

Also, go to start->run and type msconfig, then hit enter. Go to the services tab and look to see if there's anything in there that is either malware or just doesn't need to be running. If you don't know what something is you can google it, and if you still don't find anything let me know.