What causes my VPS/Server to freeze or become unresponsive?
When the CPU is fully utilized by a program, it can lead to system performance degradation and potentially cause the system to become unresponsive or freeze under certain circumstances.
Resource Contention: When a program consumes all available CPU resources, other system processes may struggle to execute, leading to resource contention. Critical system processes, including those responsible for handling user input, managing disk I/O, or maintaining network connectivity, may experience delays or interruptions, causing the system to become unresponsive.
Interrupt Handling: If the CPU is overwhelmed with processing tasks, it may struggle to handle system interrupts efficiently. Interrupts are signals sent by hardware devices to request the CPU's attention, such as keyboard input, disk I/O completion, or network packets arrival. If the CPU is fully occupied, it may delay or miss handling these interrupts, resulting in delayed or unresponsive system behavior.
Memory Pressure: High CPU utilization can also exacerbate memory pressure, especially if the program consumes significant amounts of system memory (RAM). As the CPU works to process tasks, it may generate memory-related operations, such as memory allocation, deallocation, or swapping, further taxing system resources and potentially leading to memory exhaustion or thrashing.
Operating System Scheduling: The operating system's task scheduler may struggle to allocate CPU time effectively when one program monopolizes CPU resources. Background system processes, essential services, or interactive user applications may receive inadequate CPU time, leading to sluggish performance or system freezes.
While high CPU utilization alone may not always cause the entire system to freeze, it can contribute to system instability and unresponsiveness, particularly if combined with other resource constraints or underlying issues. Monitoring system performance, identifying resource bottlenecks, and optimizing system configuration can help mitigate the risk of system freezes due to high CPU utilization.
Mitigation
CPU bottlenecking occurs when there are many charts and indicators open on the trading platform, making the server use a lot of CPU. This can slow down the entire system, especially when there is market volatility and price action moves quickly. One solution is to lower the priority of your trading platform's process. This allows crucial system processes, like disk input/output and RAM usage, to access your platform's data more efficiently, without compromising stability.
To lower the process priority of your platform (like NinjaTrader), follow these steps:
Open Task Manager: You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc or by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Task Manager."
Find the NinjaTrader Process: Go to the "Details" tab in Task Manager. Look for the process named "NinjaTrader.exe" or something similar. If you can't find it, check the "Processes" tab instead.
Change Priority: Right-click on the NinjaTrader process, hover over "Set priority," and then select "Below normal."
Confirm Changes: If prompted by User Account Control, click "Yes" to allow the change.
That's it! The NinjaTrader process should now have its priority set to below normal, which may help improve overall system performance by allocating more resources to other processes when needed.
Note: You will need to change the process priority every time you close and run your trading platform.
We can set the process priority automatically whenever you start your trading platform. Just let us know through chat or open a support ticket to discuss the best time for configuring this setup for you.
Resource Contention: When a program consumes all available CPU resources, other system processes may struggle to execute, leading to resource contention. Critical system processes, including those responsible for handling user input, managing disk I/O, or maintaining network connectivity, may experience delays or interruptions, causing the system to become unresponsive.
Interrupt Handling: If the CPU is overwhelmed with processing tasks, it may struggle to handle system interrupts efficiently. Interrupts are signals sent by hardware devices to request the CPU's attention, such as keyboard input, disk I/O completion, or network packets arrival. If the CPU is fully occupied, it may delay or miss handling these interrupts, resulting in delayed or unresponsive system behavior.
Memory Pressure: High CPU utilization can also exacerbate memory pressure, especially if the program consumes significant amounts of system memory (RAM). As the CPU works to process tasks, it may generate memory-related operations, such as memory allocation, deallocation, or swapping, further taxing system resources and potentially leading to memory exhaustion or thrashing.
Operating System Scheduling: The operating system's task scheduler may struggle to allocate CPU time effectively when one program monopolizes CPU resources. Background system processes, essential services, or interactive user applications may receive inadequate CPU time, leading to sluggish performance or system freezes.
While high CPU utilization alone may not always cause the entire system to freeze, it can contribute to system instability and unresponsiveness, particularly if combined with other resource constraints or underlying issues. Monitoring system performance, identifying resource bottlenecks, and optimizing system configuration can help mitigate the risk of system freezes due to high CPU utilization.
Mitigation
CPU bottlenecking occurs when there are many charts and indicators open on the trading platform, making the server use a lot of CPU. This can slow down the entire system, especially when there is market volatility and price action moves quickly. One solution is to lower the priority of your trading platform's process. This allows crucial system processes, like disk input/output and RAM usage, to access your platform's data more efficiently, without compromising stability.
To lower the process priority of your platform (like NinjaTrader), follow these steps:
Open Task Manager: You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc or by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Task Manager."
Find the NinjaTrader Process: Go to the "Details" tab in Task Manager. Look for the process named "NinjaTrader.exe" or something similar. If you can't find it, check the "Processes" tab instead.
Change Priority: Right-click on the NinjaTrader process, hover over "Set priority," and then select "Below normal."
Confirm Changes: If prompted by User Account Control, click "Yes" to allow the change.
That's it! The NinjaTrader process should now have its priority set to below normal, which may help improve overall system performance by allocating more resources to other processes when needed.
Note: You will need to change the process priority every time you close and run your trading platform.
We can set the process priority automatically whenever you start your trading platform. Just let us know through chat or open a support ticket to discuss the best time for configuring this setup for you.
Updated on: 15/04/2024
Thank you!