What is TMM
When you’ve been working with a BigIP loadbalancer, you may have encountered the tmm process and wondered what it is… TMM stands for “Traffic Management Microkernel”. In basis it handles all of the BigIP’s traffic functionality. This being the loadbalancning, SSL processing, compression, iRules, …
For more detailed tech info, check the following page: http://www.f5.com/solutions/technology/tmos-dev_wp.html
CPU Utilization
What about it’s CPU Utilization? You see it use a lot of cpu time “from time to time”, yet you’re wondering how the algorithm behind is working.
The TMM process will utilize all the available time from one CPU. In case of a multicpu model, it will use the highest numbered CPU for this. All other processes will utilize the remaining processing time from the other CPUs.
Yet the system is idle (no traffice to process), it will release up to 99% of it’s utilization for other processes. Under load it will only release 20% of available time to other processes (like f.e. the httpd which powers the gui).
An intuitive and short explanation.
Thank you.