An IS auditor observes a system performance monitoring tool which states that a server critical to the organization averages high CPU utilization across a cluster of four virtual servers throughout the audit period.
To determine if further investigation is required, an IS auditor should review:
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A. B. C. D.B.
The correct answer is B, system baselines.
System baselines are essential in determining normal system performance levels, which include resource utilization, such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network I/O. These baselines can be used to establish thresholds for the levels of acceptable performance.
In this scenario, the performance monitoring tool has indicated that the CPU utilization of the server is high. However, without the context of what is normal for the system, it is difficult to determine if this is a problem or not. Therefore, the IS auditor should review system baselines to establish what the typical levels of CPU utilization are for the server.
If the CPU utilization is within normal levels, the IS auditor may not need to investigate further. However, if the CPU utilization is consistently high, this may indicate a problem that requires further investigation, such as inadequate hardware resources, a misconfigured virtual environment, or an application issue.
Reviewing the system process activity log (Option A) may provide information on which processes are consuming CPU resources, but it will not provide a complete picture of the overall system performance.
Reviewing the number of CPUs allocated to each virtual machine (Option C) may be relevant in understanding the system performance, but it is not the primary consideration in this scenario.
Organizational objectives (Option D) are not relevant to determining if further investigation is required in this scenario.