Idle CPU utilization on Google Compute Engine

Question

Is there a reason why Google Developer Console shows 4-5% CPU utilization for my idle Debian Linux VM even though the VM itself claims it is 100% idle?

Answer 1

The CPU usage in Google Cloud Console is not that of the instance, but the CPU usage of the container managing it. This container is in charge of providing the virtualization services to the instance and collecting all the metrics. So, the Google Cloud Console CPU utilization shows the aggregate CPU usage for both the container and the instance.