As much as I have read about iowait, it is still mystery to me.
I know it's the time spent by the CPU waiting for a IO operations to complete, but what kind of IO operations precisely? What I am also not sure, is why it so important? Can't the CPU just do something else while the IO operation completes, and then get back to processing data?
Also what are the right tools to diagnose what process(es) did exactly wait for IO.
And what are the ways to minimize IO wait time?
