1.00?

Right now i'm seeing

2.18 2.30 2.26

Anything under 3.0 are good and you don't have much to worry about.

Can someone please explain server load to me. Cheers.

Under 3.00 is good?

:confused:

I don't feel like digging up all of the old threads about load averages and what is good, what is bad. Try a search ;)

Load averages totally depend on a slew of factors, a lot being server specs, one server may overload at 0.50, while another might purr along comfortably at 20.00.

Load averages aren't static measurements, try typing "top" while in SSH and it will tell you memory use, swap use, and CPU use.

To each his own as Myles said one server my die at 1.0 and another may run at 20.+ and never slow down.

Personally I like to keep mine under .7 on average with peaks no more than 2.5.

But then I do not think I make as much $$ per server as some here do, but my uptime is great and my customers are happy so it suits me.

Plus as pointed out by Myles CPU, mem, etc usage all plays a role in it also.

vmstat 1

Is better. Less CPU intensive to see whats running.

12:07pm up 32 days, 8:25, 2 users, load average: 1.29, 2.58, 2.88
140 processes: 136 sleeping, 2 running, 1 zombie, 1 stopped
CPU states: 5.0% user, 4.1% system, 0.0% nice, 90.7% idle
Mem: 510112K av, 464940K used, 45172K free, 0K shrd, 36688K buff
Swap: 1052248K av, 100344K used, 951904K free 260748K cached

:D (great example)

another example:

12:09pm up 35 days, 2:09, 3 users, load average: 3.29, 1.64, 0.81
205 processes: 204 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.4% idle
CPU1 states: 1.0% user, 3.0% system, 0.0% nice, 95.3% idle
Mem: 642924K av, 502332K used, 140592K free, 0K shrd, 64104K buff
Swap: 1020088K av, 69612K used, 950476K free 246696K cached

PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND

12:12pm up 48 days, 8:48, 1 user, load average: 0.71, 0.64, 0.69
98 processes: 96 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 6.1% user, 2.1% system, 0.0% nice, 91.6% idle
Mem: 764368K av, 752896K used, 11472K free, 0K shrd, 120004K buff
Swap: 1052216K av, 83528K used, 968688K free 477204K cached


OK we all post our tops now;:D

12:24pm up 62 days, 16:50, 1 user, load average: 0.21, 1.14, 1.01
161 processes: 158 sleeping, 3 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 8.7% user, 8.5% system, 0.0% nice, 82.7% idle
Mem: 505468K av, 452644K used, 52824K free, 0K shrd, 19696K buff
Swap: 1052216K av, 73256K used, 978960K free 200620K cached

12:26pm up 66 days, 22:33, 2 users, load average: 0.70, 0.74, 0.63
168 processes: 164 sleeping, 1 running, 3 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 1.0% user, 2.0% system, 0.0% nice, 95.0% idle
CPU1 states: 10.0% user, 4.0% system, 0.0% nice, 84.0% idle
Mem: 1030616K av, 961088K used, 69528K free, 0K shrd, 53100K buff
Swap: 1052152K av, 15104K used, 1037048K free 640664K cached

Well I still got 9 to post if you really want to see them:rolleyes:

i think someone should dump some impressive ones (anyone got a 386 crapping out at 0.20 load?), and something like a quad xeon thats chugging along with 50% cpu at 15.00 load :D

12:28pm up 109 days, 22:06, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
23 processes: 22 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 0.1% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU1 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
Mem: 2061784K av, 701480K used, 1360304K free, 0K shrd, 64964K buff
Swap: 2048276K av, 0K used, 2048276K free 125468K cached

Kinda not fair because its a secondary DNS box, but hey, its up and running well!

-Brendan

Originally posted by HRBrendan


Kinda not fair because its a secondary DNS box, but hey, its up and running well!


Bit of an overkill just for a dns box

You got 2 gig of ram in a secondary DNS box?

Nothing like flying first class. ;)

Moderate php/mysql usage --

9:34am up 144 days, 23:48, 1 user, load average: 0.42, 0.50, 0.29
85 processes: 83 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 8.9% user, 4.1% system, 0.0% nice, 86.8% idle
Mem: 1026384K av, 995996K used, 30388K free, 364K shrd, 293552K buff
Swap: 522072K av, 29944K used, 492128K free 512228K cached

2:12pm up 62 days, 2:19, 3 users, load average: 0.38, 0.27, 0.31
161 processes: 160 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 1.0% user, 3.0% system, 0.0% nice, 94.0% idle
CPU1 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU2 states: 0.1% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 98.0% idle
CPU3 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU4 states: 0.0% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 100.0% idle
CPU5 states: 0.0% user, 1.0% system, 0.0% nice, 98.0% idle
CPU6 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU7 states: 1.0% user, 1.0% system, 0.0% nice, 96.0% idle
Mem: 3602724K av, 3594512K used, 8212K free, 0K shrd, 456448K buff
Swap: 2097136K av, 31940K used, 2065196K free 2729156K cached


:)

.... :eek: :eek2: is that legit? If so, what are the specs there apollo? :D

Here is a Dual Xeon:

4:48am up 3 days, 9:36, 2 users, load average: 0.02, 0.02, 0.04
112 processes: 111 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 0.0% user, 2.0% system, 0.0% nice, 97.0% idle
CPU1 states: 0.0% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 100.0% idle
CPU2 states: 0.0% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 100.0% idle
CPU3 states: 0.0% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 100.0% idle
Mem: 1030684K av, 1001608K used, 29076K free, 0K shrd, 243512K buff
Swap: 2096440K av, 1300K used, 2095140K free 531004K cached

What was the point of all this?

last pid: 77357; load averages: 1.73, 2.38, 2.27 up 24+05:24:03 14:51:32
2 processes: 1 running, 1 sleeping
CPU states: 39.1% user, 5.0% nice, 30.2% system, 1.6% interrupt, 24.0% idle
Mem: 1091M Active, 452M Inact, 321M Wired, 101M Cache, 199M Buf, 47M Free
Swap: 512M Total, 7936K Used, 504M Free, 1% Inuse

The ponit was i want to know when my host has to many users on the server. I was always told that whenever the idle% hits 0 the server is overloaded and my sites always run slow when it's at 0%


My host always says they don't have to many people on one server but id like to prove them wrong (if i new how)

Now when i type top i don't see all the other things runing like MySQl etc all i see is my username.

thats because they have it locked down a bit because they dont want you to see other peoples stuff running, which isn't unreasonable. Whats the percentages in the header show when you run top? (let it run for about 15 seconds before copy'ing)?

2:58pm up 14 days, 23:00, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
29 processes: 28 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 0.1% user, 0.3% system, 0.0% nice, 99.1% idle
CPU1 states: 1.2% user, 4.1% system, 0.0% nice, 94.0% idle
Mem: 2054112K av, 2012056K used, 42056K free, 0K shrd, 52580K buff
Swap: 4192880K av, 301672K used, 3891208K free 1330756K cached

Running 12 virtual dedicated servers with very light loads.

Dave22,

Considering that there is very low swap usage and they are consistantly over the 1.0 mark I'd say that server is about at the peak of where it belongs. The idle rate isn't very attractive at all.

Run "vmstat 5" for about 2 minutes and post the results. That will give a good estimate of what the idle percentage truly is.

last pid: 100; load averages: 2.81, 2.93, 2.52 up 24+05:40:25 15:07:54
2 processes: 1 running, 1 sleeping
CPU states: 21.7% user, 39.1% nice, 30.2% system, 1.2% interrupt, 7.8% idle
Mem: 1117M Active, 419M Inact, 298M Wired, 70M Cache, 199M Buf, 107M Free
Swap: 512M Total, 7932K Used, 504M Free, 1% Inuse


I let it run 15 sec like you said :)

looks pretty busy, let it run and watch the amount of cpu idle, is it regularly below 10%, or is it at like 30%+ and then dropping to < 10% occasionally (when stuff spikes up)?

what is vmstat 5 a program? If so where can i get it?

I assume you meant type vmstat 5 after i log in?

procs memory page disks faults cpu
r b w avm fre flt re pi po fr sr da0 da1 in sy cs us sy id
21 11 0 2085712 324732 88 1 0 0 1589 36 0 0 907 983 389 16 17 66
19 13 0 2091292 326588 2993 5 2 0 2231 0 135 0 1392 71367 893 20 44 36
6 65 0 2086072 328120 2523 2 1 0 1854 0 45 0 1308 100437 938 31 49 20
10 5 0 2061912 329468 3047 1 1 0 2106 0 50 0 1240 98050 896 28 51 21
25 5 0 2054560 330356 3124 4 2 0 2095 0 7 0 1342 94636 940 36 50 15
13 4 0 2052992 329116 2969 3 2 0 1797 0 3 0 1462 96484 934 22 58 20
16 3 0 2048076 329648 2890 1 1 0 1774 0 1 0 1225 54331 785 21 32 47
11 10 0 2042064 329112 3027 2 1 0 2027 0 59 0 1350 40064 763 22 30 48
17 41 0 2027024 331784 3331 0 1 0 2357 0 57 0 1435 48529 815 30 34 36
9 3 0 2030964 329796 3540 4 2 0 2280 0 56 0 1344 60955 854 26 35 40
11 3 0 2023012 331424 3180 2 1 0 2207 0 4 0 1238 41979 696 15 30 54
15 5 0 2021188 326524 4159 1 1 0 2952 0 13 0 1237 56815 928 24 43 32
16 3 0 2017548 321964 4171 5 0 0 2659 0 6 0 1213 51219 807 39 31 30
11 8 0 2018960 322128 3035 2 1 0 1960 0 60 0 1307 43988 738 17 32 51
7 3 0 2014948 322356 2876 1 0 0 1814 0 106 0 1388 62526 800 18 34 48
8 3 0 2009916 326832 3092 2 1 0 2251 0 74 0 1313 48438 770 17 33 50
13 3 0 2020164 325692 3622 1 0 0 2336 0 4 0 1339 62564 866 15 39 46
13 3 0 2013200 326780 2948 1 0 0 2072 0 3 0 1357 45313 758 27 31 43
14 3 0 2002856 327116 3517 1 0 0 2353 0 6 0 1358 45127 802 28 29 43
14 18 0 2001756 325528 3082 1 0 0 1973 0 11 0 1305 44907 707 13 34 53
13 3 0 1996568 327604 2701 2 1 0 1867 0 80 0 1298 47748 683 18 27 55
21 4 0 1986056 329828 2924 1 0 0 1919 0 55 0 1357 54798 796 23 31 46


I have no clue to what all thouse numbers mean.

the last one if im not mistaken is idle cpu, looks like their average is over 40% (idle) there, thats not too bad.

Anytime I see a load average over 2.0, I start to get worried.

Myacen, your top results showed "3 zombies" -- that would really make me nervous! :eek:

Personally, I think that machine is over utilized right now. Others will disagree though, and since it isn't swapping much I am quite likely just paranoid.

It should be performing pretty well though.

Originally posted by apollo
2:12pm up 62 days, 2:19, 3 users, load average: 0.38, 0.27, 0.31
161 processes: 160 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 1.0% user, 3.0% system, 0.0% nice, 94.0% idle
CPU1 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU2 states: 0.1% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 98.0% idle
CPU3 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU4 states: 0.0% user, 0.0% system, 0.0% nice, 100.0% idle
CPU5 states: 0.0% user, 1.0% system, 0.0% nice, 98.0% idle
CPU6 states: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.0% idle
CPU7 states: 1.0% user, 1.0% system, 0.0% nice, 96.0% idle
Mem: 3602724K av, 3594512K used, 8212K free, 0K shrd, 456448K buff
Swap: 2097136K av, 31940K used, 2065196K free 2729156K cached


:)

Sure it is :)

Quad Xeon, 4GB RAM, 36+36GB U160 disks + SAN storage (over copper).... :) Dual power supplies etc etc... it's IBM 360 rackmount unit :)