I have a web site on a shared RaQ4 server.

It is often slow.

I'm just learning how to use PuTTY to monitor the
server.

For example right now the server is slow, and PuTTY
shows

12:09pm up 1 day, 16:52, 2 users, load average: 3.40, 3.15, 2.81
123 processes: 115 sleeping, 8 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 86.8% user, 13.1% system, 0.0% nice, 0.0% idle
Mem: 1048576K av, 605612K used, 442964K free, 0K shrd, 0K buff
Swap: 1048576K av, 0K used, 1048576K free 0K cached

Somewhere I learned that the server will perform well if the
three load averages are all below 2.50. In the example shown
above the load averages are 3.40, 3.15, 2.81 which makes
them all above 2.50.

I entered the command "top" into PuTTY and can see a list of the
server's users.

One USER has %CPU at 38.5, 72.8, 66.6, and similar numbers
that I can see as the screen refreshes every few seconds.
I have not seen less than 35% for this user. The COMMAND for
this user is often listed on PuTTY as "sendpasswd pl".

I created my site using Microsoft's FrontPage. Often when
I try to upload the site to the server, I get one of two error
messages: "can't parse ..." or "root busy ..."

Early this morning I started the upload operation, which
is called Publish in Frontpage, then went over to see what
PuTTY was showing. Sure enough my site was listed and
was using 5 to 8% of the %CPU.

Then the upload failed, an error message appeared in
FrontPage, and PuTTY began showing larger numbers for
%CPU, like 38 to 50%.

Remember I'm new to this, but I surmise that my error
message was causing the server some trouble, and the
higher %CPU reflected the work the server was doing,
as it tired to resolve the problem.

After quite a while, maybe 15 minutes, the problem on
the server was gone.

Now I'm wondering if the high %CPU numbers shown
above for that other other USER, like the 38.5, 72.8, 66.6 that
I mentioned above, are a result of the server thrashing
about looking for some password or something.

Please help me analyze this data.

Thanks,

Tom

Is this your server, or you're simply running a single site on someone else's RaQ?

Either way, your load averages on too high. I wouldn't want to have a site on that box; any user utilizing almost 40% of the CPU cycles has something going on.

Try posting your findings to the cobalt-users list for detailed info.

Brandon

I'm a customer on someone else's Cobalt RaQ4 server, which is
often slow. The tech support says that's the way it is on a shared
server.

I did a search on WHT for Cobalt-Users Group and Cobalt Users
List, but the search came back empty. How do I find the Cobalt
Users List?

Thank you, Brandon, for your reply.

Tom

No problem. Who is your host? (you can send me a private msg on this board if you do not want to post it publicly).

Tech Support is correct, that is the way it is on an OVERLOADED shared server. I suspect you're probably paying only a couple of bucks a month, right? Sometimes you get what you pay for.

The cobalt users list can be found here:

http://list.cobalt.com/mailman/listinfo/cobalt-users

Though it's really intended for RaQ *owners*, it couldn't hurt to post your question as a shared user, and ask if your TOP output is normal, even for a shared server. I suspect you can already guess the answer.

My suggestion? Find a new host.

Brandon