My host's server shows :

Load Averages 3.77 4.60 6.43


What is this? is it good or bad?

I don't think anyone can give you any judgment without knowing the server specs. If it's a highend server, then it's OK ... if it's low end server, then it might cause problems.

Processors= 1
Model = Pentium III (Coppermine)
Chip = MHz997.18 MHz
Cache Size = 256 KB
System Bogomips = 1985.74
PCI Devices=
ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL
Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]
Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (#2)

IDE Deviceshda=
WDC WD800BB-00CAA1 (Capacity: 74.53 GB)
hdc: ATAPI-CD ROM-DRIVE-56MAX

Physical Memory = 1007.28 MB
Disk Swap = 2.00 GB

The better question.....how is server performance? How quickly does it serve pages?

The load average really doesn't tell you all that much other than how many processes are active.

Paste us the output of "vmstat 10 3" so we can see the average CPU idle over a period of 30 seconds (last column)

If theres no idle then my standards tell me that server is overloaded.

-Luxore

Hi,

Your load average is pretty high.

.50 or less is fine for 15 minute average.

but you are running 300 % over 3.00 more ram could help but this is a software processor issue.

Improving the efficientcy of your software by tweaking could bring the server load down.

Adding another processor would solve the problem as well.

Bottom line your load averages are bad and high.

If you are running Apache on 256 maxclients you may want to compile for 512.

Hope this helps.

-Frank