slow performance

dominant · 03-15-2004, 09:45 AM

I have a SuSE 9 Pro. And i noticed that suddenly the performance got slower.

It consumes the 70% of physical RAM (using the application top).

What can i do now?

Mara · 03-15-2004, 10:06 AM

You need to find out what's using the memory and see if you need all the programs (maybe there are services started at boot and you don't need them?). To see the amount of memory used by all applications use
ps aux
command. Memory usage (in %) is in the 4th column. Check for most memory-hungry programs. If you're unsure if you can turn them off, post their names.

dominant · 03-15-2004, 10:26 AM

no program consumes more than 3.0%, however, the systems is very slow

Mara · 03-15-2004, 10:43 AM

So look how it is with processsor usage (the same command, 3rd column).

dominant · 03-15-2004, 10:54 AM

Everything is nearly 0.0 %, however ,...

Redeye2 · 03-15-2004, 11:11 AM

Why don't you try another distro? maybe a live cd and check for results... could be a problem between you and suse.

dominant · 03-15-2004, 11:54 AM

Should i restart the the server? It's been up for 30 days.

Mara · 03-15-2004, 03:06 PM

Look for another thing...How many processes are printed (ps aux, last column)? Is there the same printed many times?

J.W. · 03-15-2004, 07:48 PM

Also try running top, which sorts the processes in order of most CPU usage to least. Sometimes it's easy to miss a CPU-hog in a long list, but with top, the biggest process will appear first, making it hard to miss.

Personally I do not think it would be necessary to switch distros. I would be willing to bet that you just have a runaway process eating those CPU cycles. -- J.W.

dominant · 03-16-2004, 02:51 AM

httpd and mysqld are multiple printed.
10 people/minute access my web server.

Is that a reason for that performance.

my physical ram is 512 MB (swap 1.5 GB)

dominant · 03-16-2004, 07:06 AM

any ideas?

Pres · 03-16-2004, 07:26 AM

Perhaps the problem is the disk access side of things. Could be, if it's a mysql/webserver.

Try a "hdparm -Tt /dev/hda" (using your disk, not necessarily hda) for a start.

Then, if smart is turned on in your bios, try "smartd -q onecheck" to see if the disk is getting a bit hard worn.

Who knows, might give a clue.

dominant · 03-16-2004, 07:33 AM

I am afraid to touch the hard disk through linux because i am not as experienced as you.

Do you believe that hard disk is slow?

Pres · 03-16-2004, 07:58 AM

No, just offering a possibility. The above commands won't hurt your disk; check the man pages for "hdparm" and "smartd". Run them, then think about whether or not the disk could be a problem. Maybe the way your database is set up is causing seek time problems ? I don't know, just some things to consider, since you seem to have plenty of cpu and memory to spare.

It's usual for httpd and mysqld to have multiple instances, though, helps out when faced with multiple requests I believe.

dominant · 03-16-2004, 08:46 AM

Is there any possibility of hacking?