High interrupts
 

Hi,

when typing 'vmstat' on my Linux NAT router/firewall box, even when the box is idling (running a cut down custom kernel with hardly anly services running), the 'int' (interrupts) section always shows > 100.

On any other box i run vmstat on, this is < 100, at least for the first time i run it.

Is there anything to be worried about here? Why is the box constantly at > 100 interrupts ? ...
I don't know what could be causing them...

Any ideas?

Cheers

It may be a problem with apic

Even though nothing is running you are receiving packets while running vmstat. Each packet cause a least one interupt. A contect switch causes an interupt and many other things cause interupts. I would not be concerned about 100 interupts/sec. Are you experiencing any performance problems or are you just currious?

Is there a timer interrupt?

Yay its not context switching that generates an interrupt, but a rather the timer interupt causes the context switch. My bad. Spreading misinfomation again. Sorry