My load on computer is too high

imi@tux · 03-02-2006, 01:22 AM

Hi,

I'm using debian on my linuxcomputer. By executing 'w' I see that my load is too high. My question is: how can I check which process is causing this high load? 'Ps aux' doesn't help me much, not 'netstat -a' either.

corbintechboy · 03-02-2006, 01:40 AM

Could try top?

imi@tux · 03-02-2006, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anti_microsoft

Could try top?

Hmm, I wonder how the load is counted? I have followed 'top' for a while. The load is often around 0,50. But I can't see any process that should cause this. Sometimes I can see that for instance apache or spamassassin cause high CPU-% but that's only for a second. Everything else seem to be quiet, except for mysql with a mem-% of 3,6.

gilead · 03-02-2006, 03:48 AM

Top is a useful tool for checking loads. But unless you've got processes you can't identify, if you're getting a load of 0.50 don't worry about it, that's a very low load.

The load average is calculated as a function of processes waiting for the CPU. I've seen sendmail stop sending mail when it gets to around 12.0 (iirc) but when the load reduced it started sending again. I have no idea how high a load can go before the whole system grinds to a halt though...

chrism01 · 03-02-2006, 11:15 PM

If you really want to know, read these:
http://www.luv.asn.au/overheads/NJG_...luvSlides.html
http://www.teamquest.com/resources/gunther/ldavg1.shtml
http://www.teamquest.com/resources/gunther/ldavg2.shtml

t4tajinder · 03-03-2006, 07:15 AM

Ya right , load average of around 0.50 should not be very high .We can check it with the 'top' command .But u need to identify the processes with the high CPU usage . Get their PIDS and run the command 'cat /proc/pid-number/cmdline' and you will see the name of the process that is consuming high CPU usage ...

smiley_lauf · 03-03-2006, 07:29 AM

How about system monitor in GNOME, will that not tell you the same thing; also allows you to kill apps that are hanging??? Just asking because I use that with "top".

regards,
smiley

t4tajinder · 03-04-2006, 04:48 AM

Not sure about the GNOME system monitor ..Because i work on servers and always use CLI .In fact all the servers run in run level 3.