what is max_load parameter in /etc/xinetd.conf

deepak_cucek · 08-19-2009, 04:55 AM

am using suse 10 sp1

in /etc/xinetd.conf , we have one parameter max_load,
as per man page

"Takes a floating point value as the load at which the service will stop accepting connections. For example: 2 or 2.5. The service will stop accepting connections at this load. This is the one minute load average. This is an OS dependent feature, and currently only Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD are supported for this. This feature is only avaliable if xinetd was configured with the -with-loadavg option. "

what is this load means , how we can check currently how much load cpu is accepting ....?

thanks in advance

centosboy · 08-19-2009, 05:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepak_cucek

am using suse 10 sp1

in /etc/xinetd.conf , we have one parameter max_load,
as per man page

"Takes a floating point value as the load at which the service will stop accepting connections. For example: 2 or 2.5. The service will stop accepting connections at this load. This is the one minute load average. This is an OS dependent feature, and currently only Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD are supported for this. This feature is only avaliable if xinetd was configured with the -with-loadavg option. "

what is this load means , how we can check currently how much load cpu is accepting ....?

thanks in advance

use top.

this shows the last 1, 5 and 15 minutes of load in that order
taken from wiki

Code:

For example, one can interpret a load average of "1.73 0.50 7.98" on a single-CPU system as:

    * during the last minute, the CPU was overloaded by 73% (1 CPU with 1.73 runnable processes, so that 0.73 processes had to wait for a turn)
    * during the last 5 minutes, the CPU was underloaded 50% (no processes had to wait for a turn)
    * during the last 15 minutes, the CPU was overloaded 698% (1 CPU with 7.98 runnable processes, so that 6.98 processes had to wait for a turn)

This means that this CPU could have handled all of the work scheduled for the last minute if it were 1.73 times as fast, or if there were two (1.73 rounded up) times as many CPUs, but that over the last five minutes it was twice as fast as necessary to prevent runnable processes from waiting their turn.

so in effect, the max_load directive is like a safeguard to stopping constant overloading of your system

deepak_cucek · 08-19-2009, 05:15 AM

thanx centosboy

actually my concern is

1:telnet is enabled in my machine
2:sometime connection is establishing , but some time connection is refusing with the server
3: the max_load is 20 in my machine

i want to know this will be the reason am able to make a connection with suse machine..?
or is there will be any other reason...?

deepak_cucek · 08-19-2009, 07:12 AM

if the entry max_load is not there is /etc/xinetd.conf , what will be the default value taken by OS

thanks in advance

chrism01 · 08-19-2009, 06:52 PM

It just means that if xinetd was configured with -with-loadavg, AND you set max_load = 20, the it will stop accepting cxns if that load avg is reached.
By reading the manpage, I'd expect that the default is none ie no limit is set.

Its certainly possible that your system will be unable to accept cxns for other reasons eg its overloaded by some process(es), or acct locked or iptables blocked or tcp_wrappers blocked etc etc.

BTW, an avg of over 5 is a bit heavy, over 10 is very heavy.
What does 'top' show?

deepak_cucek · 08-19-2009, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

It just means that if xinetd was configured with -with-loadavg, AND you set max_load = 20, the it will stop accepting cxns if that load avg is reached.
By reading the manpage, I'd expect that the default is none ie no limit is set.

Its certainly possible that your system will be unable to accept cxns for other reasons eg its overloaded by some process(es), or acct locked or iptables blocked or tcp_wrappers blocked etc etc.

BTW, an avg of over 5 is a bit heavy, over 10 is very heavy.
What does 'top' show?

in the first line of the top command i can see the below line

"load average : 25.10 . 18.10 , 21.20 "

chrism01 · 08-20-2009, 12:41 AM

If you really want to understand load averages read these

http://www.teamquest.com/resources/g...ay/5/index.htm
http://www.teamquest.com/resources/g...ay/7/index.htm

and some of the links in there. Basically, the machine shows you what's happening, but its up to you to decide if the performance is good enough or not...