what is the solution to reduce load average??

mannoj87 · 05-23-2012, 07:42 AM

Do you think I should increase RAM size but I see its having 3gb free mem, why it is not using and have the load average reduced? Please suggest on load avg reduction, its a 32bit one i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

top - 16:40:43 up 173 days, 20:20, 13 users, load average: 4.62, 4.66, 4.34
Tasks: 438 total, 2 running, 429 sleeping, 0 stopped, 7 zombie
Cpu(s): 26.1%us, 17.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 51.3%id, 4.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.4%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 16624824k total, 16302036k used, 322788k free, 204580k buffers
Swap: 32772332k total, 88k used, 32772244k free, 8900548k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3125 mysql 25 0 2040m 1.8g 5380 R 215.2 11.7 677775:13 mysqld
14179 sym 25 0 1249m 339m 7292 S 100.1 2.1 356232:30 java
18741 sym 19 0 742m 121m 7308 S 18.6 0.7 6:21.05 java
25217 sym 25 0 1262m 303m 7320 S 7.3 1.9 55:02.65 java
26652 sym 25 0 1243m 285m 7296 S 3.0 1.8 29:31.28 java
7568 sym 25 0 1253m 179m 7288 S 2.7 1.1 11:30.75 java
7338 sym 25 0 753m 136m 7492 S 2.0 0.8 14:52.81 java
29481 root 25 0 1277m 499m 8532 S 1.0 3.1 44:52.47 java
17318 powerdev 15 0 2468 1236 800 R 0.7 0.0 0:00.03 top
547 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 3:55.05 ata/0
4628 zabbix 22 5 3292 1200 1088 S 0.3 0.0 266:54.45 zabbix_agentd
7393 sym 25 0 1251m 92m 7480 S 0.3 0.6 0:54.89 java
28221 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:08.08 pdflush
28381 sym 25 0 1231m 17m 6844 S 0.3 0.1 0:11.22 java
1 root 15 0 2072 624 532 S 0.0 0.0 1:24.36 init
2 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:13.25 migration/0
3 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.18 ksoftirqd/0

~]$ vmstat 1 4
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu------
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st
5 0 88 316668 204776 8890840 0 0 12 5 0 0 23 9 65 2 0
6 0 88 315808 204816 8891240 0 0 228 8820 1416 16104 31 8 60 1 0
6 0 88 315004 204852 8891844 0 0 112 4664 1483 24361 38 12 49 1 0
4 0 88 314136 204884 8892732 0 0 32 16704 1669 16617 30 10 54 5 0
[powerdev@bsnl ~]$

TobiSGD · 05-23-2012, 07:58 AM

The load average has nothing to do with your RAM, so your RAM can't help here.
As I understand it, the load average shows how many processes are running at a given time. You also have to see that in relation to your CPU. If you have a quad-core CPU a load average of 4 is nothing bad, that is different on a single core CPU.
You want to reduce the load average? Start fewer processes.

salasi · 05-23-2012, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannoj87

Do you think I should increase RAM size ...

Almost certainly not. If you were having swap traffic, there could have been a performance boost associated with reducing this traffic. But, you don't (over the very limited sampling period) have traffic to or from swap, so that performance boost cannot result.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannoj87

but I see its having 3gb free mem, why it is not using and have the load average reduced?

Because, it hasn't been able to use it for anything.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannoj87

Please suggest on load avg reduction, its a 32bit one i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Well, in certain circumstances, a 64 bit system might work a little better. Or, it might not.

If you are going post this kind of stuff, please use code tags - it doesn't cure everything, but at least it doesn't make matters worse:

Code:

top - 16:40:43 up 173 days, 20:20, 13 users,  load average: 4.62, 4.66, 4.34
Tasks: 438 total,   2 running, 429 sleeping,   0 stopped,   7 zombie
Cpu(s): 26.1%us, 17.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 51.3%id,  4.8%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.4%si,  0.0%st
Mem:  16624824k total, 16302036k used,   322788k free,   204580k buffers
Swap: 32772332k total,       88k used, 32772244k free,  8900548k cached

Code:

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 3125 mysql     25   0 2040m 1.8g 5380 R 215.2 11.7 677775:13 mysqld
14179 sym       25   0 1249m 339m 7292 S 100.1  2.1 356232:30 java
18741 sym       19   0  742m 121m 7308 S 18.6  0.7   6:21.05 java
25217 sym       25   0 1262m 303m 7320 S  7.3  1.9  55:02.65 java
26652 sym       25   0 1243m 285m 7296 S  3.0  1.8  29:31.28 java
 7568 sym       25   0 1253m 179m 7288 S  2.7  1.1  11:30.75 java
 7338 sym       25   0  753m 136m 7492 S  2.0  0.8  14:52.81 java
29481 root      25   0 1277m 499m 8532 S  1.0  3.1  44:52.47 java
17318 powerdev  15   0  2468 1236  800 R  0.7  0.0   0:00.03 top
  547 root      10  -5     0    0    0 S  0.3  0.0   3:55.05 ata/0
 4628 zabbix    22   5  3292 1200 1088 S  0.3  0.0 266:54.45 zabbix_agentd
 7393 sym       25   0 1251m  92m 7480 S  0.3  0.6   0:54.89 java
28221 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.3  0.0   0:08.08 pdflush
28381 sym       25   0 1231m  17m 6844 S  0.3  0.1   0:11.22 java
    1 root      15   0  2072  624  532 S  0.0  0.0   1:24.36 init
    2 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:13.25 migration/0
    3 root      34  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:02.18 ksoftirqd/0

Code:

~]$ vmstat 1 4
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu------
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
 5  0     88 316668 204776 8890840    0    0    12     5    0    0 23  9 65  2  0
 6  0     88 315808 204816 8891240    0    0   228  8820 1416 16104 31  8 60  1  0
 6  0     88 315004 204852 8891844    0    0   112  4664 1483 24361 38 12 49  1  0
 4  0     88 314136 204884 8892732    0    0    32 16704 1669 16617 30 10 54  5  0
[powerdev@bsnl ~]$

BTW, those 7 zombies, what are they doing for you (actually, I know the answer to that - nothing. But, why are they there?).

whizje · 05-23-2012, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannoj87

top - 16:40:43 up 173 days, 20:20, 13 users, load average: 4.62, 4.66, 4.34
Tasks: 438 total, 2 running, 429 sleeping, 0 stopped, 7 zombie
Cpu(s): 26.1%us, 17.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 51.3%id, 4.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.4%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 16624824k total, 16302036k used, 322788k free, 204580k buffers
Swap: 32772332k total, 88k used, 32772244k free, 8900548k cached

As I see it, you have 322 MB free.