load average high

sang_froid · 12-14-2009, 08:12 AM

Hi,

I have been monitoring my server and when I run top command, it shows

Quote:

top - 08:10:17 up 52 days, 23:41, 1 user, load average: 1.09, 1.06, 1.00
Tasks: 91 total, 2 running, 89 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 24.4% us, 32.2% sy, 0.0% ni, 43.4% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 1054900k total, 941800k used, 113100k free, 147188k buffers
Swap: 2097144k total, 1736k used, 2095408k free, 617624k cached

The load average is almost 1.06, but cpu is not 100% utilized... I am just wondering why load average is 1.06 in that case still ? (well i monitored cpu for long time, it never exceeded above 40%)

can anyone explain the reason behind it ? Also is the system over utilized in this case ?

Thank you

bullium · 12-14-2009, 08:24 AM

If your system is a dual core (multiple processor) system than the 1.09 at 40% cpu load would make sense. Here is a great article explaining system load http://blog.scoutapp.com/articles/20...-load-averages.

If your not sure you have a multi core machine or not, you could always run:

Code:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

I you see more than one processor your system load would be correct.

sang_froid · 12-14-2009, 09:09 AM

Yes it is a dual processor...
Got it..Thanks a lot

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullium

If your system is a dual core (multiple processor) system than the 1.09 at 40% cpu load would make sense. Here is a great article explaining system load http://blog.scoutapp.com/articles/20...-load-averages.

If your not sure you have a multi core machine or not, you could always run:

Code:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

I you see more than one processor your system load would be correct.

bullium · 12-14-2009, 10:18 AM

Great glad I could help.