Hello,
I’m runnig the server with OpenSUSE 11.4 installed and the “load average” is always almost the same:
load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
But cpu% usage during the day is definately more than 30%.
The same thing is on another server with default kernel 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop also.
What could be the problem?
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“Load Average” does not mean how busy your CPU is. Looking at that
output (via uptime for example) having a value of 5 is actually pretty
high. It indicates the number of jobs in the job queue on average over
the last one, five, and fifteen minutes. Waiting means your box cannot
get to them because it’s doing other things so typically a higher load
average means your box is more behind, but having a CPU busy does not
mean your system is behind.
man uptime for the basics.
Good luck.
Want to yell at me in person?
Come to BrainShare 2011 in October: http://tinyurl.com/brainshare2011
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Sorry, i didn’t get… When i had opensuse 10.3 running under the same load , the “load average” showed other numbers, e.g 10.1, 10.2, 11.0
But with 11.4 its always like this:
top - 21:53:45 up 12:54, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks: 124 total, 6 running, 118 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 38.5%us, 1.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 58.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 1.0%si, 0.0%st
And I don’t get why its do different … Is it cpu issue ? (Q6600 vs my new i7)
On Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:06:03 +0000, LuminaL wrote:
> Sorry, i didn’t get… When i had opensuse 10.3 running under the same
> load , the “load average” showed other numbers, e.g 10.1, 10.2, 11.0 But
> with 11.4 its always like this:
>
> top - 21:53:45 up 12:54, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05 Tasks:
> 124 total, 6 running, 118 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s):
> 38.5%us, 1.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 58.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 1.0%si, 0.0%st
>
> And I don’t get why its do different … Is it cpu issue ? (Q6600 vs my
> new i7)
No, it’s not a CPU issue. The fact that you’re seeing lower averages is
good. 11.4 has a newer kernel with different optimizations than what
were in 10.3, so you reasonably could expect the system load to be
different, because the kernel has changed.
Load average is about more than an instantaneous CPU utilization read -
it’s about a trend; but it also seems to be highly dependent on I/O
channel utilization, which is why the load average can be high when the
CPU utilization is practically nothing.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9001
This is an older article, but looks to be a good primer on what load
average is all about.
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
Thanks! I got it now 
On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:26:03 +0000, LuminaL wrote:
> Thanks! I got it now
Glad to help out.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C