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"Normal" load average?
| Posted by xeno007, 12-19-2008, 09:10 PM |
| Normal" load average?
Hi all.
I have a server with Core2Duo E6600 CPU, 4 gigs of RAM and 2x250 GB HDD's. What is the "normal" load average I can expect having ~50 websites running on it with medium visits. My current load averages (and most of the time ones) are:
load average: 0.24, 0.13, 0.16
Is this "normal"?
Thanks.
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| Posted by Red Squirrel, 12-19-2008, 09:30 PM |
| Anything under 1 is good. the loads you have seem ok but I'd keep an eye in top to see if you might have scripts running too long or something. But anything over 1 and it means it's backlogging. (someone correct me if I'm wrong but pretty sure how it works)
One thing I've noticed that can really kill load is software raid. I have a raid 5 on my home server and any disk i/o intensive process will skyrocket the load. I know from that to avoid software raid if ever I get a dedicated server to do hosting on, though I suppose raid 1 would not kill as bad. raid 5 has high overhead.
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| Posted by fava, 12-19-2008, 10:14 PM |
| Normal" is a meaningless term, it depends too much on what you are trying to do.
As long as your load average is below the number of cores you should be ok. You have 2 cores and your load average is 0.25 so no problems.
If it were to consistently be 1.5+ then the system is becoming bogged down. If it was consistently over 2 then it is overloaded. If it was over 10 then your server is about to catch fire.
fava
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| Posted by vapetrov, 12-19-2008, 10:15 PM |
| Normal "load average" equals the number of server's CPUs (cores).
Read wikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing)
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| Posted by MikeDVB, 12-20-2008, 02:46 AM |
| It all depends on what is causing the load, it can be CPU usage, Disk I/O or may other factors. Generally a higher end server can continue to function under a load of usually up to twice the number of processors but it's not recommended and then there are other server configurations where keeping the load at the same number as the number of processors causes the server to run doggedly slow.
It all depends on what is causing the load, but anything under 1 is very acceptable even on a single core server.
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| Posted by Steven, 12-20-2008, 02:52 AM |
| Load is pointless... I have servers with loads of 1000 but are 80% idle cpu wise and extremely responsive. I watch the cpu load (system,user,iowait,etc).
Load is processes waiting.
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| Posted by MikeDVB, 12-20-2008, 02:56 AM |
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven
Load is pointless... I have servers with loads of 1000 but are 80% idle cpu wise and extremely responsive. I watch the cpu load (system,user,iowait,etc).
Load is processes waiting.
It can be helpful but I wouldn't use it purely as a basis of how well the server is functioning overall.
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| Posted by RSkeens, 12-20-2008, 09:33 AM |
| From just a load standpoint, those figures seem fine to me. Load averages are not to be relied on as the defining factor of how well a system performs, though.
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| Posted by shoutcast-panel, 12-21-2008, 10:32 AM |
| If you have 2 core (or 2 processors) load under 2 is OK.
Anyway, I had 500+ load on 2-core server and it was almost fine.
It depends what generates load.
You can have load 10 and ssh wont allow you to login or 400 and you can work on console smoothly.
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| Posted by stardot, 12-21-2008, 03:54 PM |
| Load and how linux handles load has changed as linux has moved forward in development.
It all depends on what the server is actually DOING -- for instance if you run out of RAM and the server starts eating into swap , then your problem is simply a matter of adding more ram.
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| Posted by reasonpolice, 12-22-2008, 03:27 AM |
| Web servers running consistently with loads over 300?
How is this possible
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| Posted by NWSTech, 12-22-2008, 07:22 AM |
| ive had a old p4 2.8ghz which was on a load of like 800+ and apache wouldn load, mysql crashed etc but i could still get into ssh and use it fine, (it was eating near enough all its swap though so needed more ram)
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| Posted by stardot, 12-22-2008, 09:25 AM |
| I've never heard of load reaching 800+.
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