server load

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by mypoint, May 1, 2008.

  1. #1
    i was wondering how much can my server load be with a core 2 duo 3.0 ghz

    i am using webmin where it tells me my server load, what is the max that number can go?

    let me know thanks!
     
    mypoint, May 1, 2008 IP
  2. milesbparty

    milesbparty Peon

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    #2
    Are you talking about load average?
     
    milesbparty, May 1, 2008 IP
  3. djacobs

    djacobs Well-Known Member

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    #3
    I don't understand the question. I've seen loads go in excess of 100+.

    What exactly are you trying to find out?
     
    djacobs, May 2, 2008 IP
  4. mypoint

    mypoint Well-Known Member

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    #4
    yes talking about the load average, i know if it goes above a certain number it is bad because it means there is to much load on the cpu

    thanks
     
    mypoint, May 2, 2008 IP
  5. djacobs

    djacobs Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Assuming this is a Linux box. Normally it's a load of 1 per CPU core.

    So on a dual core server, around 2 is the point where the system is fully utilized.

    But than again, this is not a measurement of something bad. Linux load average is not identical to CPU utilization. Linux load average is intended to provide some kind of information about how much work has been done on the system in the recent past 1 minute, the past 5 minutes and the distant past 15 minutes.
     
    djacobs, May 2, 2008 IP
  6. mypoint

    mypoint Well-Known Member

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    #6
    oh ok, thanks alot for the information :)
     
    mypoint, May 2, 2008 IP
  7. djacobs

    djacobs Well-Known Member

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    #7
    Also, I just noticed something. In addition to Webmin, from the command line you can either use
    or
    Optionally you can install the 'sar' utility software to monitor CPU usage.
     
    djacobs, May 2, 2008 IP
  8. mellow-h

    mellow-h Peon

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    #8
    Not really. It fully depends on the proper utilization of CPU and Memory, both. If you are under 60 Load and having around 5% memory used, your sites will load as usual. For a Web Server its always advised to keep the memory lower so that it doesn't get hang under high load, moreover a load with an average of 5-8 is very general for any busy web server (Assuming, no usage of cacher). Though, CPU Load 60 is a bit unusual :) and you always should try to consume as low cpu as you can. Most of the cases when your server is having high CPU, it will keep lagging, doesn't matter whether the site load faster or not. But a good point is always to have a protection so that it keeps lowering the cause of high load.
     
    mellow-h, May 2, 2008 IP
  9. djacobs

    djacobs Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Yes, I know, you can't just go by load avg., which is what I said...

    Are you saying you should on use around 5% of RAM on a Linux machine? How would you accomplish this without performance issue, memory usage in Unix & Linux is always high, as it should be.
     
    djacobs, May 3, 2008 IP