Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 13:08:34 -0800 From: "David G. Lawrence" <dg@dglawrence.com> To: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> Cc: current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Load over 1000 Message-ID: <20050221210834.GB87259@opteron.dglawrence.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1050221141140.30083I-100000@fledge.watson.org> References: <20050220173941.GA25298@hurx.thc> <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1050221141140.30083I-100000@fledge.watson.org>
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> aren't being serviced isn't a bug. The reason the load on systems with > many processes is typically low is that most processes are blocked on I/O > -- either waiting for it to complete, waing for a network packet, or > waiting for the user, so they're idle the rest of the time. The CPU sits > there waiting for the world to catch up... The load average has historically meant the number of processes either running/ready to run OR blocked by short term (disk I/O) wait. So the load average can be high even when the CPU isn't highly loaded. Back in the days of wcarchive.cdrom.com, it was not uncommon to see a load average of 60 while the CPU was 90% idle. -DG David G. Lawrence President Download Technologies, Inc. - http://www.downloadtech.com - (866) 399 8500 TeraSolutions, Inc. - http://www.terasolutions.com - (888) 346 7175 The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org Pave the road of life with opportunities.
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