Understanding load averages and stretch factors
STRETCH!
What is the real meaning of those little “load average” values in the output of shell commands like procinfo and uptime, and what can you do with these numbers?
Most Linux system administrators are familiar with those three little numbers that appear in shell commands like procinfo, uptime, top, and remote host ruptime. Uptime, for example, emits:
9:40am up 9 days, load average: 0.02, 0.01, 0.00
The load average metrics are always included within the output of commands like uptime. While the load average is well known to Linux system administrators, its meaning is often poorly understood. The man page for uptime states that these values represent
a one line display of ... the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
which explains why there are three numbers, but it does not explain what the word load means or how to use these figures to forecast and troubleshoot system performance. This article takes a close look at the load average metrics and how to use them.
Read full article as PDF »
Load_Average.pdf (415.45 kB)Tag Cloud
News
-
Google and NASA Partner in Quantum Computing Project
Vendor D-Wave scores big with a sale to NASA's Quantum Intelligence Lab.
-
Mageia Project Announces Mageia 3 Linux
Many package updates and Steam integration highlight the latest from the Mandriva-based community Linux.
-
FSF Outs the World Wide Web Consortium over DRM Proposal
Richard Stallman calls for the W3C to remain independent of vendor interests.
-
Debian 7.0 Debuts
The new release supports nine architectures, 73 human languages, and zero non-Free components.
-
Alpha Version of Fedora 19 Released
Fedora developers release the first alpha version of Fedora 19, known as Schrödinger’s Cat, for general testing. The final release is expected in July 2013.
-
ack 2.0 Released
ack is a grep-like, command-line tool that has been optimized for programmers to search large trees of source code.
-
SUSE Studio 1.3 Released
New features in SUSE Studio 1.3 include enhanced cloud integration, VM platform support, and lifecycle management.
-
Xen To Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
The Linux Foundation recently announced that the Xen Project is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.
-
RunRev Releases Open Source Version of LiveCode
Open source version of LiveCode is now available for developing apps, games, and utilities for all major platforms.
-
OpenDaylight Project Formed
OpenDaylight is an open source software-defined networking project committed to furthering adoption of SDN and accelerating innovation in a vendor-neutral and open environment.