[CentOS] High load average, low CPU utilization

Fri Mar 28 14:37:53 UTC 2014
John R. Dennison <jrd at gerdesas.com>

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 09:30:17AM -0500, Matt Garman wrote:
> 
> How can the loadavg shoot up (from ~1 to ~20) without a corresponding
> uptick in number of tasks?

loadavg is based on number of processes vying for cpu time on the runq; the
number of over-all processes on the system is not really relevant unless
they are all competing for cpu.

What's the i/o wait on the box when you see load spikes?  If the box is
i/o bound (indicated by high i/o) the load average will spike due to
processes blocked on i/o cycles.







							John
-- 
Worrying works.  About 90% of the things I worry about never happen.

-- Woody Paige (1946-), sports columnist, on ESPN's "Around the Horn"
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