Perhaps you could run iotop find out if there is a process chewing up your hard disks. You aren't just limited to top, you can also use vmstat and iostat in this situation. Jason Pyeron wrote: > I have a server holding a 2.5-4.0 load level consistently, where should I > start debugging it? > > top - 13:32:01 up 167 days, 5:45, 6 users, load average: 2.87, 1.83, 1.51 > Tasks: 111 total, 1 running, 110 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie > Cpu(s): 0.0% us, 0.0% sy, 0.2% ni, 99.8% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si > Mem: 895728k total, 871996k used, 23732k free, 190612k buffers > Swap: 1802232k total, 216k used, 1802016k free, 63776k cached > > PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND > 1 root 16 0 4756 556 460 S 0 0.1 0:35.34 init > 2 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:02.83 migration/0 > 3 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:27.27 ksoftirqd/0 > 4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:05.03 migration/1 > 5 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:22.88 ksoftirqd/1 > 6 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:03.15 events/0 > 7 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.98 events/1 > 8 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper > 9 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd/0 > 10 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd/1 > 11 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd > 66 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:16.14 pdflush > 67 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 2:30.44 kswapd0 > 68 root 15 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0 > 69 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/1 > 213 root 22 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod > 450 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 ata/0 > 451 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 ata/1 > 452 root 6 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 ata_aux > 456 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_0 > 457 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_1 > 465 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_2 > 466 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_3 > 494 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 4:03.36 kjournald > 542 root 16 0 24192 596 416 S 0 0.1 0:36.55 ypbind > 595 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 rpciod > 596 root 18 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 lockd > 775 apache 15 0 185m 40m 3628 S 0 4.6 0:00.59 httpd > 1832 root 5 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kedac > 1904 root 16 0 10828 1072 856 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 pppd > 1973 root 6 -10 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kauditd > 1998 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 scsi_eh_4 > 1999 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 3:10.72 usb-storage > 2176 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 kjournald > 3070 root 15 0 3632 552 440 S 0 0.1 1:08.11 syslogd > 3074 root 15 0 2540 372 296 S 0 0.0 0:00.04 klogd > 3087 root 16 0 2552 300 200 S 0 0.0 0:30.06 irqbalance > 3155 root 15 0 2916 488 256 S 0 0.1 0:00.97 smartd > 3215 root 15 0 8716 776 612 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 xinetd > 3293 root 16 0 40836 2672 984 S 0 0.3 1:07.23 sendmail > 3303 smmsp 16 0 33504 2108 812 S 0 0.2 0:00.99 sendmail > 3313 root 16 0 4180 324 244 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 gpm > 3323 root 16 0 175m 35m 9064 S 0 4.0 0:13.24 httpd > 3332 root 16 0 57092 976 560 S 0 0.1 0:50.01 crond > 3353 xfs 16 0 10020 1472 756 S 0 0.2 0:00.17 xfs > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > - - > - Jason Pyeron PD Inc. http://www.pdinc.us - > - Principal Consultant 10 West 24th Street #100 - > - +1 (443) 269-1555 x333 Baltimore, Maryland 21218 - > - - > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain > privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you > have received it in error, purge the message from your system and > notify the sender immediately. Any other use of the email by you > is prohibited. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos