On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:50:18 -0700, listmail wrote > On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:58:15 -0700 (PDT), Mark Pryor wrote > > --- On Sat, 7/19/08, listmail <listmail at entertech.com> wrote: > > > > > From: listmail <listmail at entertech.com> > > > Subject: [CentOS] Load Average ~0.40 when idle > > > To: "CentOS mailing list" <centos at centos.org> > > > Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008, 1:48 PM > > > I am running CentOS 5 on a dual-dual-core Intel machine, and > > > I am seeing > > > a load average of between 0.35 and 0.50 while the machine > > > is idle, i.e. > > > no processes appear to be running. > > > > > > Both top and uptime report the same thing. Looking at top, > > > I cannot see > > > any processes that are using CPU time except for top and > > > init, and they are > > > not using enough cycles to push up the load average. > > > > > > According to top, there are occasional tiny (like 0.5%) > > > bumps in the > > > system usage occasionally, and almost no user space usage. > > > Again, not > > > enough to account for the load average I am seeing. > > > > > > I have tried a couple of kernel updates, and upgraded from > > > CentOS 5.0 to 5.2, > > > none of which make any difference. > > > > > > Has anyone else seen this? And can anyone recommend a way > > > to figure out > > > what is causing the load average to be this high when the > > > machine is idle? > > > > I have not seen this with any C5. However I have moved all > > /etc/cron.daily/prelink > > /etc/cron.daily/makewhatis > > > > to the weekly. > > > > check /var/log/secure for dictionary attacks > > > > check your /var/log/httpd/access_log for unusual PHP activity > > > > check http://localhost/usage for the webalizer logs, where maybe something > > will standout. > > > Thanks, Mark. I have done all of that. There was a dictionary attack > a few days ago, but there is no activity now. Since this is a new > machine that I am just burning in, I am tempted to reinstall from > scratch in case the machine somehow got hacked during burn-in. I > don't see any stuck processes, or any other clues. I have an > identical machine running a slightly older version of the kernel > (CentOS 5.0 - 2.6.18.53.1.14.el5) that does not exhibit this problem, > so I am a bit suspicious. Has anyone else noticed anything like this? > Replying to my own post as a follow-up. I just checked another machine that I am burning in with CentOS 5.2, and it has the same problem: load average ~0.4 when idle. Both of these machines have Supermicro X7DBN motherboards, but one is running a single quad-core CPU (Intel Xeon) and the other is running two dual-core CPUs (Intel Xeon). Anyone else seeing anything like this? Thanks, --Bill