Difference between revisions of "Loadavg"

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Load average is a traditional UNIX metric. Load average value is the average
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'''Load average''' is a traditional UNIX metric. Its value is the average
number of processes that are either in a runnable or uninterruptable state
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number of processes that are either in a '''runnable''' or '''uninterruptable''' state
during a particular time period. The three numbers shown are load averages for
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during a particular time period.
the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
 
  
A process in a runnable state
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A process in a '''runnable''' state (shown with status of '''R''' in top utility)
is  either  using the CPU or waiting to use the CPU. A process in uninterruptable
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is  either  using the CPU or waiting to use the CPU. A process in '''uninterruptable'''
state is waiting for some I/O access, eg waiting for  disk.
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state (shown with status of '''D''' in top utility) is waiting for some I/O access,
The  averages  are  taken over the three time intervals. Load averages
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eg waiting for  disk.
are not normalized for the number of CPUs in a system, so a load  average
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The  averages  are  taken over the three time intervals: 1, 5 and 15 minutes.
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Load averages are not normalized for the number of CPUs in a system, so a load  average
 
of 1 means a single CPU system is loaded all the time while on a 4
 
of 1 means a single CPU system is loaded all the time while on a 4
 
CPU system it means it was idle 75% of the time.
 
CPU system it means it was idle 75% of the time.
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  vzctl exec $CTID cat /proc/loadavg
 
  vzctl exec $CTID cat /proc/loadavg
  
For all or specified containers
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For all running (or some specified) containers
 
  vzlist -o ctid,laverage [CTID ...]
 
  vzlist -o ctid,laverage [CTID ...]
  

Latest revision as of 15:26, 30 May 2012

Load average is a traditional UNIX metric. Its value is the average number of processes that are either in a runnable or uninterruptable state during a particular time period.

A process in a runnable state (shown with status of R in top utility) is either using the CPU or waiting to use the CPU. A process in uninterruptable state (shown with status of D in top utility) is waiting for some I/O access, eg waiting for disk.

The averages are taken over the three time intervals: 1, 5 and 15 minutes. Load averages are not normalized for the number of CPUs in a system, so a load average of 1 means a single CPU system is loaded all the time while on a 4 CPU system it means it was idle 75% of the time.

How to get container's load average[edit]

For a single specific container:

vzctl exec $CTID cat /proc/loadavg

For all running (or some specified) containers

vzlist -o ctid,laverage [CTID ...]

See vzlist(8) for details on vzlist.

Reasons for high load average[edit]

Two reasons for high load average is lack of CPU time or disk I/O bandwidth. For container, it can also be because of its limits, such as the CPU limit or low disk I/O priority.

For VSwap-enabled containers, one case is the lack of RAM (physpages). Whenever a RAM shortage occurs, system will start doing virtual swapping, delaying a given container to emulate the effect of a real swap-out.