Explaination of Hourly Load Average Report
CCN - Hourly Load Average Report
First the apology... ;-)
This (load average) report is really one of those 'first
cuts' at creating a usable/informative report.
Report Frequency...
The current report takes a 5 min average 12 times an hour... every 5
minutes. We're going to move to a one a minute reading and we're
looking for a new graphing tool(s).
Interpreting the information...
The on-line report is updated every five minutes.
If for example, you check the reading at about 6:35 AM, the reading at the
'-15-' point reflects the load average 15 minutes ago, between 6:15-6:20 AM,
...the reading at the '-30-' point reflects the load average 30 minutes
ago, between 6:00-6:05 AM.
Things that affect the load average
We do a lot of routine processing on the hour so the load average from
xx:00 to xx:05-xx:10 will tend to be a little higher. We also do a bunch
of processing xx:40-xx:45-50 so there might be a bump in that time period.
Our system back-ups are done by Dal and they could be done almost anytime
including during the day. Parts of the backup, probably accessing some of our older
hard drives seem to push the load average up, creating a bit of a peak.
The arrival of a bunch of mail for mailing lists/archiving can pushed the load
average up, as can any number of other things including a half dozen users
doing a g)o people at the same time.
And on and on...
Comments to userhelp
Feb. 1/99 dlp