when high load average, what else the problems?

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

When the load average is high, what are the things that we should look at ?
What else can cause the high load average?
(cpu, memory, harddisk, etc.)
How can we know which device we should upgrade it ?

Our server is Dual Xeon 2.4 Ghz + ECC 2 Gb + Sata 120 Gb, contains around 200 sites, using bandwidth around 200 Gb per month.
When it have more than 250 processess, load average is quite high (more than 15) and it is quite slow.
We look at CPU, its remaining is quite ok.
We look at Ram, it uses only 60-70%

Any idea for configing it.

Thank you so much
best regards,
newbie

They have: 8 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

You can start by looking at top output to see what is running or do a ps -aux to see what is running. Also check netstat to see who's connected and how many times. That's a high server load for a server with those specs.

openmind's picture

He has: 945 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

You didn't mention what OS you are running?

Mark Hensler's picture

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

Does windows use the "load average" terminology?

Can you even get 200 sites on a windoze box?
*snickers*

openmind's picture

He has: 945 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

ha de ha! I actually run 250,000,000 sites off a single Celeron 1.7 server and its fine!

Wink

He has: 14 posts

Joined: Aug 2004

openmind wrote: ha de ha! I actually run 250,000,000 sites off a single Celeron 1.7 server and its fine!

Wink

I think he actually means domains, not websites Wink

well, as suggested you can go thru all processes and see what is causing the high load... I would do so immediatly, a load of 15 aint fun for anybody on your server.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.