From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 9 16:23:26 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B3E01065670 for ; Fri, 9 May 2008 16:23:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dave.list@pixelhammer.com) Received: from smtp2.tls.net (smtp2.tls.net [65.196.224.83]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B49D8FC0A for ; Fri, 9 May 2008 16:23:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dave.list@pixelhammer.com) Received: (qmail 83475 invoked from network); 9 May 2008 15:56:44 -0000 Received: by simscan 1.2.3 ppid: 83454, pid: 83470, t: 0.1996s scanners: attach: 1.2.3 clamav: 0.91.1/m:45/d:6125 spam: 3.2.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.1 (2007-05-02) on smtp-2.tls.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=20.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,TVD_RCVD_IP autolearn=disabled version=3.2.1 Received: from 64-184-10-3.bb.hrtc.net (HELO ?192.168.1.46?) (ldg%tls.net@64.184.10.3) by auth-smtp2.tls.net with ESMTPA; 9 May 2008 15:56:43 -0000 Message-ID: <482473B7.7070707@pixelhammer.com> Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 11:54:31 -0400 From: DAve User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Windows/20080213) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: 'User Questions' Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: FBSD 6.2 Xeon 2.4ghz CPU and high load X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 16:23:26 -0000 Good morning. I recently upgraded our two email gateways from 4.8 to 6.2. The required software was upgraded as well which consists of MailScanner and Sendmail. Both had been keep up to date so it was not a jump in required resources. The issue I am seeing is that my server load, under the same traffic load, has increased 4 times or more. Where previously we saw a high load on the servers of 5 to 8, we are now seeing 14 to 17. Since the upgrade Sendmail has begun to timeout connections. I have been digging through the system, mail lists, forums, anything to help determine the cause of the increased load. Here are some examples of what I am seeing. bash-2.05b# vmstat -w2 procs memory page disks faults cpu r b w avm fre flt re pi po fr sr da0 da1 in sy cs us sy id 12 5 0 2234516 199864 772 4 0 4 431 447 0 0 485 564 927 29 4 67 11 6 0 2229788 181352 8631 0 0 0 5597 0 0 0 294 2592 1236 45 5 50 9 5 0 2227208 168144 6456 0 0 0 4607 0 2 0 278 1333 898 46 4 50 11 5 0 2229068 175868 5164 0 0 0 5423 0 0 0 212 766 541 47 3 50 14 7 0 1948392 236296 8136 0 0 0 12382 0 14 0 368 4135 1504 42 8 50 4 3 2 1744620 321024 7550 0 0 0 13454 0 23 6 752 11417 3919 42 8 50 12 5 0 1951788 258944 12490 0 0 0 11295 0 0 5 727 18566 4844 40 10 50 16 6 0 2155668 214324 8231 0 0 0 4230 0 1 29 724 15531 4381 41 9 50 8 6 1 2044828 242084 4567 0 0 0 9119 0 0 12 774 12196 3225 43 7 50 bash-2.05b# top last pid: 85205; load averages: 12.89, 13.78, 14.66 up 47+15:51:31 15:20:01 126 processes: 12 running, 79 sleeping, 35 zombie CPU states: 43.8% user, 0.0% nice, 6.3% system, 0.0% interrupt, 50.0% idle Mem: 1008M Active, 582M Inact, 211M Wired, 78M Cache, 112M Buf, 122M Free Swap: 4096M Total, 304M Used, 3792M Free, 7% Inuse I am suspicious of the kernel being the culprit because the system looks as if it is not working very hard, CPU load never shows above 50% idle. I found one thread which mentions that as an issue and offers a patch. http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-bugs/2007-February/022526.html Currently I am running the SMP-GENERIC kernel and sysctl shows the following. hw.model: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.40GHz machdep.hlt_logical_cpus: 0 machdep.hyperthreading_allowed: 0 kern.smp.cpus: 4 I see dev.cpu.0 through dev.cpu.3 Can anyone offer a solution? Is this a known issue I can easily correct? At this point I am left with either rolling back to 4.11 or trying another OS. I am thinking I have missed something obvious and I need to make a sysctl change to get the system working properly. Any help is appreciated, I'm losing mail. Thanks, Dave -- In 50 years, our descendants will look back on the early years of the internet, and much like we now look back on men with rockets on their back and feathers glued to their arms, marvel that we had the intelligence to wipe the drool from our chins.