From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 9 22:19:35 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 9A2931065681 for ; Fri, 9 May 2008 22:19:35 +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 586098FC19 for ; Fri, 9 May 2008 22:19:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dave.list@pixelhammer.com) Received: (qmail 19963 invoked from network); 9 May 2008 22:19:34 -0000 Received: by simscan 1.2.3 ppid: 19944, pid: 19959, t: 0.2144s 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 22:19:34 -0000 Message-ID: <4824CD74.2020004@pixelhammer.com> Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 18:17:24 -0400 From: DAve User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Windows/20080213) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: 'User Questions' References: <482473B7.7070707@pixelhammer.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: 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 22:19:35 -0000 Chuck Swiger wrote: > On May 9, 2008, at 8:54 AM, DAve wrote: >> 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. > > You should look more into the status of the various processes, and how > long it takes your mail scanning to process a message compared to > previously. It might be the case that the config under 6.2 is allowing > more instances to run at once and is just barely nudging the system into > excessive paging. Once that happens, performance drops and the system > load increases significantly. > > Do a couple of "ps aux | head -20" every 5 minutes or so, and put that > data somewhere on a website, the process states will help give a better > picture of what's going on. > > [ ... ] >> 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. > > It might be reasonable to try hyperthreading enabled, as your type of > load might be improved by it on.... > Funny that, enabling hyperthreading immediately dropped my load by half, I see CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3 now in top. I also see my CPU load reporting correctly as well. I see ranges from 10% idle to 80% idle, not locked at 50% and above. That seems to have cured several ills. I will know more Monday at 8:30am when the business email traffic kicks in. 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.