Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 5 Jul 2000 10:56:16 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Ken Bolingbroke <hacker@bolingbroke.com>
To:        Nathan Vidican <webmaster@wmptl.com>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: understanding load averages (sendmail)
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007051045530.13466-100000@fremont.bolingbroke.com>
In-Reply-To: <3963703D.7F0E0377@wmptl.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help


On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, Nathan Vidican wrote:

> What are the values in sendmail.cf indicative of when they say 'Level at
> which messages are just queued', and 'Level at which messages are
> refused'. The defaults are 8 and 12 respectfully, but what do these
> numbers mean? 8 simultainious messages, 8% of the server's usage, 80% of
> the server's usage? What would be an appropriate setting for a
> mid-traffic'd (3000 users) host?

The load average is the average number of runnable processes.  You can see
the current load average for the last one, five, and fifteen minutes with
the 'uptime' command.

If your machine's load average is regularly over 8 without otherwise
stretching resources, then you'd want to raise the values set for those
parameters.  The idea is to put the brakes on sendmail if it's starting to
strain the machine's resources.

Ken Bolingbroke
hacker@bolingbroke.com



To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.21.0007051045530.13466-100000>