From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 4 07:22:14 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9496D37B401 for ; Fri, 4 Apr 2003 07:22:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail01.stbernard.com (mail01.stbernard.com [64.154.93.162]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B007643FA3 for ; Fri, 4 Apr 2003 07:22:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from DOlbersen@stbernard.com) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.0.6249.0 content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 07:22:12 -0800 Message-ID: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Load Thread-Index: AcL6QTiK95MsQHyZTGqOj57EcNhnlAAfIGZw From: "David Olbersen" To: "Bill Moran" cc: "freebsd-questions \(E-mail\)" Subject: RE: Load X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 15:22:14 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: Bill Moran [mailto:wmoran@potentialtech.com] > Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 3:50 PM > To: David Olbersen > Cc: freebsd-questions (E-mail) > Subject: Re: Load >=20 >=20 > Do you mean "load" as in "load average" as reported by utilities like > top? I could have been more clear, this is exactly what I meant. =20 > If so, the answer is "The average number of processes waiting to use > the processor" Top, for example, shows the average over the=20 > last 5, 10, and 15 minutes. Basically, if your load average is below = 1, > it means processes aren't waiting to use the comptuer, if it goes = above > one, it means that the machine is busy enough that at any point in = time, > x number of processes are waiting to execute (on average) - where x is > the load average reported. > It's one of many indicators of how busy your box is. Keep in mind = that > it doesn't mean that processes are "waiting" to work - i.e. the = processes > are still executing within that average second. But a load average of > 3 means that in order for a process to execute, there are three other > processes that are suspended. Of course, the scheduler will rotate = those > in so they all get equal CPU usage ... but in order to rotate the next > process in, the currently executing one gets suspended. Outstanding! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! -------------------------- David Olbersen=20 iGuard Engineer 11415 West Bernardo Court=20 San Diego, CA 92127=20 1-858-676-2277 x2152