From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 14 21:08:09 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6DC9A16A421 for ; Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:08:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kris@obsecurity.org) Received: from fileserver.fields.utoronto.ca (fileserver.fields.utoronto.ca [128.100.216.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4A40943D55 for ; Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:08:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kris@obsecurity.org) Received: from fields.fields.utoronto.ca (fields.localdomain [192.168.216.11]) by fileserver.fields.utoronto.ca (8.12.8/8.12.8/Fields 6.0) with ESMTP id j8EL860r017337 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 14 Sep 2005 17:08:06 -0400 Received: from obsecurity.dyndns.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by fields.fields.utoronto.ca (8.12.8/8.12.8/Fields WS 6.0) with ESMTP id j8EL856P009596; Wed, 14 Sep 2005 17:08:05 -0400 Received: by obsecurity.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 34C71511FC; Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:20:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:20:42 -0400 From: Kris Kennaway To: Mariano Benedettini Message-ID: <20050914202041.GA95963@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <32422.1126728707@www84.gmx.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="/9DWx/yDrRhgMJTb" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <32422.1126728707@www84.gmx.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: High load averages on a 5.3-RELEASE X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:08:09 -0000 --/9DWx/yDrRhgMJTb Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 10:11:47PM +0200, Mariano Benedettini wrote: > Hi people, I've also posted this message to freebsd-performance, with no > answer. > I have a mail server running FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE. It's a dual Xeon with 4gb > of ram. > The server is running Apache (serving Horde) , Postfix, Courier imapd w/SSL, > Amavisd. Also a Postgresql as Horde's storage. > The mail storage is accessed via NFS (this server is the nfs client). > The problem is that it's experiencing a really high load average (see the > top -S and vmstat -systat ) while the CPU's are relatively idle. I think > it's a IO problem > (nfs?), but I cant figure out what exactly is causing this. Load average doesn't indicate a performance problem, it indicates a lot of tasks running on your machine (which after all, is what computers are designed to do :-). Poor performance indicates a performance problem :-) You should measure your NFS performance to see if it is acceptable. Upgrading to 5.4 or (better) 6.0 when it is released should provide network and filesystem performance benefits, in general. Kris --/9DWx/yDrRhgMJTb Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFDKIYZWry0BWjoQKURAiq3AJ9G7HEFpQHZqZDcRExvfTkBSr0HNACdGdIO ZXGkMi6MnZSpgWcZK+PNuxA= =kxhE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --/9DWx/yDrRhgMJTb--