From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 8 03:55:42 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C62D437B401; Tue, 8 Jul 2003 03:55:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from stork.mail.pas.earthlink.net (stork.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.188]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1314743FA3; Tue, 8 Jul 2003 03:55:42 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from user-38lc01p.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.0.57] helo=mindspring.com) by stork.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19Zq8B-0005hg-00; Tue, 08 Jul 2003 03:55:32 -0700 Message-ID: <3F0AA2DE.13035C1@mindspring.com> Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 03:54:22 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andy Farkas References: <20030708120950.S6312-100000@hewey.af.speednet.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a473297c82ea3c78ff06481c6bb063ab5693caf27dac41a8fd350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org cc: Lanny Baron Subject: Re: whats going on with the scheduler? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:55:43 -0000 Andy Farkas wrote: > On 7 Jul 2003, Lanny Baron wrote: > > A load of 3 is pretty high. I think you have more going on. > > Not for my box. Its only running at 75% cpu power. Its got four > processors, so a load of 4 is when its running flat out. And I also said > that the box is idle other than the 3 setiathomes. > > What I'm trying to find out is why at load 3 when adding another semi-cpu > intensive process, the load starts fluctuating between 2 and 3, when it > should go to a steady 3.4 or something. So the load actually goes down > when I run another process! It's not clear what your link speed is, but it's possible that what's happening is that the setiathome processes are stalling waiting for work units because you are using up your available network bandwidth. This is usually the case when you have an asymmetric link speed (e.g. cablemodem or DSL) and are trying to push data through the small pipe: it's very easy to monopolize all the buffers in the router at the other end of the link, such that you don't end up getting ACK packets out to keep the data pipe down full. If this is what's ahppening, you might want to try bandwidth limiting the scp and/or running with Alt-Q and/or begging Julian for the code he wrote at Whistle, which beats the snot out of Alt-Q... 8-). -- Terry