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From: rthomas@pamd.cig.mot.com (Robert Owen Thomas)
Message-Id: <9509220956.ZM13683@pamd.cig.mot.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 09:56:52 -0500
In-Reply-To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
        "Re: Load averages." (Sep 21,  8:13pm)
References: <199509220113.SAA27285@phaeton.artisoft.com>
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To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Subject: Re: Load averages.
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
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the load average is the average number of jobs in the run queue.  this is
given in three time increments: 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

a large number of jobs in the run queue will not necessarily lead to serious
paging (or, by extension, swapping).  as with any of the utilities, an
administrator must use the load average in conjunction with other tools (sar,
vmstat, iostat, netstat, etc.) to determine the overall load on the host.

hope this helps!

regards,
--robert
--

o  robert owen thomas: unix consultant. cymro ydw i. user scratching post.  o
o       e-mail: Robert.Thomas@pamd.cig.mot.com --or-- robt@cymru.com        o
o               vox:  708.435.7076   fax:  708.435.7360                     o
o        "When I die, I want to go sleeping like my grandfather...          o
o              Not screaming like the passengers in his car."               o