From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 22 15:22:44 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 414341065680 for ; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:22:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from henry95@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vx0-f182.google.com (mail-vx0-f182.google.com [209.85.220.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F1DDD8FC26 for ; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:22:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vcbf13 with SMTP id f13so778575vcb.13 for ; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:22:43 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=enrAeOt5bRpcFzWzGMOaBKvTlcppxuzoE2vY/MOLRjg=; b=HDIop7OyqNNXwe9CionUhkgEoh4PuzHFtV/t6OkOTeR8w2R+FGRj7kAZx1j2mfZDIZ h4njvPrlXxWl0nfVkEgmBPFbd793XlZDGEt8lezhf+e0Y8aUgtM0ALgba/MfvdO7PW91 zuVkLQs/95tgjv+8POCSCaxZJ8myT9Pcbaq6U= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.52.69.177 with SMTP id f17mr387940vdu.161.1316704963234; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:22:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.52.162.198 with HTTP; Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:22:43 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:22:43 -0400 Message-ID: From: Henry M To: FreeBSD Questions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: load average with multi-core CPU's X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:22:44 -0000 Hi all, Can someone explain, or point me to correct documentation on what the load average on top/uptime is actually displaying? Is the load the average amount of processes waiting to execute on the server, or is it independent of CPU? Am I correct with the below statements? * Example 1: 1 CPU, load average of 1.00, CPU at capacity. No processes have to wait to execute. 1 CPU, 2.00 load average, 1 process is waiting to execute. * Example 2: 1 CPU, 4 cores. load average of 2.00. 2 cores are working at capacity, other 2 are idle (mostly). 1 CPU, 4 cores, load average 5.00. 4 cores are at capacity, 1 process waiting to execute. I tried searching, but I couldn't find much besides some blog postings. Thanks, Henry