load avg

[Scott_20]

is this for the server as a whole, or related to cpu usage?
need some clarification.

[Mark Grant]

I believe the load average is calculated according to the average number of jobs in the run queue. As such it doesn't show much specifically but pretty much any other resource that is having a problem will affect the load average. It's therefore a very good thing to monitor for the health of your server.

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

It's the average number of jobs in the run queue for the last 1 min, 5 mins and 15 mins.

While it is related to CPU usage, the best way to get the actual CPU utilization is

sar 2 20

If you see 0 or little %idle above and if %runocc in 'sar -q 2 20' is constantly at 100%, then your system may be pegged on CPU.

-Sri

[keith persons · Accepted solution]

Scott,

To answer your question directly, yes, it's the server 'load' as a whole specifically regarding cpu run queue. By itself, it really shows little other than the load averages for the last 1,5, & 15 minutes for the system run queue - there's only one run queue for hp-ux.

It can be a good partial indicator of system activity, but by itself it is merely a point in space. It also cannot be compared directly with sar output but they can be used to roughly verify the accuracy of each other. Personally, the main value I find in the load average is as an early indication of resource utilization may be changing. Monitoring of the load average and the run queue %populated (sar -q).

Keith