Run queue residents

[Ian Killer_1]

Hi Gurus...

I have a HPUX 11 single cpu print server that seems to be building up it's run queue. In the vmstat example attached you can see the run queue on the far left (12/13) and see on the right that the system is idle for the majority of the time. So.. is there a way I can tell what's in there, and what seems to be living in there? I got some sqautters that i need to evict!

Please find the ps -Helf in the attached document.

Cheers..

ian

[Ian Killer_1]

And the ps -Helf attachment...

[Patrick Wallek]

Have you customized any kernel parameters?

What is your timeslice parameter set to? If it is 1, then change it to 10.

[Chris Vail]

Don't confuse the run queue with the print queue. These are two entirely different things.

The run queue refers to the jobs waiting to be serviced by the processor. Examples of this are: opening or closing a file, sending data to an I/O channel, doing math on two numbers, swapping a process in or out of memory, accepting keystrokes from a user, or anything of literally thousands of other things a CPU does.

The print queue is a place on the disk where print jobs wait to be sent to their final destination: usually a printer. Print jobs use so few CPU cycles that I'd be astonished if they were having any impact on the run queue.

A high run queue number is usally a sign of a computer that is too small for the job its being asked to do. We'll need other, more detailed information from your system in order to really give you solid information as to why this might be. For example: how fast is the processor on this system? What kind of machine is it? What other kind of software is loaded? How many disks, and how are they laid out? Your numbers show that memory is paging in--why? How much memory is in this system? I see from the page reclaim info that extra memory won't hurt this system at all.
A high run queue, along with a lot of idle CPU Cycles (far right side of the printout) could mean any number of things, but it should be investigated further. Basically, you have a CPU looking for honest work (high idle number) and work for it to do (high run queue) but for some reason the CPU is out on street corner with a sign that reads "Will process data for _______". When we find out what to fill in that blank, the run queue will drop.

Chris