Gavin,
Load average is (more or less) the average length of the run queue for a UNIX-style system (someone once posted a link to a more precise definition on this forum). For your system, a load average value of 15 means that an average of 15 processes are waiting to use the CPU -- a problem for most systems.
If you look at the trends button, you will probably find a CPU utilization graph that shows a split between user, system, and idle CPU usage.
CPU utilization shows how busy the CPU(s) is/are, but load average shows the impact of a busy CPU on the system's workload.
I once had a system that spiked to 200+ in the load average display. This problem was traced to a problem in some multi-threaded code where the threads were going into infinite loops one by one until all of them were locked up. Amazingly enough, the system still responded to interactive usage, but v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
GLH
From: Gavin Leonard [mailto:gleonard at progrexion.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 4:16 PM
To: hobbit at hswn.dk
Subject: [hobbit] Load Averages
I am getting pages from my hobbit server when some of my linuxsystems are hitting 15 on their load avg. does that equate to something worse than it sounds? Cause 15% load average on a linux system does not seem that bad? Or is it not a percentage?
Gavin Leonard
Director, Systems-Network Engineering
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801-828-1735
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