Calculating the system load

The system load is a measure of the amount of processing a computer system is currently performing. It is not the perfect way to measure computer performance, but it does provide the troubleshooter with the additional evidence they need to fix a system.

The expression most commonly associated with calculating load is:

Actual Load = Total Load (uptime) / Number of CPUs

As you probably know the number of CPUs, you can calculate the uptime by reviewing the results of the top command or by typing:

# uptime

The output of the preceding command may look like this:

09:59:41 up  2:36,  1 user,  load average: 0.01, 0.02, 0.05

The server load is expressed as a value based on 1 minute, 5 minute, and 15 minute read times. So, by looking at the final three values in the preceding output, we can see that, for this system, the average load was 0.01 (at 1 minute), 0.02 (at 5 minutes), and 0.05 (at 15 minutes).

At this current time, the example system shows no sign of fatigue, but...