RE: [cobalt-users] How to read CPU Load Numbers

["Edward R. Milstein" <eddie@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Wondering if someone can explain how to read the CPU load numbers.  I
> understand that higher numbers are more load but they don't seem to be
> related to a base number for percentage like 50% of 100 being 50.0
etc..

The load averages such as the output from the command w are the 1 min, 5
min and 15 min decaying average of processes hitting the run time
queue...

They can be misleading or not depending on the type of jobs running on
your box..  Meaning a process that wakes up (enters the run time queue)
and goes right back to a block will cause a machine to have a high load
average but will have plenty of cpu left for use. 

On the other hand, a process that never does any IO and therefore never
blocks will cause the system to have a load average of 1.0 but little
cpu left over..

Make sense??

Ed-