Tag: load average

What is ‘Load Average’?

Load average is a key metric from the 1970s indicating system load levels over intervals of 1, 5, and 15 minutes. It reveals trends in compute demand, factoring in CPU, file I/O, and network demands. A load above 80% warrants investigation, while a relative interpretation determines its significance across applications.

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Load Average – indicator for CPU demand only?

The 'Load Average' metric, often mistaken as solely CPU demand, also reflects I/O demand. A case study using BuggyApp demonstrated this, showing high disk I/O operations led to a Load Average of 5.0 on a single CPU system, despite low CPU utilization. Thus, Load Average encompasses both CPU and I/O activity.

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