what's an "average" server load?

[Mark.B]

I consider myself very lucky, I have a shared host and a board that ticks over nicely (around 20 to 30 online at peak times) but my server load on four CPUs rarely goes over 1. At present it's 0.44 : 0.25 : 0.21.

The only time it normally increases is when my overnight database backup downloads, then it rises to about 1.5.

Only occasionally has it gone any higher, once it hit about 9 but the hosts rebooted it and that fixed it, something had gone wrong.

So I do pretty well really.

[Paul M]

AFAIK, the load average takes into account the number of CPU's you have - so a good value is not dependant on CPU count.

Ideally it want's to be below 1 - anything over that is a busy server.

Anything between 1 and 2 is busy, anything between 2 & 3 is very busy, anything over 3 or more means you should be looking at ways to reduce it. Anything over about 5 is an overloaded server and means response will suffer. Anything over 10 is bad - it means trouble.

[bashy]

on my last host i used to get around 0.50% and that was with well over 200
hacks installed, I have now moved to a new server with about 60 of the hacks
removed and its very rarely below 2.00% and that can be with only me and a
bot online.... Yes i have VBShout installed but it was installed on the old
server where i was getting 0.50%

I have spoke to my host and they say...

Keeping the server's load average under 1.00 is something that is very difficult to do, as it requires most of the server's resources to go to waste. While the load average is a good indication of server performance, to keeping the load under 1.0 requires most of the system resources to go to waste.

Also, one thing to keep in mind is that the VPS software plays a major role in the load average. There are a number of processes that are always running on a server, but most of these run at a reduced priority to ensure that user processes spend more time on the CPU. Therefore, when you see a load average of 2.57 most of the time the processes that are getting delayed are not yours and therefore the performance of your website is not effected.

So whats ya thoughts on that comment then?

[Boofo]

Sounds to me like the old "we are really incompetent" whitewash that a lot of hosts like to pass along these days. We got the same thing last night with out host and a supposed router issue that turned into a trunk issue right before our eyes.

[bashy]

pmsl... sounds about right Boofo..

I didnt hink it was right, as soon as it goes over 2.00% i do notice a difference
in site performance, me thinks i will be looking again, although i end up having
certain issues (like stuff not working) after the move
Think im gonna do a new thread asking for hosts

[Boofo]

Originally Posted by bashy

pmsl... sounds about right Boofo..

I didnt hink it was right, as soon as it goes over 2.00% i do notice a difference
in site performance, me thinks i will be looking again, although i end up having
certain issues (like stuff not working) after the move
Think im gonna do a new thread asking for hosts

What is "pmsl" or am I going to feel stupid for asking? :cross-eyed:

[bashy]

lol no worries, it's pi$$ myself laffing

Originally Posted by Boofo

What is "pmsl" or am I going to feel stupid for asking? :cross-eyed:

[arcadian_girl]

i looked into ways to reduce vbpager and vbshout's affect on the server load, cos i really dont want to uninstall them. it's gone down and now doesn't go over 3.00, and is usually less than that-so it's a lot better. i know from what i've read here that that's still a bit high, but hell, it's better than my original numbers my host hasn't contacted me *knock on wood*, and hopefully they won't. if worse comes to worse i'll get rid of vbshout first-i really like vb pager, and so do my members.

FWIW, I run the shoutbox, no pager, average around 50 online and am always around 1.0 on a VPS.

[inkdot]

for those of you with 2 or under server loads, what kinda hosting do you guys have? virtual, dedicated, or shared?

i'm looking for a new shared host and so far i've heard some good things about site5.com but i'm still unsure. i need recommendations.

my current host is godaddy and my server load rarely drops below 3. the server actually went up as high as 60 on more than 2 occasions, i mean i had to turn the whole thing off and it's still 60.

i got quite a few hacks installed but i dont think thats what's causing it, i'm running a really small community, we have under 300 members and rarely get over 20 members online. i think it's just godaddy and their celeron processors. most likely, combination of both... but i still want a new host :]