Hacker News Reader

Comment by platz | Hacker News Reader

what are units of load average?

I can't think of a good way to put it without just giving examples, so here goes:

    1.0 = 100% usage of a 1-core system
    1.0 = 50% usage of a 2-core system
    4.0 = 50% usage of an 8-core system
    8.0 = 100% usage of an 8-core system

And IIRC, load average is represented usually as 3 numbers, which are over the last 5, 10, and 15 minutes.

> And IIRC, load average is represented usually as 3 numbers, which are over the last 5, 10, and 15 minutes

1, 5 and 15 minutes is the most common intervals

The load average is calculated by the kernel (processes that display it just regurgitate the first 3 columns from /proc/loadavg); and yes, it is 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

It's the number of processes either running or waiting in the queue for CPU time. This is averaged over 5, 10, and 15 minutes.

Load of 0 means idle (nothing to run), load of 1 means e.g. one process running and nothing in the queue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com