Server Load on Solaris

Anon

We've ported a busy site from trusty linux to Solaris 8.1 (I know ... why bother?)

Does anyone have a clue as to what an acceptable server load should be?

We're running php4, apache, mysql latest versions, typically have 100 users online at any one time. The server is an E220R twin processor, loads of ram etc.

Why am I asking .... well TOP reports a load in the 20's whereas the same site running on Linux was 2 - 3 !!

I'm no unix sys admin, but 20 sounds like a lot ... but I could be wrong?
TIA
Ray

Anon

That's v. bad. Average job queue length of 20. Should be < 5.

Anon

Since you said you were in Top, what other processes were running? Are they all needed?

[deleted]

Where in TOP does it say 20?

Anon

Up on the first line, provided you typed in the command with no options, it is the third option moving left to right. It's titled "load average".

Later on,
Big Din K.R.

Anon

During our quiet time here's the stats produced.

This goes up to 20 when we double the traffic. All of the top 40 processes are HTTPD.

Any ideas ? Our database is on a separate server, so it's just Apache, PHP, SSL on this one.

load averages: 2.19, 2.13, 2.38 12:10:49
620 processes: 608 sleeping, 2 running, 5 zombie, 3 stopped, 2 on cpu
CPU states: 45.0% idle, 38.1% user, 14.3% kernel, 2.7% iowait, 0.0% swap
Memory: 2048M real, 841M free, 1839M swap in use, 1155M swap free

Anon

Getting worse .... but the traffic is only double what it was earlier !!

load averages: 7.05, 7.34, 8.06 14:06:39
651 processes: 639 sleeping, 5 running, 3 zombie, 3 stopped, 1 on cpu
CPU states: 14.5% idle, 67.5% user, 17.9% kernel, 0.2% iowait, 0.0% swap
Memory: 2048M real, 878M free, 1809M swap in use, 1185M swap free

PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE TIME CPU COMMAND
18968 nobody 1 22 0 19M 16M run 6:54 4.28% httpd
24987 nobody 1 53 0 12M 9056K sleep 0:03 3.43% httpd
23318 nobody 1 58 0 18M 16M sleep 1:48 3.13% httpd
22297 nobody 1 23 0 18M 16M sleep 3:08 2.93% httpd
19125 nobody 1 22 0 20M 18M sleep 6:17 2.87% httpd
23516 nobody 1 32 0 18M 16M run 1:22 2.73% httpd
23154 nobody 1 22 0 16M 14M sleep 2:06 1.79% httpd
22495 nobody 1 33 0 18M 16M run 2:44 1.74% httpd
22536 nobody 1 58 0 17M 15M sleep 2:35 1.72% httpd
21994 nobody 1 58 0 18M 16M sleep 3:35 1.63% httpd
22713 nobody 1 52 0 18M 16M sleep 2:41 1.58% httpd
22296 nobody 1 58 0 18M 16M sleep 2:50 1.54% httpd
23945 nobody 1 58 0 18M 16M sleep 0:56 1.48% httpd
22956 nobody 1 42 0 18M 15M sleep 2:28 1.41% httpd
24627 nobody 1 33 0 15M 12M sleep 0:21 1.40% httpd

Anon

Could you take a look at my later posts ... it actually gets much worse that the two grabs I posted, but you;ll see it's getting big!

TIA
Ray