Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:29:22 +0000 | From | James Pearson <> | Subject | Re: High load average on idle machine running 2.6.32 |
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James Pearson wrote: > I've booted a 64 bit 2.6.32 kernel on dual processor, quad core Xeon > E5440 machine. The load average when the machine is idle varies between > 2 and 3. > > When using a 2.6.31 kernel on the same machine, the load average when > idle is nearly 0 > > The kernel doesn't use modules - all that is needed is compiled in. The > machine uses NFS-root > > Strangely, when I run 'iftop' (from http://www.ex-parrot.com/pdw/iftop/) > using the 2.6.32 kernel, the load average drops to below 0.5 - stop > running iftop, and the load average climbs again ... > > Any idea what might be causing this?
It looks like whatever is causing this happened between 2.6.31-git7 and 2.6.31-git8 - unfortunately I don't know how to find out what change caused this ...
Also, if I 'hot-unplug' CPUs 1 to 7, the load average drops to 0 - when I re-enable theses CPUs, the load average climbs.
I guess this is a problem with my particular config - or maybe because I'm using NFS-root (the root file system is readonly), or using a non-module kernel?
Thanks
James Pearson
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