Not Adult related but Question about WHM Loads

[thejungle]

Hi
I am considering changing hosting providers and am wondering about the relevance of the `Load Averages' listed in the top right of the WHM screen.

I understand it is from 1, 5 and 15 minutes ago and is representative of the number of CPU's on the server - so if you have 4 CPU's a value of 4 would mean the server is working 100% etc.

My previous host's number were very low: 0.5 0.47 0.42 and they have 4 CPU's from looking at the Service Status link
My new host has 24 CPU's but the loads are: 4.68 5.42 5.70

Using both fingers and toes it seems that the new host's CPUs are working about 2-3x harder

However are the numbers on the new host of concern - or nothing to worry about really?

Ernie

[kejebe]

From the little I know if they have cPanel and the system set up correctly if you have 4 CPU's a load average of 4 means that all CPU's are working at 100% capacity. If you have 24 CPU's then it would have to reach 24 before they are at capacity.

24 CPU's at 4.68 load average is using 19.5% of the their full capabilities.
4 CPU's at 0.50 load average is using 12.5% of the their full capabilities.

So based on those numbers you new host is working 6% harder. Which isn't a big difference and considering they have a lot of room before reaching 100% I think you should be fine.

This of course also assumes both machines are using the same exact type of CPU's and disk IO isn't an issue.

Sincerely,
Kevin.

[thejungle]

Hi Kevin:

Thanks for your response, that is basically the way I was understanding it as well, that the `load averages' were dependant on the number of CPU's etc.

Thanks for confirming and explaining it for me.

Ernie