[Cialug] stuck load average and ntp?

[chris]

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> This is bunk. Remember that load average is only tenuously linked to
> CPU usage. What you're looking at is the number of processes in the
> run queue averaged over 1/5/15 min. A busy CPU is only one of many
> reasons why a process in a runable state might be waiting. A quick
> look at the output in the original message gives us "77.4%id, 21.9%wa"
> -- so the CPU(s? not full top output) are 77.4% idle, but something(s)
> are doing a bit of IO that's slow (busy disk, nfs, etc).
> 
>> Kill the procs or reboot and your load average will go down.
> 
> While a reboot will indeed drive the load average down, I'd suggest
> checking ps for processes in the "D" state (uninteruptable sleep) and
> consider attaching to them with strace to see that they're actually
> doing some real work. And I do agree that ntpd not-from-cron is a
> smart thing.

+1

Aaron is spot on, take his advice.  If you reboot you may never know the truth. :)

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