Average load on Linux is a metric used by Linux users to track system resources. It also helps you monitor how system resources are activated.
While load averaging is one of the most fundamental metrics of resource usage, the metric doesn’t make sense unless you understand what it tells a user. In this tutorial, we will help you understand what Load Average means in Linux.
Also, we will discuss some easy methods to monitor the average load for your system.
Fundamentals of
Load Average on Linux
To understand the load average on Linux, we need to know what we define as load. On a Linux system, load is a measure of CPU utilization at a given time.
It refers to the number of processes that are currently being executed by the CPU or are waiting for execution.
An idle system has a load of 0. With each process that is running or on the waiting list, the load increases by 1.
By itself, the upload does not provide any useful information to the user. The load can change in fractions of a second. This is because the number of processes that use or wait for CPU time does not remain constant. That’s why we use Load Average on Linux to monitor resource usage.
Familiarize yourself with
the average load on the average load of Linux,
as the name suggests, represents the average load on a CPU over a set time interval. These values are the number of processes waiting for or using the CPU in the given period.
While most people are used to the load percentages displayed on Windows systems, the average load on Linux is represented as three different decimal values.
load Look at the image above where it says “average load: 0.03, 0.03
, 0.01″
From left to right:
The first value represents the average load on the CPU during the last minute. The second gives us the average load
- for the last interval of 5
- The third value gives us
minutes
the average load of 15 minutes This helps the user get an idea of how a system’s processes use the CPU over time. While a load
of
1 can mean approximately 100% of the resource usage on a single processor system, Such systems are virtually non-existent today. Unless you haven’t upgraded your system in over a decade, your system should run on a multicore processor.
For a dual-core processor, a load of 1 means that 1 core was 100% idle. This translates to approximately 50% CPU usage. Similarly, it would account for 25% of CPU usage for a quad-core processor.
The average load on Linux takes into account threads and waiting tasks along with the processes that are running. Also, it is an average value instead of being an instantaneous value.
However, a rough idea of resource usage can be determined by the average load ratio over the number of cores in your processor. While it is not an exact value for CPU utilization at any given time, it can be useful for resource monitoring.
How
to check the average load on Linux
Now that we know what the average load represents, we will discuss some ways to check the average load on Linux. Average load can be searched in three common ways.
1. Using
the uptime command
The uptime command is one of the most common methods to check the average load for your system. To use the uptime command, we simply open the command line and type the following.
uptime <img src="https://journaldev.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/2020/04/top-command-load-average.png" alt="Uptime Command Load Average
This shows the amount of time our system has been active, along with the number of active users and the average load for our system. The following screenshot shows what you should see when you use the uptime command on your system.
As you can see, the average load for the last minute is 0.03. For the last five minutes and fifteen minutes, the average load values are 0.03 and 0.01 respectively.
2. Using
the top command
Another way to monitor the average load on your system is to use the top command on Linux. To do so, simply open the terminal and type this.
top
This will open the top interface on your terminal. Unlike the uptime command, this provides an in-depth view of resource usage for your system.
The following screenshot shows what you should see when you use the top command on your system.
<img src="https://journaldev.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/2020/04/glances-command-load-average-1024×120.png" alt="Average Command Load
Top As you can see from the top line, the average load for the last minute is 0.34. During the last five minutes and fifteen minutes, the average charge values are 0.14 and 0.405 respectively.
3. Using
the Glances Tool The
gaze tool is a system monitoring tool that works similarly to the top command. Provides a detailed description of system resource usage. To use the glances tool on your system, you need to install your package using this command.
sudo apt-get install glances
Once you are done with the installation, type the following
in your terminal. This
will open the looks interface on your terminal. Unlike the top command, this provides the number of available processor cores along with the average load for your system.
The following screenshot shows what you should see when you use the glances command on your system.
As you can see in the highlighted region, the average load for the last minute is 0.14. During the last five minutes and fifteen minutes, the average charge values are 0.12 and 0.05 respectively.
Finishing
the average load on Linux is an essential metric to monitor the use of system resources easily. Keeping average load under control helps ensure that your system doesn’t experience a crash or slow sessions.
We hope this tutorial was able to help you get acquainted with the concept of load averaging on Linux.
